As the fight nears between Sultan Ibragimov and Holyfield, the press has a chance to pick up on a human interest story. Like many fighters, Sultan grew up dirt poor. The youngest in his family, Sultan never knew his mother who died giving birth to him. Sultans father had to work multiple jobs to keep food on his table. He had little to give his son except for his last name. Sultans father is now an old man at 75 years of age, and not in good health. He has never seen his son fight on as a professional, and will get the chance to do so this Saturday. If the Ibragimov senior can make it to the fight, I hope the press gives the man his due.
That's awesome. Even better that he's fighting a name like Evander Holyfield -- look, papa Ibragimov, how strong little Sultan has become!
That is a very common story in our Game where rich and spoiled kids have not been abundant ever since the times of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the Cinderella Man Jim Braddock, but only the social outcast. Sultan has been behavin as a true man ( with a capital M) and I wish well along with his Old Man... Holyfield has been a clock without end so the question resumes to this: Will we see the ends of that clock reach Midnight Saturday Night?
I read that Ibragimov was only allowed to enter the Russian amatuer program to be used as a sparring partner/ human punching bag for the "talented boxers" he did manage to make the team and win some significant awards although.
