By Steve Kim
With his twelfth round stoppage of previously unbeaten Yunier Dorticos this past weekend in Russia, Murat Gassiev not only captured the full' WBA cruiserweight world title to go along with his IBF strap, he advanced to the finals of the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight final against WBC/WBO champion, Oleksandr Usyk on May 11th - in Saudi Arabia
Uysk stamped his own way into the finals by winning a hard-fought decision two weeks ago, in a unification against undefeated Mairis Briedis.
Gassiev has quickly made a name for himself as one of the most lethal punchers in the sport but he showed against the dangerous Cuban that he is far from a one-dimensional fighter.
"This is a kid that only had 25 fights as an amateur and in his last three fights he has fought (Denis) Lebedev, he has fought (Krzysztof) Wlodarczyk and he has fought Dorticos and he's only 24 years old," said his trainer, Abel Sanchez, who is best known for being in the corner of unified middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin.
"So the improvement has to be in the gym because we aren't given years and time to improve him."
Sanchez explained to BoxingScene.com - "He wasn't fortunate to have an amateur career like Gennady Golovkin so all the learning that we're doing is not only in the fights but in the gym and some of the sparring that we're getting around town, that we work on things when we go down there and that's how he's getting better."
The respected trainer believes that the best of Gassiev (26-0, 19 KO's) is still yet to come.
"I think that he's dramatically improved from the Lebedev fight and I think this fight will be better for him, to make him understand what is necessary to be at the top level," stated Sanchez.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.