“Biased refereeing forced me to leave amateur boxing”: Abramov on his debut in fisticuffs and Usyk-Fury fight

- On September 24, you will have your debut fight in fisticuffs at the

— While it is difficult to say.

Emotions run high.

I would like to fight as soon as possible and find out for myself what it is - bare-knuckle fighting.

- Your opponent will be Davit Hovhannisyan - an experienced boxer with 16 professional fights under his belt.

Did you manage to study it?

- Of course, as soon as I found out the name of the future enemy, I immediately got acquainted with his performances.

I will not argue that Davit is an experienced fighter.

Dangerous - here you can argue.

Still, he lost 11 times.

Agree, this is not very good.

Did your opponent impress you?

- Not.

I think in terms of boxing I'm smarter.

Perhaps in "physics" he surpasses me, but in fist fights, every blow can be decisive.

- How was the process of choosing an opponent?

Were you offered any options, or did the matchmakers initially want to bring you to Davit?

— My manager Albert Karmazyan told me the name of a potential opponent.

As I understand it, they only offered him.

I immediately agreed.

- Debut in fisticuffs - and immediately with a native of boxing.

Doesn't it feel like you never left?

— There is such a thing.

But I was initially raised the bar: a master of sports of international class, the winner of the European Youth Championship.

As I understand it, you can not lower it, you can only raise it.

- The bar has been raised, but at the same time your fight will take place within the framework of the preliminary card.

No regrets about it?

— No, it’s just that many strong, experienced fighters have gathered at the tournament.

In this sport, I am still far from them.

We will grow.

- You have already faced the problem of refereeing in fisticuffs.

At Top Dog Prospect, your fight with Vyacheslav Mirzaev ended in a draw, although you did not agree with the verdict.

Do you still think you won then?

- I think it's a mistake.

Rather, not a referee, but a bookmaker.

— Explain.

- Initially, I had a large coefficient, I was considered an underdog in this confrontation.

But in the course of the battle, he took the initiative into his own hands, which is why the bookmakers' forecasts began to change in the opposite direction.

Perhaps it was decided to draw the fight so that the office would not suffer serious losses.

Let me emphasize that this is just my opinion.

I have no official confirmation of this.

Let's assume that this is true.

But where is the guarantee that the bookmakers will not influence the decision of the judges in the same way during your fight with Hovhannisyan?

- Of course, this can not but worry.

But what can you do?

We need to win more confidently so that neither the judges nor the league have any questions.

Have you faced the same injustice in boxing?

- Moreover, it was dishonest and biased refereeing that made me leave amateur boxing.

It seems like you win the duel, and the victory is given to the enemy.

Over the years, I got tired of all this, so I decided to quit this sport.

It's good that there is an alternative.

Promotions that present great opportunities to express yourself.

Now the controversial verdicts of the jury no longer have such an impact on me as before.

A kind of immunity developed.

Of course, you always think: “Maybe I gave a reason to doubt myself, my success?”

But I don't think I did enough in that fight with Mirzaev.

- What defeat in your amateur career do you consider the most controversial?

- There are several of them.

At the championship of the Volga Federal District (VFD), where I was not given the victory in the final, although I confidently took over.

And also at the last two Russian championships for me - in 2020 and 2021.

For two years in a row, he was inferior to Rasul Saliyev.

Perhaps in Orenburg he showed himself not in the best way, but in Kemerovo he took from the first round to the third and was still defeated.

- Controversial referee decisions are a fairly common occurrence in boxing.

At the same Olympics in Tokyo, there were enough scandals due to mixed verdicts.

In your opinion, is it worth returning to the old system, when the winner was determined by the number of accurate hits?

- In training, we mainly work on movement, delivering accurate strikes.

My mentor always told me: “Show the beauty of boxing.”

I was raised this way.

The judges like it more when the athlete stupidly goes forward, hits the defense, the back of the head.

They look at it and think that since he is active, it means that you need to take his side.

But they do not look at the quality, the purity of the hits, they do not pay attention to the movements.

- In 2014, you won the European Youth Championship in Zagreb, and made your professional debut only seven years later.

Why?

- A year after the performance in Croatia, he switched to adult boxing.

In 2015, he made his debut at the Russian Championship, won a bronze medal in the category up to 49 kg.

Gradually joined the national team, began to go to training camps.

At that time it was impossible to combine a career in amateurs and professionals.

Yes, and there was no particular desire.

Everyone responded.

It was noted that the division is small, they do not stay in it for a long time, the life of its representatives is short.

- Probably, the delay with the transition to professionals was also due to the desire to perform at the Olympic Games.

- Of course, the goal was to qualify for competitions in Tokyo.

But something didn't work.

At a certain point, I broke down psychologically and that's it.

- Now there is a possibility that boxing will not be included in the program of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

How did they react to this?

- Now there is a risk that Russian athletes will not be able to compete in international competitions in the coming years.

Rather, it really upset me.

As for the Olympics, there is still enough time before it.

Everything can change.

- You said that the transition to fisticuffs was provoked by refereeing problems in boxing.

But surely there were other reasons as well?

Now this type of martial arts is very popular, both famous boxers and

— To be honest, the media and financial aspects also played an important role.

I have a wife, two children, I need to feed my family.

In amateur boxing, they don't give me that opportunity.

- Is it really that in professionals they pay less for performances than in a fist?

- No, but there you need to look for people who will promote you, and this is all problematic.

Especially if you have not achieved any significant results in adult boxing.

There is a demand for titled athletes.

