Comments Thread For: Top 50 Fighters From the USSR: The Last Chapter, Top 5

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Alexey Sukachev - On Saturday night, Vic Darchinyan, one of the most fearsome little fighters of the recent memory, will stride across the ropes to face yet another (former) champion in his illustrious career, which is already filled with notables of various sorts and calibers.


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[Bierstadt]

Didn't disappoint Mr. Sukachev.

[ИATAS]

Good read thanks

[TouchyAndalou]

It's an absolute disgrace that Ivan Drago continues to get overlooked in these lists. "Mr USSR" destroyed all but one of his opponents, killed a former world champion in the ring and managed it all on only a fraction of the PEDS fighters are on these days!

[cleaner147]

LOL they mentioned me in that article. check: A short note on old-timers

thank your very much for answering my question


excellent work guys! it was pleasure to read it.

[cleaner147]

Wladimir will easily overtake Kostya. (well, theres is this guy called Haye) Kostya is a lucky man cuz he was born earlier and also debut ealier.

I think every EE knows who Wlad is, but not so many who Kostya was...

still Kostya is a hell of a boxer/fighter/warrior/champion

[GStalker]

Thanks for kind word, guys. Much appreciated! As for you, madamfackah, you've well deserved it - thanks for you corrections as well.

As for the article, it wasn't a complete version unfortunately. For technical reasons, a major part of the story was taken out. Here is the end of the story:

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Final list

The first article of the series went to the stands in mid-January, almost three months ago. Some fighters have already fought in the meantime, which resulted in several changes in the list. Moreover, the rating was revised to check fighters’ points and to make it more accurate. Here are the totals:

50-41: 50-51. Andrey Tsurkan – 1.50; 50-51. Maxim Nesterenko – 1.50; 49. Sergey Gulyakevich – 1.50; 48. Alexey Ilyin – 1.50; 47. Andrey Pestriaev – 1.50; 46. Almazbek Rayimkulov – 1.75; 45. Dmitry Kirilov – 1.75; 44. Vadim Tokarev – 1.75; 43. Alexander Povetkin – 2.00; 42. William Abelyan – 2.00; 41. Andrey Shkalikov – 2.00.

40-31: 40. Vitaly Tajbert – 2.00; 39. Sergey Liakhovich – 2.00; 38. Gennady Golovkin – 2.25; 37. Dmitry Sartison – 2.50; 36. Dmitry Pirog – 2.50; 35. Zaurbek Baysangurov – 2.75; 34. Oleg Yefimovich – 3.00; 33. Levan Kirakosyan – 3.00; 32. Vyacheslav Senchenko – 3.00; 31. Sergey Kobozev – 3.00.

30-21: 30. Denis Inkin – 3.25; 29. Yuri Romanov – 3.50; 28. Alexander Gurov – 3.75; 27. Alexander Zolkin – 4.00; 26. Boris Sinitsin – 4.25; 25. Alexander Makhmutov – 4.50; 24. Andrey Kotelnik – 5.50; 23. Ruslan Chagaev – 5.50; 22. Oleg Maskaev – 7.25; 21. Robert Stieglitz – 7.50.

20-11: 20. Akhmed Kotiev – 8.00; 19. Anatoly Alexandrov – 8.00; 18. Roman Karmazin – 9.00; 17. Beibut Shumenov – 9.25; 16. Sultan Ibragimov – 9.25; 15. Wladimir Sidorenko – 12.00; 14. Vasily Jirov – 12.50; 13. Newsboy Brown – 12.50; 12. Sergey Dzinziruk – 13.00; 11. Arthur Abraham – 18.50.

10-1: 10. Nikolay Valuev – 18.50; 9. Yuri Arbachakov – 18.75; 8. Orzubek Nazarov – 22.00; 7. Artur Grigorian – 26.00; 6. Vitaly Klitschko – 26.50; 5. Louis Kaplan – 27.50; 4. Benny Bass – 28.50; 3. Vic Darchinyan – 42.25; 2. Wladimir Klitschko – 48.50; 1. Kostya Tszyu – 53.00.

