The training took place in the famed Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy best known in the sporting world for producing the Champion of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Lennox Lewis!

On Monday, April 30th, Mandy Bujold and her trainer, Rick Kadilha, travelled to Vancouver where the 2011 Pan-American Games Champion along with the Canadian female national team prepared for the Women’s World Boxing Championships. The tournament begins on May 9th and will be the final qualifying tournament for the three weight categories (51, 60 and 75kg) participating in the 2012 Olympic Games in London…

In between training sessions with Mandy Bujold, the Russian-American boxing trainer, Michael Kozlowski, shared his expertise with the many pupils of The Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy and shared in the rich international experience of the trainers who came from different Boxing Clubs in the Canadian province of Ontario to watch “Coach Mike” train…

On March 30 in Madison Square Garden, 21 yer-old, Yegor Plevako, won his second Golden Gloves super heavy weight crown!

Yegor Plevako, Ukrainian native now lives in Brooklyn and trains in legendary Gleason’s GYM by boxing trainer, Michael Kozlowski. It was last fight in Yegor Plevako’s amateur career!

When Jill Emery needed training, he gave it to her. When Yuri Foreman needed toughness, he supplied some. When Iegor Plevako needed a place to stay, he obliged.

Michael Kozlowski was born in Kazakhstan and raised during the reign of the former Soviet Union. He began boxing in his teens and in 1983, advanced to the quarter finals of the Kazakhstan National Championships. The bout was halted when the referee determined Kozlowski was unable to continue due to a significant cut over his eye. The youngster was stung by the loss, but knew his talents as a boxer were limited. Still, he felt a deep connection to the sport.

“Some kids were born to be champions,” he said. “I was number three or four, (but) never number one or two. (But) the coaches that trained those champions trained me too.”

Kozlowski soon found that his success in the sport would not come between the ropes, but from behind them. In Moscow, he diligently studied for a master’s degree in coaching, a requirement at the time in Soviet Russia. By 1991, the coach produced his first national champion, Sergey Grigoriev, at the age of 29. The feat remains one of his proudest career moments.

Soon after, the young coach’s career began to blossom. In 1995, he left the Soviet Union for Israel and was later selected to coach the Israeli national team. After developing several Israeli national champions, he decided to challenge himself with a move to America. Early in his U.S. experience, Kozlowski shared a one-bedroom apartment, with his wife, two daughters and aspiring boxer, Yuri Foreman.

The trainer’s first experience with the Daily News Golden Gloves came in 2000, when the fiery corner man helped drive 156-pound Jill Emery to a women’s gold and Foreman to a pair of silver Gloves in the 147-pound open final. Kozlowski’s early tutelage would be highly instrumental in Emery’s IFBA World Welterweight Title win in 2008 and Foreman’s WBA World light middleweight championship in 2009.

Though he’s tasted success as a professional, Kozlowski, like his idol Cus D’Amato, maintains an undying respect for the amateur level, where he has continued to produce champions.

“Real boxing is the amateurs in the Golden Gloves”, Kozlowski said. “This is the future.”

His latest prospect is Iegor Plevako, who in 20011 captured the super heavyweight open division at the Golden Gloves as well as the tournament’s best open fighter. Like Kozlowski, Plevako yearned for American success from native Ukraine. After journeying to the state in 2010, the super heavyweight met and decided on Kozlowski as his coach.

“I’ve been boxing since I was a kid,” Plevako said. “I see when trainers are good and when they’re bad (and) I really see it in Mike. He’s a real coach.”

In addition to their ring relationship, Plevako, like Yuri Foreman years ago, calls Kozlowski’s apartment home.

“A lot of coaches train you just to train,” Jeremy Fiorentino, another Kozlowski product said. “But, he loves me. When I lost in the 2010 Golden Gloves, he was the one who called me to go to Kazakhstan to fight. Not everyone would just take me like that. There’s love in the relationship.”

Throughout his boxing career, Michael Kozlowski has orchestrated the building of champions inside and out of the ring. His success has been measured, not by the hardware of his students, but by the men and women they’ve become.

Kozlowski’s life and boxing philosophy is embodied by the name of his gym: Win or Die. As the trainer sees it, if you can’t strive to win at life, why bother living?

