By Alexey Sukachev

This coming Saturday Ural Boxing Promotions, 2010 Russian Promoter of the Year, brings up yet another installment of the annual Red Square Boxing, which is a vital part of the seventh Military-Sportive forum “Ready for Labour and Defense” to be held in Moscow from May 24 to May 29. A nice-packed open-air show will feature several minor title fights, which include two unbeaten talents and several world-ranked boxers, and will be staged near the walls of legendary Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral in the very heart of Moscow, Russia.

In anticipation of the upcoming show, BoxingScene caught up with Ural Boxing’s president Evgueny Vainstein and talked to him about his promotional company, its most interesting protégés and its future plans.

- Evgueny, tell us more about your entry into the sport.

- We entered the market in late 2007, although I have been involved into the fistic game since early nineties. Moreover, alongside Edmund Lipinski (the late WBC vice-president), I was one of those persons, who had been building a basis of prizefighting in Russia. However, twenty years ago the situation wasn’t comfortable enough – I mean, in terms of financials – to go on with a support of professional boxing in our Motherhood. There were no long-term prospects to target at, and I was forced to get back to amateur boxing for a decade and a half. I made a comeback when I finally realized that the Russian pro boxing scene wasn’t what it had been used to be years before. I saw something could be done to develop this kind of sport in our country. That’s why I decided to enter the game. But we have brought a completely different approach with us.

- What does make it so special?

- You know, the prime goal of every normal promotional company is to sign well-schooled, well-developed fighters, to match them up with the stars and the champions and to make money of it. A majority of promoters tends to make high-profile bouts with already developed fighters but we don’t. We are taking young, talented guys from the depth of amateur ranks, improve their abilities and polish them in unpaid competitions, and only then we bring them to the prizefighting. We have 12-15 young guns who are fighting as amateurs now. After they are developed and trained enough to compete at pro ranks, we shall make such transitions. We try to make it at the youngest age possible, and then to complete a painless development of newly signed pro fighters. So, you see, we have our roots deeply into amateur boxing. That is how we work.

- You’ve just mentioned that you bring youngster to prizefighting. Can you give us any names to look at?

- Our first success and our first fail as well was late Khetag Kozaev. [Khetag, 10-0, 9 KOs, at the time, was tragically murdered in an out-of-club shooting in mid-2010 when he was just 19 years of age]. Now we have another star to be fascinated about. His name is Konstantin Ponomarev (9-0, 5 KOs), and he is just 18 years old. He is competing at light welterweight limit. He is our future. I believe in several years he will be transformed into a bona-fide world contender and then into a future champion. He is that good. Expect him in top-10 in just two years from this date.

- Your most developed fighters are undefeated welterweights – WBC #15 Anton Novikov (21-0, 8 KOs) and Aslanbek Kozaev (16-0, 5 KOs). They were making shifts from one weight class to another one in the last couple of years. Will they continue fighting at 147 lbs or shall we expect more changes with their weights?

- Both of them are our most developed and still young hopes. Novikov is just 23. He fought as a middleweight and as a light middleweight earlier in his career. We were playing with his weight in order to guess which weight class he is most comfortable to fight in. He has been found to be too small for a middleweight. It’s a funny thing but some American experts and trainers insist he should tip the scales at 140 lbs but I’m not that sure. Most probably he will continue fighting at welterweight division or even as a light middleweight. Those are weight classes he isn’t too drained to tip the scales for but not too heavy for him to be weaker than his opponents. As for Kozaev, also 23, his last bout with Kenyan fighter Onyango showed us that he is weaker in lighter weight class. He will be back up to the welterweight.

- I haven’t heard about featherweight talent Aslanbek Tlatov (6-0, 3 KOs), 22, for a while. What is next for him?

- It’s quite a complicated story. He has some problems with his eyes. If physicians deem him ready to fight once again, we shall surely get him back on track. But fighter’s health is much more important, so we won’t rush him ahead at the risk of his future.

- Timur Nergadze (14-1-1, 2 KOs), 32, was the most experienced of your protégés. What shall we expect of this grizzled fighter?

