By Alexey Sukachev

One can possibly wonder if patriotism exists only in the U.S. or if this is a common feature for different states all around the world. The answer is obvious – yes, every country has its share of patriots. Actually, the majority of people from any given state is more or less patriotic despite living standards, political or economic issues and the type of government involved.

In boxing the only government, which can be found, is formed of world champions and their trusted (or not so trusted in some cases) representatives (not by various sanctioning bodies as one can probably think). To stay patriotic means to be represented in this virtual board of control, and if your boxing trustees continuously let you down it’s definitely harder to maintain any affection to them. In this case, boxing fans start rooting for foreign stars, which more or less satisfy their boxing views and fickle yet personal standards of pugilistic mastership. That’s why one can find so many Pacquiao/Mayweather/Jones/Lewis/Pavlik/etc fans in every country. In Russia it’s even more than that. Some local boxing aficionados invented a specific term which can be roughly translated into English as “Sovietic pugs” (where the first word is a distorted version of “Soviet”) and describes your most common ex-Soviet fighter with all of his amateurism, lack of determination, excess of apologies and some other bad-looking stuff. Based on your own view/nationality you can enlist almost every person (not excluding K2 Brothers, Kostya Tszyu and some other fighters from the former USSR) here. It sounds weird but proofs can easily be found all around the Ru-net.

With his recent stellar performance on foreign soil, being broadcasted all around the world, the newly crowned WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog stands aside from this group. A perfect professional record, modesty mixed with a hardcore boxing knowledge and his desire to fight the best makes Pirog a nice-looking exemplar for both fans and developing fighters – not only in Russia. With the belt around his waist the Russian can also be considered a proclaimer of a not-so-distant future of middleweights. Below are this author’s thoughts on Pirog’s big night last Saturday, its consequences and an overall state of the 160lb weight class and the Russian fight scene after the recent events.

One not-so-unexpected victory

What had surprised me most before the contest were bookmakers’ stakes which made Pirog a considerable underdog in the upcoming fight. Not that yours truly feels himself a prophet. He surely doesn’t. But just take a look at Russian boxing forums and you will find out that odds there were slightly in Pirog’s favor. For example, at Allboxing.ru main forum a poll gave a slight edge to Pirog, landing his chances for a victory at 48.9% (23.7% - for a stoppage, and 25.2% - for a decision) against 47.3% in favour of Jacobs (19.8% and 27.5% - for a stoppage and decision respectively). Hardcore users from various foreign message-boards, web conferences and forums had mostly been predicting an even fight as well.

Meanwhile, a person didn't hav eto be a rocket scientist to see a competitive match-up in this particular contest. Dmitry Pirog isn’t your usual Colombian or Ghanaian expatriate who debuts on American soil. At least half of his fights are easily found on Youtube (or even by way of torrents) and both his unique fight style (which indeed is a mixture of European and American modes with an addition of some exclusive tricks) and his level of opposition can be carefully investigated this way. That however didn’t prevent some analysts to consider the fight with Jacobs as “a tremendous step-up in class” for the Russian.

Was that really a case? Pirog’s average record of opposition was 14-4-1 and 6 fighters with losing or even records, Jacobs’ – 11-4 and 7 sub-par opponents. There’s even more to this. Pirog’s ledger contains at least three of top-tier second-echelon names: Sergey Tatevosyan (whom Pirog has defeated in his 4th pro fight), Kuvanych Toygonbayev (with a career-ending win over Oba Carr and two narrow losses to Keith Holmes and Ian Gardner) and former two-time world-title challenger Kofi Jantuah. At least several notables (Alexey Chirkov, Aslanbek Kodzoev, Geard Ajetovic and Eric Mitchell among others) can be found deeper in his resume.

On the other hand, Jacobs shared the ring with just one toughie in slick Ishe Smith and only three opponents (Michael Walker, George Walton and badly shot Jose Varela) who are more or less comparable with four aforementioned notables. So, is this really a step-up for Pirog? Find the answer for yourself. Props to the Golden Boy, on the other hand, for taking this fight, even if they saw it as a coronation (of sorts) for Jacobs.

The point here is that a long-standing prejudice against the European (or, maybe, even international) level of boxing in the American press really exists. That doesn’t mean every foreign newcomer should be considered a real threat for local fighters – hakkars of the world are still well remembered. But downplaying Europe’s level of boxing (by comparing stats from Tyrone Watson and Victor Llares fights with those of Jantuah, Melis and Mitchell) isn’t a correct way as well and Jacobs defeat was a painful illustration to this statement. By the way, we are living in the 21st century where it’s increasingly difficult not to find some tapes, disks or streams of a particular boxer, especially if he fights in Europe or in the States.

