Heavyweights Kubrat Pulev and Murat Gassiev refused to look beyond one another ahead of their fight on Friday in Dubai.
Pulev, who holds a version of the WBA title, defends against his Russian opponent at the Duty Free Tennis Centre and at today’s press conference the fighters were asked about possible future fights with Moses Itauma, Oleksandr Usyk and even next week’s bout between Anthony Joshua – a previous Pulev opponent – and Jake Paul.
“I can’t see the future, all my focus is on December 12,” said Gassiev of their IBA Pro Fight Night bout. “I don’t know what will happen on Friday, after we can speak and I can give you an answer. On Friday, I have a very tough fight against a top fighter.”
Pulev replied similarly when asked about what might come next.
“When I win, after my win, we will see. I can’t say now,” he said.
Bulgarian Pulev, 32-3 (14 KOs), had promised his father that he would become Bulgaria’s first world heavyweight champion.
“This was my dream and the dream of my father,” he said. “That’s why we started boxing, because my father was in love with boxing, he loved this great sport and then I had more than 300 amateurs fights and a lot of professional fights and I have a lot of experience and thank God I had the opportunity to have the world title fight in Bulgaria and to win that fight,” he said, of the night he defeated Mahmoud Charr.
Now 44, he said he is as good as he’s ever been and he’s motivated to fight on.
“I feel the best, I feel great, I feel amazing. I feel powerful. I have a lot of energy. When I go to training, I feel amazing. That’s why I want to defend my title. Murat is a great champion and he also has a lot of experience but I feel I’m the better one and I will show that on Friday. It’s not an easy fight, of course. But if it was easy, it would not be so nice.”
Pulev’s team said they would like a rematch with Joshua.
Gassiev, 33-2 (25 KOs), a former unified champion at cruiserweight whose two losses came to southpaws in Oleksandr Usyk and Otto Wallin, the latter at heavyweight, said he was prepared for anything in Dubai.
“This heavyweight division, only one punch can change any plan, any strategy, and tactic, and you need to be ready 1,000 per cent, any second,” said the challenger.
“Kubrat, he’s the WBA heavyweight champion, he has a lot of experience. Many people say he is old at 44 but that is only a number. He has a lot of experience, he’s always in shape, he looks perfect and I know he’s ready for 12 rounds and I know it’s one of the toughest opponents in my professional career and we know we are ready for anything.”
He also knows that Usyk is not going to stay around forever, that the IBF is having issues with its lengthy list of contenders and that the climate is set to alter further.
“At heavyweight the situation is changing rapidly and anything can happen,” said Gassiev.
