Tag Archives: khazakastan

Kanat “The Kazak” Islam Super Welterweight Contender Knocking on the Doors of the Champions!

Posted on 03/02/2017

Kanat “The Kazak” Islam Super Welterweight Contender Knocking on the Doors of the Champions!
By: Ken Hissner

This writer on February 17th at the Chase Center in Wilmington, DE, had his first look at Kanat “The Kazak” Islam, 23-0 (19). He was born in Altay, China as Hanati Silamu in 1984 and ended up in KAZ while now living in Pahokee, FL.

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In DE Islam received a very bad cut over his right eye in the beginning of the first round from a clash of heads with his opponent Robson Assis, 16-3, of BRZ. He knew that at the end of the round there was a chance of the ring physician halting the fight so he went for the knockout that came at 2:12 of the first round. His trainer is Nelson Lopez, Sr.
As an amateur Islam who won a Bronze Medal at welterweight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He defeated boxers from Zambia, Cameroon and the Bahamas (Taureano Johnson) before losing to Carlos Banteaux of Cuba. He also won a Bronze Medal in 2006 at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

He won over boxers from India and UBZ before losing to a boxer from KAZ. In the same year at the World Cup in Baku, AZB, he defeated an Egyptian but lost to a Russian and a boxer from UKR. In 2007 at the Asian Championships he won a Bronze Medal in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He defeated boxers from Iran and UZB before losing to one from Mongolia. In the same year in Chicago he defeated boxers from UZB, Australia, AZB, KAZ before losing in the semi-finals to a boxer from Thailand gaining a Bronze Medal. The boxer from KAZ was the one he lost to in 2006. In 2004 at the Olympics in Athens, Greece he defeated a boxer from Uganda before losing to a boxer from AZB.

In the World Series of Boxing in the 2010-11 season for the Astana Arlans Islam went 5-1. He defeated boxers from Armenia, BRZ, UZB, US (Russell Lamour) and France before losing to one from AZR. In the 2011-12 season he went 3-3 defeating boxers from the US (Lamour), Georgia and Bulgaria. He lost to boxers from Russia (2) and UKR.

Islam would turn professional right after the 2012 Olympics in September stopping five boxers in the DR then went to Colombia for a pair of stoppages and back to the DR in December going 8-0 in just three months in 2012. In 2013 he was 8-0 improving his record to 16-0 with 13 stoppages, two wins by DQ and one decision. Following those two years things slowed down to only having two shows a year in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The biggest wins Islam has had were over Humberto Toledo, 41-8-2, in 2012 winning the vacant WBA Fedecaribe super welterweight title. He knocked out Jose Vidal Soto, 24-14-2 in 2013. He won a fight in FL in April of 2013 stopping Yolexcy Leiva, 5-5. In Ecuador he defended his title with a decision win over Eduard Flores, 15-8-2. In another fight there he knocked out Emilio Julio Julio, 28-11-2, for the vacant WBA Fedelatin title. He would defend it four times with the last one in 2016 also winning the vacant WBO Inter-Continental title by decision over Patrick Allotey, 34-2, in Almaty, KAZ.

In 2014 Islam knocked out Fidel Monterrosa Munoz, 32-9-1, in Colombia. In 2015 back in FL he knocked out Jonathan Batista, 15-7. In 2016 he stopped Juan De Angel, 18-3-1, in FL. His last ten opponents had winning records.

Islam is ranked No. 4 in the WBA, No. 6 in the WBO and No. 15 in the IBF. He’s fought in DR eleven times, COL five times, ECU twice, and KAZ and DE once each and FL three times.

IBF champion Jermall Charlo has vacated his title to compete at middleweight.

Canelo Alvarez has the WBO where Islam is No. 6. Erislandy Lara has the WBA super title and talking about moving up to middleweight. The WBA regular champ is Jack Culcay and the WBA are trying to get only one champ per weight class. After the cut he suffered in his most recent fight he will probably be ready to fight again in three or four months. Tureano Johnson who he beat in the amateurs is the No. 1 middleweight contender in the IBF.

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When the Man Gaydarek Gaydarbekov Beat the Man “GGG” 2004!