Jacobs’s faults

With all due respect to a new champion the fight wouldn’t have been so short and so one-sided (not in American’s favor as judges’ scorecards read) had an unlucky challenger been more consequent and prepared for his first title chance. There were several telling reasons that led to the first loss in Daniel Jacobs’ pro career. Here are the most important:

1. Psychology. Plain and simple: one of the challengers wasn’t ready for this battle mentally. Surely it had much to do with a tragic loss in Jacobs’s family (his grandma had passed away in a week before the fight) but at the end of the day all what will be remembered is an erased zero in “Lost” column rather than reasons which has led to it.

“Daniel Jacobs wasn’t prepared to fight Pirog at that time and at that place. It was seen well by his eyes and by his pre-fight behavior, at least a part of it shown by HBO”, reflects Alexander Kolesnikov, a well-known Russian boxing personality, who was briefly interviewed before and after this fight, and who stood in pairs with Pirog several years ago.

“Jacobs was nervous and looked lost. He would have never won this fight, and his light cockiness was just a way to hide his nerves. He has literally burned himself out days prior the fight. In round two it became clear that Pirog was ready to take him out here and now and, what is more important, it was clear that Dmitry knew about that. I didn’t like the way Pirog behaved himself in front of the audience. He was showboating and wriggling but only because he knew he wouldn’t be punished for that. Jacobs was a lost man after the first two rounds, and an only question was “When?” regarding a possible time of stoppage."

Pirog has particularly agreed with this statement during his recent presser. “When I first hit’em hard I knew it was an end. I knew deeply in myself that I would get another chance, maybe several more chances to finish this guy out. Nothing proved me wrong”.

2. Amateurism. It looked like Daniel Jacobs has not yet fully transformed into a pro fighter but remains an amateur in his core. For those who will probably find an offence in this statement: amateur boxing isn’t better or worse than pro boxing; today it’s two different kinds of sport, which are closely related but, nevertheless, cannot be treated as a whole.

Daniel Jacobs was both moving and punching in amateurish style. His speed was there but he failed to implement it in close quarters. His blows were pretty hard but he lacked some snap at the very end of his punch.

“Frankly speaking, I wasn’t impressed with his power at all and it didn’t exceed my expectations. I met guys who threw much harder blows than Daniel Jacobs”, said Pirog upon his arrival in Moscow. One telling moment was at the very end of round three when the American found a void for a huge right bomb which landed flush on Pirog’s chin yet it didn’t trouble Russian at all. “His overall blow-by-blow tonnage isn’t enough for pro boxing yet”, added Pirog’s head coach Vyacheslav Nepogodin.

3. Quality of defense. Jacobs is a fighter who is obsessed by a demon of offence. His guard, however, is in need of fine-tuning. The Golden Child utilizes no power jab to stop his opponent in his tracks on his way in – one certain mistake which resulted in an inevitable end during the fifth round, when Jacobs threw one lazy jab only to let the right side of his face completely opened. Another problem is a tightness of his block, which wasn’t enough to repel neither Pirog’s power punches nor his sharp jabs, which can be illustrated by a moment in round two when only fortune helped Jacobs escape a knockdown call after a classic one-two by Pirog against the ropes. Finally, using straight lines on the way out isn’t the best solution for fight geometry, which was precisely demonstrated on Saturday’s night.

What’s up in the future?

Presumably bigger (at least possessing a three-inch arm reach advantage) and surely more hyped Daniel Jacobs cannot be rated low even after this disastrous performance. His strengths are obvious: he is good in his offense with a vast arsenal of tricks; he hits fairly hard and moves also fairly well. On this reporter’s mind, a short layoff (say, till the late fall or even early 2011) will help Jacobs heal his wounds both physically and mentally. However, healing wounds doesn’t equal idleness. A good camp can help a young fighter to improve his defensive skills and once that’s done a comeback will be due and hopefully very exciting. After three-four more fights (albeit against better opposition than before Pirog fight) another title chance will loom – maybe, in a year or in a year and a half from this point. Daniel Jacobs is just 23 and he isn’t in a hurry now. One loss can be a bitter setback but that is surely not an end of a road for one of America’s finest prospects to date.