- Actually, we are done with Timur. Our mutual agreement has expired and now we have partied our ways. We still help him to work as an instructor and help him in his coaching duties but we aren’t making fights for him now.

- You were noticed to stage lots of WBC minor title fights in your competitions. Your fighters were fighting for WBC international, WBC Youth and WBC ABCO belts. Are you only WBC-oriented or not?

- Surely, not. We had a fruitful partnership with the World Boxing Council, which is regarded by us to be the best and the most respective sanctioning body. But we are ready to make fights for other titles such as PABA or WBO European titles. We aren’t biased, and we are ready to work with everybody.

- Red Square Boxing is your most notable project. But it is totally unprofitable. What is your goal here?

- We aren’t looking for a profit now. Frankly speaking, boxing is a very disadvantageous kind of sport in Russia. We have only expenses and no gains. But it should be a colossal mutual work of various promoters and all the entire Russian boxing community to restore public’s interest in the sport. We should firstly develop a base, find new friendly fans and then to satisfy them with our performances. Our Red Square Boxing is a brand project, a social project, which will help us to raise some interest in the sport.

- Are you somehow connected with foreign promoters?

- Surely. We have staged some fights in Belarus and Uzbekistan. Much more important is the fact that we are in possession of a specifically designated fight centre in Chicago, Illinois. Our fighters have already taken parts in various shows in Windy City and we shall continue such a work. It’s beneficial for both us and our partners overseas, including Oscar De La Hoya. We hope to get our fighters new TV dates on American cable networks pretty soon. For example, Konstantin Ponomarev will depart to the States immediately after his fight on May 28.

- In conclusion of the talk, please, assess the current state of the Russian pro boxing?

- C+ at the best. But together we shall continue to improve this mark and to make boxing as dynamic as ever not only in Russia but in other countries as well.
- Thanks for your time.
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In the main event of the coming show, two hugely underrated and underachieving veteran welterweights, whose skills are way better than their records suggest, will clash against each other to determine a possible top-15 entrant to the world ranks. A titleholder is 27-year old Alexey Evchenko (9-7-1, 5 KOs), who is in possession of PABA and WBO Europe belts as well as of the EBU-EE welterweight title. Former Russian champion Evchenko has scored two consecutive upset knockouts in his last two fights over 13-1 Bogdan Mitic and 11-0 Sherali Mamadaliev. His opponent will be 34-year old veteran Roman Seliverstov (12-8, 3 KOs).

Seliverstov has never been stopped as well. He has wins over two former world title challengers in Michael Trabant (43-3-1) and Cosme Rivera (31-12-2). The fight will be billed for Evchenko’s PABA and WBO Europe titles.

In the second title event of the night, Ruslan Khayrtdinov (9-0, 3 KOs) and David Avanesyan (7-1, 2 KOs), another pair of 147lbers, will go at each other for David’s Russian 147lb title. 18-year old young gun Konstantin Ponomarev will go after the first title in his short career. Ponomarev will battle ten scheduled rounds for a vacant WBC Youth intercontinental welterweight title against Ukrainian Fedor Mushtranov (4-3, 2 KOs) in the third title fight of the night.

Also, WBC #26 junior welterweight Aslanbek Kozaev will return to the welterweight to take on dangerous Belarussian opponent Andrey Stoliarchuk (9-12-1, 1 KO), who has previously defeated such established boxers as Sherzod Nazarov and Dariusz Snarski. Finally, WBC #9 ranked cruiserweight Alexander Kotlobay (19-2-1, 13 KOs) will risk his WBC Baltic title against little-known Germany-based Ukrainian Alex Mogylewski (12-7, 8 KOs). This fight will move on under the sanctioning of Estonian Boxing Federation, as the Professional Boxing Federation of Russia doesn’t recognize this type of the green belt.

There will be three non-title fights, which will include a comeback of fan-friendly light welterweight banger Karen Tevosyan (17-3-3, 9 KOs) and another bout of local Azerbaijani Vusal Aliyev (6-0, 4 KOs).