Gennady Kovalev

Was he any good and why didn't he turn pro? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Kovalev Gennady Kovalev From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gennady Kovalev Personal information Full name Геннадий Геннадиевич Ковалёв Nationality Russia Born May 17, 1983 (age 33) Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) Weight 64 kg (141 lb) Rated at Light Welterweight Club Rossiyskiy Sportivnyy Studencheskiy Gennady Gennadiyevich Kovalev (Russian: Геннадий Геннадиевич Ковалёв) (born 17 May 1983 in Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai) is a boxer from Russia. Career Southpaw Kovalev won the silver medal at the 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championships defeating Bahodirjon Sooltonov but losing to Aghasi Mammadov at bantam, and a gold medal at the 2004 European Amateur Boxing Championships . He participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics for his native country. There he was beaten in the quarterfinals of the Bantamweight (54 kg) division by Cuba's eventual winner Guillermo Rigondeaux. Now at junior welterweight he won the Russian Championships 2007 against legend Alexander Maletin 37:21. At the World championships he beat Bradley Saunders to reach the finals but lost to defending Kazakh champion Serik Sapiyev 5:20. After his boxing career, Kovalev has found success as a professional MMA fighter, going 5-1 as a professional. World amateur championships results 2003 (as a bantamweight) Defeated Berik Serikbayev (Kazakhstan) 21-6 Defeated Zsolt Bedák (Hungary) 43-20 Defeated Khavazi Khatsygov (Bulgaria) 25-14 Defeated Bahodirjon Sooltonov (Uzbekistan) 21-15 Lost to Aghasi Mammadov (Azerbaijan) 8-17 2007 (as a Light welterweight) Defeated Andrey Tsiruk (Belarus) 33-11 Defeated Marufjon Fayzuloyev (Tajikistan) 24-10 Defeated Gyula Kate (Hungary) 22-9 Defeated Boris Georgiev (Bulgaria) walk-over Defeated Bradley Saunders (England) 16-8 Lost to Serik Sapiyev (Kazakhstan) 5-20 Olympic results 2004 (as a bantamweight) 1st round bye Defeated Malik Bouziane (Algeria) 23-20 Lost to Guillermo Rigondeaux (Cuba) 5-20 2008 (as a Light welterweight) Defeated Maimaitituersun Qiong (China) 15-8 Defeated Richarno Colin (Mauritius) 11:2 lost to Roniel Iglesias (Cuba) 2:5