Bonus Eastern Europeans

The following list is compiled with the same principles with the list, given above. It’s interesting to compare boxers from the former USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe. Fighters from Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Poland were taken into consideration. The results are quite reasonable: only three fighters from these countries would have cracked the top-10 of post-Soviet ranks, which isn’t a bad result either. Here is the top-15:

1. Dariusz Michalczewski (Poland) – 45.50
2. Zsolt Erdei (Hungary) – 20.00
3. Lucian Bute (Romania) – 18.50
4. Tomasz Adamek (Poland) – 11.25
5. Aurel Toma (Romania) – 11.00
6. Anton Christoforidis (Greece) – 10.50
7. Stipe Drews (Croatia) – 7.25
8. Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (Poland) – 7.00
9. Mate Parlov (Croatia) – 6.75
10. Jan Zaveck (Slovenia) – 6.50
11. Laszlo Papp (Hungary) – 5.00
12. Zeljko Mavrovic (Croatia) – 5.00
13. Karoly Balzsay (Hungary) – 4.50
14. Leonard Dorin (Romania) – 4.50
15. Lucian Popescu (Romania) – 3.25

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Ranking criteria


It was an interesting yet provocative challenge as a number of deserved candidates by far exceeded a number of places even in the prolonged version of the list. I decided to assess their achievements using a specifically designed formula. To do so, I have limited myself (and fighters correspondingly) only to major and semi-major titles and only to the elite opposition.

Titles

By semi-major titles I mean top continental trinkets (EBU, NABF, OPBF and USBA) and the IBO title, which has gained a bit of recognition recently. For each victory in a fight, which had any of these belts at stake, a winner got 0.5 points. WBC, WBA and WBO interim belts were also treated as semi-major thus giving corresponding victors 0.5 points for each successful fight. A 0.25 bonus was set for a win by knockout in a semi-major battle.

Four major alphabet titles (WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO) were priced at 1 point each (for a victory) and all belts were set additive. NYSAC and NBA regalia gave their holders 2 points for each victorious fight. The undisputed “World” championship cost 4 points instantly. A win by a knockout in a major title fight gave a 0.5 bonus.

Champions

By “champion” (aka “elite opposition”) I recognized every fighter, who had won a piece of world championship at least once in his life. WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO titleholders as well as NYSAC/NBA and “World” champions were taken into account. Importantly, interim champions were treated on even terms with “full” champs.

A win is a win but a win over a former (or future) champion is one achievement worth to be taken into account. However, you cannot find two similarly accomplished champions as they differ much through their achievements. A following solution was introduced: for every major title, held by a champion (on separate occasions), his value was increased by a single point. Points gained were divided by two for a win in a non-title fight (regardless were there any “minor” belts at stake or not). A knockout over a titleholder gave its creator 0.5 points in a title fight and 0.25 – in a ranking bout.

Sample

Kostya Tszyu kayoed Zab Judah in two. Three major titles were at stake (WBA/WBC/IBF – 3 points in total); Judah was (or would be) a four-time world champion with six belts at his disposal (WBO and IBF junior welterweight (twice), WBC/WBA/IBF welterweight) – 6 points; a stoppage win gives Tszyu 0.5 bonus points. Summing up these achievements we get: 3+6+0.5 = 9.5 points – a bonus, got by Tszyu for defeating Zab Judah.
As almost every ranking method, this one is rather subjective and can be even called biased. But at the end, its purpose wasn’t to give an ultimate and impeccable list of champions sorted strictly by their accomplishments (which is impossible) but rather to select a group of those fighters, who are worth of being remembered specifically. And as every other list this one is opened for any discussion, ignorance, and acceptance etc.

Contestants

Who have been taken into account? Three groups of fighters were considered by the author; although two sets can be subjects of controversy.

1. Fighters from 15 republics of the former USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan;

2. Fighters, which were born in the Soviet Union, who either retained a considerable connection with its boxing school (maybe via various ex-Soviet trainers) or competed for one of ex-Soviet (or Soviet) national teams in amateurs. Such fighters as Kostya Tszyu, Vic Darchinyan or Robert Stieglitz fall in this category.

3. Fighters, which were born in what was once known as the Russian Empire or in one of future Soviet Republics. Louis “Kid” Kaplan and Benny Bass are two prominent exemplars with David Montrose and Anton Raa*** being two other notables, which were mentioned in this research.
While the last two groups are surrounded by controversy to a degree, the author chose to give them a chance – firstly, for completeness, and, secondly, to compare their achievements with those of the present day warriors.

Calibration of the system

To calibrate the system, the aforementioned scoring criteria were applied to evaluate the score of the top fighters in the history of boxing and of the modern era. Six outstanding pugilists were taken into account. For modern greats Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao two scores are given. The first one is the “official”; the second one is based on the assumption that both fighter’s last “non-title” bouts were indeed title, which is true for such megafights as Mayweather-Mosley or Pacquiao – Hatton. So:

Joe Louis – 145.25
Sugar Ray Robinson – 131
Roy Jones – 84.5
Oscar De La Hoya – 80
Manny Pacquiao – 53.75 (72)
Floyd Mayweather – 64 (70)

[mrpain81]

This guy could have turned that article into a book, nice job Alexey Sukachev.

[iamboxing]

Golota should be included. 1992 when he turned pro Poland was still part of Russia. Troops didn't leave till the following year.