Otherwise, you have to start all over again, fight in small promotions with not the strongest opponents.

And the process of climbing to the top can be quite long.

- Your professional debut took place in October 2021, and only at the end of August 2022 did you make your debut on

- After the fight with Alexei Khanov, I talked with the coach, we began to look for career development options.

But there were no special thoughts on the topic of where to go, with whom to talk.

And there was no desire either - I can’t say exactly why.

In March, he competed at the Volga Federal District competitions, took second place, and after that he spoke with his mentor again, saying: “Enough, I don’t want to anymore.”

That loss hit me hard.

Okay, they sued you once or twice, but if this happens on the fifth or sixth, your hands drop by themselves.

After that, he took a break for six months, consulted with his wife.

We came to the conclusion that we need to continue to develop in sports.

It's not for nothing that he went all this way.

Then I talked to one Hardcore Fighting fighter, and he already set me up with Albert, who is now my manager.

- For you, the transition to fisticuffs means the end of a career in boxing?

- I gave up with amateur boxing.

The manager is already in talks with Top Dog management about the possibility of combining performances in the cam and professionals.

According to him, matchmakers do not mind.

Therefore, there are still plans to develop in this direction.

- You said that a

- It's all about the weight category.

As far as I know, in Hardcore FC fights take place at least in the division up to 66 kg.

For me, this is big.

I usually weigh about 58. But in fact there is no difference.

What are the fists, what is here.

Plus, Top Dog has a more old-school vibe.

I really like the energy and atmosphere.

I will not hide it, when I fought in the professionals, I got high from everything that happened around.

But when I fought at Top Dog Prospect, the impressions were even stronger.

The atmosphere literally energized me.

Therefore, it is very interesting what will happen at the numbered tournament.

- Among other things, 

- When they began to negotiate with Karmazyan, he said: "If you want to be a star, you need to step on the gas."

I replied that I am not that kind of person.

It's too much for me.

I was brought up differently, I can’t insult a person for the sake of promoting a fight, money.

It seems to me that this is valued more than hype and trash talk.

- Karmazyan is a well-known specialist in the fisticuffs industry, and gained particular popularity after a sensational conflict with his former ward Max Topor, with whom he fought in the locker room.

Do you think the coach has the right to express disagreement with the actions of a fighter in this way?

- As I understand it, there was a misunderstanding on both sides.

When an athlete loses, he is on emotions.

The same goes for the coach.

I think that's what caused the fight.

One began to actively pronounce something, the second - to argue.

As a result, a conflict arose.

- Have you had cases when the coach was too dissatisfied with your performance and explained something in a raised voice?

- Yes

.

One incident in particular stands out.

This was before the 2014 European Youth Championships.

Then he performed at the international tournament in Serbia.

In the semi-finals, he met with an American and lost, while strictly fulfilling the setting of his corner.

After the fight, he came out on emotions, upset by the defeat.

The coach started to say something to me, and I turned around and sent him.

He got angry, he said that I should not see you again in the national team.

— What happened next?

- When he cooled down a bit, he came up and apologized.

He explained that he said it in a rush.

And after that we had a great relationship with him.

If we meet at competitions, we communicate very well.

Perhaps this situation brought them closer. 

- Are you ready for the fact that after each fight in Top Dog a substantial part of the fee will go to treatment?

According to kickboxer Vladislav Tuinov, after the tournament he has to spend about 80 thousand rubles?

— Thought about it.

Relatives still say why you need it, think about your health.

But in terms of fists, I have nothing to lose.

Yes, I can hit badly, break something, but this also happened during boxing fights.

Nothing, we'll fix it.

By the way, I watched the performance of representatives of my weight category at the previous Top Dog tournament.

And after the fight, they didn’t even have redness on their faces.

I realized that our division is not so scary and dangerous, it is not so easy to inflict serious damage on each other.

Another thing is when they fight in heavier weights.

The same Tuinov or my countryman Naim Davudov.

They can break their fists very badly and seriously damage their faces.

There may be injuries after which it takes a long time to recover. 

- How seriously did you have to adjust your technique for bare-knuckle performances?

We are doing some work.

In boxing, we train with gloves weighing 10-12 ounces, which have a pad of about ten centimeters.

She is not here.

When I fought at Top Dog Prospect, I realized that this distance really matters.

I have a feeling that it will be more convenient for me to fight on bare fists.

- Why?

“It's all in those ten extra centimeters.

You seem to see the impact, dodge, step back or dive, and the glove still touches you.

The judges see this and give a point to the opponent.

It will also be easier to avoid hits here.

- It is unlikely that the transition to fisticuffs killed your interest in professional boxing.

Probably one of the most discussed right now is a possible duel between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.

Who do you see as the favourite?

I would love to watch this fight.

It will be very interesting.

Usyk rolls with each round, while Fury puts pressure from the very beginning.

In addition, Alexander has a very large amateur school, a lot of experience, Tyson is very uncomfortable, clumsy.

I can't say which one of them is more likely to win.

But I will root for the Ukrainian.

- Usyk can be called the best boxer, regardless of weight categories?

- Now there are a lot of cool guys, for example, the same George Kambosos, Jr., who defeated Teofimo Lopez last year and took all the belts in lightweight.

Let him then conceded to Devin Haney.

Who would you call the strongest?

- Always sympathized with Vasily Lomachenko.

Whatever condition he is in, he always demonstrates bright boxing.

Everyone has injuries and defeats.

What matters is how you get through it.

I hope he will be able to return and take back the lost titles.