By Alexey Sukachev
One cannot find a bigger figure in Belarussian professional boxing than Valery Kaplya. An undefeated national featherweight champion in his past, Kaplya is now working as a manager and a representative for a number of up-and-coming talents from Belarus. Among other he is working with are such notables as super featherweight Sergey Gulyakevich (29-2, 13 KOs), junior middleweight Sergey Rabchenko (13-0, 9 KOs) and light heavyweight Magomed Aripgadzhiev (14-2, 9 KOs).
He was also known as a manager for one of the best Belarussian fighters ever Yuri Romanov (21-2, 14 KOs), who mysteriously disappeared from world boxing scene more than two years ago. BoxingScene contacted Kaplya to know more about Romanov and his current protégés.
About Yuri Romanov, who is best known for a series of TKO wins over British top lightweights (Steve Murray, Bobby Vanzie and Jonathon Thaxton), “Unfortunately, I don’t know much about his future plans. Last year Yuri relocated himself to America but I have no contacts with him now. So I don’t even know if he is still eager to perform or not”.
About WBC #1, WBO #6 and IBF #9 Gulyakevich, “Firstly, Sergey is going to box in my card on July 31. That’ll be a tune-up fight. Right after this we shall weigh-in our WBC options and we have some for sure! Sergey is ranked #1 by the World Boxing Council so we are gunning for a title shot. There are three possibilities. Either Sergey will box WBC champion Vitaly Tajbert in a rematch (Gulyakevich outpointed Vitaly unanimously in December 2008), or he will clash against Japanese Takahiro Aoh in the WBC final eliminator, or he will head to face Mexican Eduardo Escobedo for a newly created WBC Silver title."
"The biggest possibility is as follows: 1. Tajbert will fly over to Mexico to take on Humberto Mauro Gutierrez in a rematch; 2. Sergey will take on Escobedo. In each possible way I’m sure Sergey will perform at his best. With Ricky Hatton’s promotional company behind our backs and with a fine preparation he had taken Gulyakevich is ready to conquer the world with force and to bring another world title to Belarus”.
About Rabchenko and Aripgadzhiev, “Both of them will be back to the squared circle on July 31. Later this year (in September or in October), both Sergey and Magomed will fight for EBU-EE titles in their respected weight classes. Aripgadzhiev will most probably defend his title in a rematch against Swiss Mohamed Belkacem (17-2-1, 8 KOs) and Rabchenko will take on WBC #25 Ukrainian Roman Dzhuman (24-8-1, 11 KOs)”.