For Dmitry Pirog the future is now. At 30 he has little time left at the very peak of his powers (even though he is a 30-year young up-and-comer who is fresher than, say, 28-year old veteran Kelly Pavlik). There are two possible directions a newly crowned champion can follow. The first one – let’s call it “German” (you can use any adjective you want instead – I just used this one by the chance) way – is to take your belt at home and to sit here, defending it against specifically selected opponents, most commonly glorified journeymen, mediocre fighters with padded records, fading veterans and so on. It won’t let you earn worldwide recognition or crazy money but, well, it gives you a steady fee plus the local following plus some statistical records. For Russian promoters, however, that’s not the best solution because a following cannot be constructed without regular broadcasts, and Russian TV bosses aren’t interested in boxing at all. Money is also out of Russia so to make here more than just a pair of defenses even against sub-par opposition will be very difficult.

The second direction is risky but a reward is worthy. Having produced a scintillating knockout in his only HBO appearance, Pirog turned some heads – maybe not among any TV chiefs right now but at least among some viewers. Hardcore fans are already affected, which can be seen by such threads as “Pirog vs. Prime Jesus Christ!” (Not that it’s “prime” Jesus we are talking about, huh) on one of the boxing boards. Surely, Pirog isn’t yet to be canonized but with the help of his American trustee Artie Pellulo (of Banner Promotions) he can hopefully get another date on HBO.

If so, who can be his opponent? Sergio Martinez is reportedly in talks with Paul Williams for early October (which is a better fight for Williams than a “high risk – low reward” collision with Ukrainian stylist Sergey Dzinziruk). So he is off the picture for now. Other champions, as Felix Sturm (WBA) and Sebastian Sylvester (IBF) are hardly reachable and Bob Arum won’t risk his Mexican cash machine Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against hardly recognized and dangerous Russian. That leaves us with one real possibility and that’s Kelly Pavlik.

“He became a champion when I first appeared in ratings and he was the champion all way through until his loss to Sergio Martinez this April. So I was concentrating on fighting Kelly Pavlik. It’ll be a pleasure for me to realize that old wish and to prove my mastership against this strong fighter. I’m not sure if he is ready to make a middleweight limit but I’m not against fighting “The Ghost” at catchweight too”, says Pirog.

Pirog vs. Pavlik fight has a long history behind it… among Russian fight fans. It has been discussed since Pirog’s 2008 breakthrough, when he scored back-to-back victories over Kodzoev, Ajetovic and Toygonbayev. While a majority of fans was first viewing this collision as a walk in the park for then-champion Pavlik, a number of those, who were pretty ensured in Pirog, was growing rapidly since then. One particular thread, which has been started on Allboxing after Pirog’s knockout of Jacobs, gives him a surprisingly huge advantage over former WBO/WBC world champion: 67.9% vote for Pirog (including 41.7% - by stoppage), while Pavlik gets only 29.7% (22.6% - by stoppage).

Pirog himself sees a hard fight if it comes to fruition but he is convinced that he has tools to upset Pavlik, “Frankly speaking, I think that he is made for me. He is going right at you and he doesn’t know any back pedal. He is there to crush, kill and destroy and that will allow me to read him and to frustrate even though he can punch really hard. I’m sure I have enough skills to beat him though it will be a very hard battle”. One possible obstacle ahead is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. who seems to be a front-runner to fight Pavlik in late fall (given that he will take care of Polish Pawel Wolak in September).

If Pavlik fight cannot be made immediately, there's a big chance to see Pirog in an intermediate (voluntary) title defense in native Russia. Stocky yet fan-friendly aggressor Gennady Martirosyan (20-2, 9 KOs) is ranked #4 by the WBO and, what is more significant, is governed by Jab Promotions. Pirog-Martirosyan fight can in principles become the first ever encounter between two Russian fighters to be held in Russia. Another possibility is #6 Ukrainian Maxim Bursak (20-0-1, 8 KOs), and both shouldn’t be too tough for Pirog.

A new wave is coming

A brief look at middleweight picture shows a revolutionary situation in place. As one of the most known communists (and how can I not be one living in Russia?!) Vladimir Lenin has previously said it is when the rulers are unable and the ruled ones are unwilling. That exactly is the case for one of the sport’s elite divisions.

Let’s take a brief look at what is going on here.

Champion and retinue

There can be only one champion in a weight class, and here we have Sergio Martinez. The linage can be dated all way back to B-Hop’s victory over Felix Trinidad in September 2001. Then he was replace by Taylor, then Taylor was dethroned by Pavlik, and now the heir to Monzon’s glory rules middleweights, and rightfully so.

