A student of Boxing Trainer Michael ‘Coach Mike’ Kozlowski, Yuri Foreman, long before Golovkin, Kovalev, Lomachenko, Bivol and Usyk, with the same Russian Boxing Style, became a professional World Champion!

Posted on 23. Dec, 2019 by BoxingCoachMike in News

Only with Russian Boxing Style and unique Russian Boxing Technique long before Golovkin, Kovalev, Lomachenko, Bivol and Usyk much less talented and with much less experience than representatives of the same russian boxing style, Yuri Foreman was one of the very first who flew to America without any national teams. He became one of the best amateur boxers in the USA and, subsequently, the professional World Champion among in one of the most prestigious WBA versions!

In January 1999 The best Trainer of the Israeli Boxing Federation in 1998, Michael Kozlowski, begins to live and work in the New York, USA. After several months of his living in America, the trainer brought to New York his student, the multiple Champion of Israel, Yuri Foreman …

From the first day of Yuri Foreman living in the United States, he began to live in the apartment of his trainer who also had wife and two young daughters.

Yuri Foreman had a real chance to get to the 2000 Olympic Games, in Sydney but he had a criminal case in his hometown in Israel …

From the very first trainings in the famous Gleasons Gym, many local trainers and boxers laughed at the stance of Yuri Foreman, in which he held his fist out front high above, and his special footwork in the ring…

Later, when not one of the boxers in the gym, with the exception of Zab Judah, could win a sparring match with the Yuri (who many thought was Coach Mikes son)the laughter and negativity in relation to the boxer’s stance and his footwork on the shuttle subsided ..

Despite the fact that Yuri Foreman, at the expense of his footwork, could easily figure out the professionals he was sparring in the famous gym to defend their titles or for title fights, most American coaches told to Michael Kozlowski that his student moves a lot and will never be a professional boxer, because he will not be able to withstand 12 rounds at that pace!
But the coach did not change the style and stance of his student! True, his pupil worked very hard, both in the boxing gym and at home !!!
Adhering to the Russian Boxing Technique, boxing trainer Michael Kozlowski just prepared Yuri Foreman for a professional career and saw in him his first a professional World Champion!

In the 2000 New York Golden Gloves tournament (the oldest and most popular tournament in amateur boxing in the USA) Yuri Foreman was named “Boxer Of the Evening.” An article by the Daily News about Yuri Foreman said that he was boxing in a unique and incomprehensible stance: with his front arm held up high …

In the finals of the Golden Gloves 2000 Yuri Foreman lost to one of the best amateur boxers in the United States at that moment, Luis Collazo.
After winning the Golden Gloves tournament in New York, Luis Collazo went on to become a professional and Yuri Foreman flew to the USA National Golden Gloves Championship, which was held in Detroit as part of the New York Boxing Team!
At this famous amateur tournament in the boxing world, Yuri Foreman became the only representative of the New York boxing team to win a medal and became the first representative of the Russian to be awarded a bronze medal for third place !!!

Michael Kozlowski, as before, coached his student in the same Russian boxing system, with only a few additions to what he saw in the training methods for American boxers.
Years later, in the final of the 2001 New York Golden Gloves, Yuri Foreman confidently won the first number of the USA Leon Hinds!

After this victory, as a member of the New York boxing team, Yuri took part in the USA National Golden Gloves Championships and again, the only one from the whole New York Boxing Team returned home with the Bronze Medal!

This was the last performance of Yuri Foreman in the amateur ring and he turned professionals.

The debut of Yuri Foreman in the professional ring was to be held in Las Vegas at a show in which Zab Judah faced against Kostya Tszyu. The organization of the fight and all expenses were taken by one of the Greatest managers of our time in professional Boxing, Shelly Finkel! The fight did not take place, because Yuri Foreman had to go into the ring after Zab Judah and Kostya Tszyu but after the fight Zab attacked the judge and the show was stopped!

In January 2002, at the insistent request of Michael Kozlowski, the famous manager Shelly Finkel, without signing any long-term contracts, organized a professional debut for Yuri Foreman which Coach Mike’s student won by knockout!

The following fights Yuri Foreman spent under the patronage of one of the leading promoters in the Boxing World today, Lou DiBella.

Starting from the third professional fight, Yuri Foreman spent his battles on the most popular television channels at that time: ESPN 2 and HBO!
A few days later, after another victorious sixth fight, in which Yuri Forman played live on ESPN 2, he told his coach:
“Michael, the promoter told me that I should train with an American coach, because you don’t have a name in the boxing world and they won’t show me on television …”
It was the last friendly and working meeting of the coach and boxer …

Michael Kozlowski recalls:
“At the 1999 Amateur Boxing World Championships, in Houston, where my student, Yuri Foreman, represented Israel, I met with my old friend, whom we boxed, in the late 70s and early 80s, alone and the same rings, only in different weight categories, by the coach who raised the Best Boxer of the 1996 Olympic Games, Vassiliy Jirov, Alexander Apachinsky.
In one of our conversations, by the way, Yuri Foreman was standing next to me, I asked Alexander why he stopped working with Vassiliy, who continued his victorious way in the professional ring?
Alexander, who at that time was the Head Coach of the National Kazakhstan Boxing Team, told me that he had stopped training Vasily because he listened more to the advices of American coaches and his native coach was tired of explaining to his student that these “specialists” are very far from Boxing, which Vassiliy grew up and who can lead to the highest peaks in professional Boxing.
Misha(Michael’s Russian name), – Alexander continued, – you will see, a maximum of three years and what I have been laying in Vassiliy for years will end and he will be on the canvas!!!! ”
Alexander Apachinsky was right! It was three years later, when only the name was left from the Russian Boxing Technique of Vasily Zhirov, this happened !!! ”

From the first steps in the professional Boxing of Yuri Foreman his trainer Michael Kozlowski constantly said to his student: “Never change your amateur style, which helped you become a rising star in professional Boxing! Watch how, over the years, one of the best amateur boxer of the planet, Vassiliy Jirov , has degraded in a professional ring, because he lost everything that made him a professional boxer in the USA! He stopped working on his feet, stopped boxing as before and now survives in the ring, only due to experience and a strong chin!

The coach, who brought Yuri Forman to the professional ring, is sure that, thanks to a vivid example with Vasily Jirov, as well as due to the timely and prophetic statements of the real Jirov’s coach, Alexander Apachinsky, Yuri Foreman continued to use his technique and footwork, based on the Russian Boxing Style, even after he betrayed his mentor and coach and began to train with an American coaches!

Michael Kozlowski commented on the sharp decline in Yuri Forman after he won the Championship:
“Year after year, the technique of Yuri Foreman began to fail, because the American coaches, and I know firsthand, were very far from our Russian Boxing Technique and could not only bring something new, but also support what was laid in his student for years of hard training! There was no elementary progress and what supposed to happened was happened …
First there was a declassification from Cotto, which Yuri, if he had kept his Russian technique, should have easily beat, due to the his footwork, with one front hand and made it much more impressive than Austin Trout did …
And then Yuri Foreman was literally beaten by the Polish Boxer, with whom we had, over the years, trained in the same gym, but have never done any sparring with him because of the very low level of this boxer … ”