Posted on 02/07/2017

WHEN THE MAN “GAYDARBEKOV” BEAT THE MAN “GGG” 2004!
By: Ken Hissner

In the mind of many boxing fans including this writer Gennady “GGG” Golovkin the WBC, WBA and IBF world middleweight champion is the best p4p boxer in the world today!

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I once did an article on who was in that 2004 Olympics which in the middleweight division it included Jean Pascal, Hassan Ndam Njikam, Karoly Balzsay, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Russian Gaydarek Gaydarbekov. Gaydarbekov in the 2000 Olympics defeated Utkirbek Haydarov of UZB, Eromosele Albert (NIG), Jeff Lacey (USA) and Zsolt Erdei (HUN) before losing in the finals to Cuban Jorge Gutierrez 17-15. Lacey, Ndam Njikam, Balzsay, Pascal and Erdei would go onto win professional world titles.

In the 1998 Goodwill Games Gaydarbekov defeated Jermain Taylor. He would return in the 2004 Olympics like earlier mentioned. His style was typical amateur by landing many light jabs scoring a point with each one and an occasional right and move around the ring trying not to be hit. He never turned professional and would not have been a good one if he did.

After Gaydarbekov defeated boxers from the Philippines, UZB, Cameroon, Thailand and in the finals a boxer from KAZ. In the other bracket was GGG who had defeated boxers from Pakistan, Egypt and the USA’s Andre Dirrell before gaining a Silver Medal in losing in the finals. In his past amateur bouts in 2000 he defeated boxers from China, Germany, Sweden, Russia and Cuba to win the Junior World championship. 2001 East Asian Games win Gold defeating boxers from South Korea, China and Australia’s Daniel Geale future IBF world champion. In 2002 defeating boxers from AZE, CAM, Russia and Cuba in the Asian Games. In 2002 winning Silver in the Asian Games defeating boxers from AFG, Qatar, So KOR and Thailand. In the 2003 World championship defeating Matt Korobov of RUS, Andy Lee of IRE a future pro world champion, Lucian Bute of ROM a future pro world champion, Yordanis Despaigne of Cuba and Oleg Mashkin of the UKR. In the 2005 World Cup won a Bronze after defeating boxers from GEO, ALG and Yordanis Despaigne of Cuba. In the 2005 World Championships defeat a Serb before losing to an Egyptian who never turned pro. Ending up 345-5 but may have had at least 8 losses. Not bad out of over 350 fights.

So when the finals came in the 2004 Olympics two of the best amateur boxers in the world would meet.

1999, 2001 and 2002 Gaydarbekov would be the Russian champion. He is now 40 years-old.

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Two Kazakhstan Born Unbeaten World Middleweight Champs, Christina Hammer and Gennady Golovkin!

Posted on 12/24/2016

Two Kazakhstan Born Unbeaten World Middleweight Champs, Christina Hammer and Gennady Golovkin!
By: Ken Hissner

How rare it is to have two boxers born in a country like Kazakhstan to have both male and female boxers reign as unbeaten world middleweight champs?

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The boxing world is certainly aware of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 36-0 (33), with his last 23 being by knockout. He started his boxing career in Germany fighting 18 of his first 19 fights there. He has had 9 in the US, 3 in Monaco, 2 in Panama and 1 each in Denmark, Ukraine KAZ and UK. He moved to the USA and settled in L.A., California. He is one of or in this writer’s opinion the No. 1 P4P boxer in the world. He has 17 title defenses. He holds the WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO world titles.

The other world champion Christina “Lady” Hammer, 20-0 (9) 1nc, is less known but holds both the WBO and WBC world titles. She was born in Novodolinka, KAZ, 26 years ago and now resides in Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, GER.

Hammer won the WBO title in May of 2013 and has defended it six times. She won the WBC title in her most recent fight in November of 2016 in a unification re-match with Kali Reis, of Providence, RI. She has boxed 18 of her fights in Germany, 2 in Slovenia and 1 in CZ.

Hammer is trained by Dimitri Kirnos and was managed by Ulf Steinforth. Her promoter was SES (Sport Events Steinforth GmbH) until May of 2016. Her current promoter is Alexander Petkovic’s Petko’s LMS Box Promotions.