Two pretenders are in place now – Williams and Pavlik. All three fighters are welcome by TV suits and don’t need anybody to fight with except themselves. However this scene is unstable. Martinez is 35 years old and doesn’t get any younger with each month and with each fight. Pavlik, as was mentioned above, is much younger than Martinez but no less wearied. He will also have a hard time making 160lb limit with each coming fight, and it’s hard to see him as a middleweight in a year or two. That leaves us only with P-Will, who can even head to super middleweight, especially after the end of Super Six.

Three of a kind and pretenders

It sound ridiculous but Martinez, Pavlik and Williams have just one middleweight strap (WBC) for the threesome. Aside from Pirog and JCC Jr. (well, actually the WBC Silver isn’t really a belt even in World Boxing Council’s own eyes as younger Chavez is still being ranked there), there are three beltholders; they are all from Germany and, man, how much alike they look.

Zbik (WBC Interim) titleholder is the weakest of three. He was extremely lucky to get three controversial nods (against Domeniko Spada in their first fight, Emanuele Della Rosa and lately against Jorge Heiland). His record is very impressive at 30-0 but in fact it should be read as 27-3 or 26-3-1 or something like that. Zbik, promoted by Universum Box-Promotion is constantly fed by unknown Italian or Latin challengers, none of whom proved they deserved such a chance. Don’t expect something to change here in the nearest future.

Both long-time WBA ruler Felix Sturm and IBF master Sebastian Sylvester are much more established warriors and they have (particularly Sturm) some reasonable wins over tough opposition. However, they are happy sitting at home and defending their belts against hardly inspiring (albeit better than in Zbik’s case) fighters. Expect more of them in the future: Giovanny Lorenzo, Marco Rubio, Mahir Oral and some others will have their chances to improve the Germans' records a little bit more.

All in all, it’s definitely the case when monarchs are both unwilling (to fight “high risk – low reward” opponents) and unable (to let their money flow away), and their ABC retinue is unable (through their promoters) and possibly also unwilling.

Up-and-comers

And here are those who will create an upcoming revolution. Middleweight is full of them: young (maybe not in terms of their astronomical age but in terms of ring experience) and talented up-and-comers are so numerous that they make this particular division probably the most talent-rich in a sense of “prospects per single ranking”.

In a perfect collision between two rising prospects, which has nearly (or entirely) stole last Saturday’s show, Russian Dmitry Pirog (17-0, 14 KOs) and American Daniel Jacobs (20-1, 17 KOs) showed us an exemplar of such tremendous fights which (hopefully) await us in future. Pirog is just the beginning. More of such sort is coming soon.

28-year old Kazakhstani Gennady Golovkin (18-0, 15 KOs) is ready to be crowned next. It wasn’t a surprise that WBA main champion Felix Sturm wasn’t very eager to meet his challenge. Golovkin, a versatile boxer-puncher, was a magical amateur winning junior world, Asian and world championships before finishing second at 2004 Athens Olympics. Among those victims, whom Golovkin has defeated in his unpaid days, were Andre Dirrell, Matvey Korobov, Andy Lee, Yordanis Despaigne and Lucian Bute (knocked out in four in 2003). As a pro, he was pretty scintillating but mostly against hapless opponents. Fighting unknown and hardly deserving Columbian Milton Nunez on Aug. 14 in Panama for what is called “WBA Interim middleweight title” is a joke but having a strap can do a trick and (having Ivaylo Gotzev behind his back) pave him a road on American TV. He will be fun to watch – that’s for sure. Also, his possible clash with Pirog (who is now a champion himself) was long discussed among post-Soviet aficionados and it can easily be a cracker.

If Golovkin doesn’t satisfy you take a closer look at middleweights. 26-year old Cameroonian Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (24-0, 17 KOs) can make you his fan with just one selected fight (you can choose his tenth-round destruction of Gennady Martirosyan as a clear evidence of his immense talent). N’Jikam lives and fights in France, but it’s hard to find a worthy foe for him there. Team N’Jikam was long hunting for Golovkin’s head and, if they are successful enough, another possible barnburner can entertain us all. 

Short, a bit pudgy and tremendously short-handed but enormously powerful grinder with some underrated skills, 21-year old Canadian David Lemieux (23-0, 22 KOs) has already thrilled American audience after an impressive one-round destruction of ex-challenger Elvin Ayala. Lemieux, with a minor belt around his waist, is still not ready to fight who’s who of 160lb but he is very young and remains work in progress. In just a year or so he can be ready for something big. 29-year old Australian stylist Daniel Geale (23-1, 14 KOs), who delivered huge problems to Anthony Mundine last year, is prepared to put his name into contention even now.

