Good fighter from Russia. Good power and offensive skills. Some cool wins - Thombela, Gamache, Johnson. Opinions?
Very underrated fighter and would be the best lightweight in the world right now by leaps and bounds. His style kinda reminded me of Winky Wright with power. I think he'd be a handful for MANY elite lightweights in history.
He was an excellent and often overlooked fighter. Great power, and would fight in the opponent's home without hesitation. I agree that he would destroy most of the current beltholders. I was shocked when he lost the title to Mendy. Unfortunately, inactivity due to (what appeared to be) poor management and I believe eye surgery took the steam out of a fighter few wanted to tangle with in his prime.
I rate as my # 55 LW of All time just below Philip Holiday and 1 spot above Robin Blake, all 3 very good in their time but nowhere near the top 25 of all time.
Beast. Typical of the Soviet school in many ways: excellent, smooth footwork, a full repertoire of punches, solid high guard, offensively dynamic with excellent power. He had a dirty, spiteful edge though that I haven't seen in many ex-Soviet fighters, fond of holding an opponent and just clubbing them with his left either as an uppercut or to the back of the head. Very good at throwing extended straight combos too, a southpaw one-two followed by a sort of inverted straight right rather than a hook. It's a shame he didn't end up in with DLH at lightweight, that would've been some fight. As has been said, eye trouble finished him by the time of the Mendy fight. I believe he got shot as well, back in Uzbekistan.
He was bit like a smaller, more skilled and dynamic version of Corrie Sanders, though it might be just me that weirdly thinks that.
Nope, you're right, there's a lot of Sanders there, and it's not just the moustache. He has the same way of crouching down and thumping in lefts and rights and the same way of working the body and then switching to the head. Here's a useful highlight reel: This content is protected Vicious fighter.
When he was champ, he was the "who needs this guy" champion. 3 other belts to go after and a good likelyhood of a better payday as well. So an easy guy to avoid..