Neither ever fought on the same card. “I was so excited to meet the Best Middleweight champion GGG ever at the 54th annual WBC Convention in Miami On December 12th of 2016,” said Hammer.

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Three Reasons Why Gennady Golovkin vs Carl Froch Would Make For An Epic War

Posted on 11/14/2016

Three Reasons Why Gennady Golovkin vs Carl Froch Would Make For An Epic War
By: Jordan Seward

Carl Froch is considering coming out of retirement for a mega fight with the WBA, IBF, IBO and WBC middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin.

A fight between the pair has been mentioned in the past but with Froch’s retirement in 2014 it seemed like another potential show stopping fight that had slipped through our fingers, but Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, has dropped hints negotiations have begun.

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Loeffler met with Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn in Monaco last week and it seems there’s genuine intentions on Golovkin’s behalf. There are talks of Golovkin fighting Daniel Jacobs in March but that one is yet to be signed and sealed.

Former world super-middleweight champion, Froch, 39, hasn’t been in the ring since his famous knockout victory of George Groves at Wembley in May 2014. As an active fighter Froch regularly spoke of a legacy and although in his mind his is secured a fight with Golovkin wouldn’t do his any harm, especially if he won it.

Although there is continued speculation and calls for Golovkin (36-0-33KO’s) to fight Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, ‘Triple G’ obviously enjoyed his UK debut when he beat Kell Brook in their showdown at the O2 in September and there may be more chance of a UK return for Golovkin to fight Froch at Wembley.
If he can entice Froch (33-2-24KO’s) out of retirement, the pair would be set to make $10million each in what would be an out and out war that you couldn’t take your eyes off and here’s why.

Stylistically

There’s a saying in boxing that styles make fights, Golovkin and ‘The Cobra’ share similar styles in that they like to march forward and have a tear up. We’ve seen it throughout Froch’s career, for the lack of natural and technical talent he certainly makes up for with grit, determination and willingness. Froch goes to the trenches and although Golovkin assuredly possess’ the better technical boxing skills he is very capable of doing the same thing. At times Golovkin seems to enjoy fighting on the inside and trading and we would have seen more of this from him if he could find an opponent who could absorb his power. Froch has been rarely involved in a boring fight if ever and with his and Golovkin’s style they just mesh. It all points to one thing – a war.

The Fist vs The Chin

Froch is naturally the bigger man and he is a big super-middleweight with proven power, it’s interesting to think this could be a fight where we look at Golovkin in a completely different light. For a while we’ve wanted someone to ask questions of Golovkin and there’s no guarantee Froch would do that if the fight was to materialise but certainly for once instead of talking of Golovkin’s power there will be a thought on what’s coming back. Golovkin’s chin is relatively untested, so could Golovkin handle Froch’s power? All through Froch’s career there has been no doubts on his chin but he has been put on the canvas twice before, once by Jermain Taylor in 2009 and once by George Groves in their first meeting, although it’s significant to remember he still won both those fights. Nevertheless, in a particular fight against Golovkin, with his power you’d have to consider whether or not even the strongest of jaws could take such punishment. So, there’s a few unanswered questions here that need to be answered.

Legacy

Carl Froch can happily look back on a glittering career but lest we forget that after the fight with Groves, Froch was after one more mega-fight preferably in Las Vegas but for whatever reasons talks broke down with Chavez Jr and other hosts of names. Comparisons are regularly made between Froch and Joe Calzaghe and debates, often fierce ones, have started about who’s been the best UK super-middleweight boxer. A win against Golovkin who many have at the top of their pound-for-pound lists, could help settle this longstanding battle, so there’s more in it for Froch than just a crock of gold. Golovkin has struggled to find credible opponents that to some don’t justify the hype. In a division that is sparse of bill-topping names the Kazakhstani is desperate for wins over notable names and needs them more than ever. Even the victory over Kell Brook has done little to solve his legacy problems as Brook went up two weight divisions to take the fight. But, if Golovkin was to go up to super-middle and knockout Froch, who is well famed for a granite chin, well that might just justify what the hype is all about.

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