On Sep. 18 unbeaten Londoner Darren Barker (22-0, 14 KOs), 28, takes on fan-friendly slugger Matthew Macklin (26-2, 17 KOs), also 28, in an all-Britain encounter. European belt is also at stake. Watch for another young star-in-making coming out of this one. Threw in several more names (such as Jacobs, Andy Lee, Matvey Korobov or Fernando Guerrero) and you will have a fascinating ledger of fighters in their prime, who are ready to make a history. Those “ruled by” are unwilling to wait and more than able to create huge problems, at least for German beltholders.

Imagine Golovkin, Pirog, N’Jikam, Zbik, Chavez Jr., Geale, Lemieux, Lee, Jacobs, Guerrero, Craig McEwan, Barker, Macklin, Grzegorz Proksa, Jorge Sebastian Heiland and, say, Rogelio Medina in a Super-16 tournament. Even if eight fighters from this list can be brought together, that would be a horrific championship. Who can help make this one? Only TV bosses of either Showtime or HBO. While none of this boxers are yet PPV worthy (or even worthy of HBO/Showtime Championship Boxing), they can make solid impact for ShoBox or HBO BAD series.

A new wave is coming soon. Don’t blink – in a year or two middleweight scene can be completely different (and much more exciting) than tonight…

Misc flurries

Was it just me or HBO showed little respect to the new champion in comparison with the occasional loser? No, it wasn’t just me as the same behavior was disapproved by several credible authors in Web.

On the other hand, Dmitry Pirog wasn’t confused or disappointed with this treatment.

“No-no, I wasn’t disappointed. Actually, it was my fault. Somebody told me to go back to my dressing room, and then I met several more persons and suddenly found myself in a locker. So HBO broadcasting crew isn’t guilty. It was just an occasional flow of events”, he said during his Wednesday presser.

Guess what, Dmitry? It’s not your responsibility to run after TV crew after one of the biggest wins in your career. It is what their work really is – to present people a new champion and to praise him, not to fix a bandwagon of a losing fighter…

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Dmitry Pirog became Russia’s eleventh major titleholder. His predecessors were: Yuri Arbachakov (WBC flyweight), Kostya Tszyu (undisputed junior welterweight), Akhmed Kotiev (WBO welterweight), Roman Karmazin (IBF junior middleweight), Nikolay Valuev (WBA heavyweight), Oleg Maskaev (WBC heavyweight), Valery Brudov (WBA interim cruiserweight), Sultan Ibragimov (WBO heavyweight), Dmitry Kirillov (IBF super flyweight) and Denis Inkin (WBO super middleweight) – in temporal order.

Of this ten, the latter eight had either short-lived or hardly inspiring (or both) title reigns, while flyweight king Arbachakov and living legend Tszyu are IBHOF-worthy (though maybe not the first-ballot worthy). With the way Pirog has broken through this list, much alike Tszyu’s appearance in 1995 after a win over “Snake” Rodriguez, he can find himself up pretty soon. But only if he continues his diligent work.

“I realize that was just the first step”, told me Pirog after the presser. “I’m not buying all this hype around me after just one victory. To get to the top is easier than to stay the king of the hill. I’m still developing and I intend to continue work hard not to let my fans down with any bad performances in the future”…

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One reader asked me about why Russian TV (top Russian TV channels) is so arrogant and ignorant to Russian pro boxing. That is surely not because boxing is a marginal sport. That’s a totally wrong scheme of work, which is employed by Russian TV. In order to find yourself on TV you should not only produce highest viewer’s rankings but sometimes have something extra to it. In case of boxing that means that rather you will pay TV bosses to have your fight televised than you receive any money from them. Exceptions are very seldom: none of 2009 and 2010 title fights with Russian boxer taking his part in was showcased by a generally accessible Russian TV channel.

P.S. And now HBO strikes again. After this Saturday's showdown between Devon Alexander and Ukrainian former WBA champion Andrey Kotelnik, which has been narrowly and somewhat controversially won by the unified WBC/IBF titlist, HBO crew once again didn't even bother to speak with the determined challenger. By the way, Kotelnik produced one of the finest performances in his lengthy pro career only to be denied his share of attention from team HBO. Don't want to throw in a word "bias" but it's hard to avoid using this one after two recent HBO broadcasts.

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To know more about Dmitry Pirog and his career look at this author’s interview with the WBO champion and recent Moscow presser’s transcript. To see his previous fights subscribe to this author’s YouTube channel (GStalker1).

The second part of Eastern European rankings is coming up in mid-August after Gennady Golovkin’s fight on Aug. 14.