Orzubek Nazarov thoughts

I think I might have gotten parts of that wrong as well. This is from his boxrec:

Following the defense of his WBA title against Leavander Johnson, Nazarov was traveling back to his native Kyrgyzstan when the car he was in was attacked by gunmen. The car's other occupants, one of whom was allegedly in debt to Russian organized crime figures, were both killed. Nazarov was shot in the arm but survived.

 

I thought I remembered reading that Arbachakov was kidnapped and shot... My crappy memory, tho...

 

I just saw long interview with Orzubek, so thought maybe some of it will be interesting to people on here. Not sure how much of it is known outside of Russian-speaking world.
- He won USSR championship in 1988 beating Kostya Tszyu in the final, which won him the place at the Olympics. The reason He didn't go is He suffered from appendicitis just before the games, forcing him to withdraw.

- He had offers to turn pro in many countries. Europe, United States, Canada and Japan. Says He doesn't regret chosing Japan, as noone of the Soviet fighters who turned pro in U.S at the same time, became world champion. In Japan, him and Arbachakov made it.

- After beating Gamache, the reason He didn't continue his career in United States - He says - was that He had valid contract with Japanese promoters.
Eventually - He broke out of this contract, but was forced to pay harsh penalty and basically spent entire pay for his first fight with French promoter to pay off his former Japanese promoters.

- He said He already had contract from HBO on the table if He beat Mendy.

- I see that story of him being shot during assasination on one of his friends was already told here by @Flo_Raiden .

- He struggled with eye injury from early in his career. He said it got inflamed again before Mendy fight and He was forced to undergo operation after the fight.
He was told it will be fine and thought He'll be able to box again, but turned out the eye slowly began to lose it's functions. Eventually He lost it.

 

This footage shows some of the fight between Orzubek and Tszyu from that championship, I believe:

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Makes me wonder what might have happened if Tszyu and Orzubek had met as pros. Shame it didn’t happen.

 

From what Orzubek said, Sovet team wanted to send them both anyway - but Orzubek would've been moved to 63,5 kg.

Looks like it was Vyacheslav Ianouski who benefited most, He might've been the one ousted - and He brought back the gold, while Tszyu didn't medal. Interesting how it played out.