Alexander Zolkin?

i remember he fought my boy smokin' bert cooper in ac for the nabf hw title, he was supposed to fight tubbs who suffered a neck injury and had to pull out of the fight, cooper took the fight on a few days notice, zolkin won by tko in the 9th, his handlers called him the secretariat of the hw division, cooper had him hurt a few times

 

Of course:

Born: 17-9-1964, Moscow, Russia (then USSR)
Hometown: Westerville, Ohio, USA
Nationality: Russian
Division: heavyweight
Stance: southpaw
Height: 6'5/196 cm
Reach: 82"/208 cm
World title fight: 9/11/96, vs Henry Akinwande, for the WBO title
Record: 28(19)-3-1

Alexander Zolkin was the first Russian and Soviet boxer to turn pro in USA. He had over 200 amateur fights when he defected at some point before 1990 and turned pro that year. He won his first 14 fights before running into Tony Tubbs, who handled him his first pro loss in what some thought was a controversial decision, in 1993. He avenged that loss later, as well as the one to Mike Hunter (on SD). Along the way, he beat some fringe contenders like Art Tucker, Frankie Swindell, Carl "The Truth" Williams and John McClain. In 1995 he tkoed Rocky Pepeli in 3 rounds to earn the NABF belt. He defended it against former Holyfield-challenger Bert Cooper by TKO 9. He made the second one against Tubbs, in the aforementioned revenge. In 1996 he got the shot at the WBO title against titleholder, the Nigerian-born 6'7 Henry Akinwande. Akinwande was 30-0-1 and one of the most avoided men in the division at the time.

In a brave fight, Zolkin was down once in the fourth round and suffered an inch-long cut on his right eyelid in the sixth, that would take 25 stitches to close. Still he managed to keep his composure and gave Akinwande a tough fight until the doctor stopped it at the end of the 10th round. Disappointed by the loss and angered at what he thought was a premature stoppage, Zolkin quit boxing. He returned in 1999 and went 4-0-1, his last fight being a draw against Cuban hope Elieser Castillo in January 2000. After that he retired for good.

Zolkin was known for his ability to take a lot of punishment and his main assets were his fast jab, his size and reach and good boxing skills. On the downside, he is considered as not much of a finisher and not a big puncher either. However, with 19 of his 28 wins coming by way of stoppage, he couldn't have been a featherfist either. Today, Zolkin is seen as somewhat of a precursor to fighters like the Klitschkos, East European fighters of great stature with good boxing skills. He was slated to face Riddick Bowe but was replaced with Golota, who was seen as a better draw.

Look's familiar,no?:

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****!

 

Wrong! A case could be made that Tubbs won neither fight! And Tubbs certainly lost the 2nd one. It's a pity not many of his fights are on YT because he was quite a pleasing fighter to watch and i have not watched his fight's for many a moon. Very reminiscant of WK!

Zolskin was a pioneer yet not many ppl know who he is! That is a shame considering he is a historical fighter in that sense! This guy paved the way for K2, Povetkin, Chakiev, Ibragimov, Maskaev Pulev etc.

Good fighter. Every K2 fan should know the name of Zolksin. In fact every fan of the HW division should!

 

Cooper had Holy and Moorer hurt several times! Always enjoyed Cooper fights.

 

For God's sake, his name is Zolkin.

 

I was going to weigh in on this thread earlier, but I was afraid that I might say the wrong thing and Special Forces guy might somehow transport through my internet connection into my living room and beat up my family.

A few days before this thread started, I actually remembered Zolkin and looked him up on BoxRec because I had forgotten how his career ended. I missed his final fight against Akinwande, but I saw several of his fights and remember him exactly as described here earlier in the thread. He was big, strong, sort of amateurish and awkward style, not great power, and maybe a little bit robotic. I would've thought his career would've ended better. Hard to see him getting stopped by anyone, as Zolkin was very, very sturdy and seemingly durable.

 

"Making fun of my age" what a ****ing spastic.

 

:hey