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I tried to move my body, mix my punches and attack,” Plevako said.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Elijah Thomas (Willis Ave BC), who earned a comfortable 5-0 victory over Samar Bowe (Gleason’s Gym), will be Plevako’s opponent. Thomas’ run toward a second Gloves title was halted last year, when Plevako stopped him in the final’s second round.

“I need to work harder and redeem myself from last year,” Thomas said. “I respect Iegor, (but) I want to go in and avenge (the loss).”

Adress:

The THEATER at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
7th Ave. at 32nd Street, New York City

You can purchase tickets online here at TicketMaster

Unfortunately, it was déjà vu for Roberto Morban (Fort Apache BC) when he and Iegor Plevako (Win or Die BC) bumped heads in the quarterfinals in Brooklyn. Morban, the 2010 Gloves champion, was dethroned in the 2011 quarterfinal by Plevako, who later replaced Morban as the super heavyweight king. Trying to return the favor on Friday, Morban had no answers for Plevako, who won by a 5-0 decision.

“Morban is good,” said Plevako, the P.C. Richard & Son Boxer of the Night. “He’s a great boxer (and) I respect him very much. But I’m better.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Outstanding Boxer of Daily News Golden Gloves 2011, the Super-Heavyweight, Yegor Plevako, begins the preparation for a boxing marathon of 2012…

The boxing career of Campbell is a good example for beginning boxers, who dream of becoming champions! In his first joint training with the Russian-American trainer, Michael Kozlovski, in New York City, Campbell admitted that he lost six fights out of ten fights when he first started boxing, but he continued to believe in himself and his Olympic dream…

Luke Campbell, representating the English national team, qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games at the World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Good luck Luke in the Olympic Games in London!!!

Luke Campbell ( in the center ) with Michael Kozlowski"s students in the Gleasons GYM

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European Champion Luke Campbell training in New York City, again…

“Hi Yury!” Kozlowski quickly replied, “Of course I remember you! Even after all these years and the thousands of fighters I’ve trained since then, I will never forget you coming to the gym every day in the same white and blue t-shirt and how I used to tease you about your large ears…”
“Coach Mike, I haven’t changed a bit. My ears are still the same, but I finally grew into them. I am now the same height as you! Coach Michael, I will always have good memories of you. You do not know how much you have done for me! I am at the airport waiting for a flight and I was thinking of you, so I decided to look you up on the Internet. I couldn’t believe how much information I found! So I got your number from your website and decided to call you right away… How are you, my trainer?!”

- “Yury, I am doing very well!” “How are you? How old are you now?”

- “Coach, in August I will be 32…”

- “Yury, on August 6th there will be a big anniversary, because I’m turning 50! But first, in June I’m taking two of my fighters to Colorado Springs for the USA Boxing National Championships where they will fight to qualify for the Olympic Trials…”
On August 6th, Yury Belskiy, the former student of now American trainer Michael Kozlowski came to Brooklyn’s Gleason’s Gym directly from JFK airport to meet his former trainer on his 50th birthday. He trained with current prospect Jeremy Fiorentino in preparation for his upcoming fight in a local boxing tournament …When Yury entered the gym, his former trainer instantly recognized his familiar face and, as the matured student approached him, he remembered that day back in 1988 when the young boy Yury Belskiy first time came to train in the Kolomna (Moscow region) gym.

Former Russian student, Yury Belskiy, and current American student Jeremy Fiorentino with their trainer Michael Kozlowski in New York City.

Once they got back to Coach Mike’s home, Yury presented a photo signed with congratulatory and birthday wishes from WBO European and IBO Inter-Continental Welterweight champion Roman Seliverstov, another former student of Michael Kozlowski’s. Roman Seliverstov currently works with another one of Michael Kozlowski’s students from Russia, the former Russian National Champion, Sergey Grigoriev. Currently, they are both trainers in the same gym where Michael Kozlowski once trained them…
This landmark anniversary day was filled with phone calls and e-mails from former students from many different countries around the world, some champions and some not. Michael Kozlowski was very happy on his 50th Birthday!

1991. Russia. Boxing trainer Michael Kozlowski with his students. In the second row fifth from the right, sits Yury Belskiy in light grey color sweater covering

A day before flying home to Russia, Yury Belskiy attended The 6th Annual Long Island Amateur Boxing Championships Tournament to support the American Champion Jeremy Fiorentino who confidently won his semifinal fight.

Yury Belskiy and Jeremy Fiorentino after winning the semifinals.

A week after Yury Belskiy returned to Russia, Jeremy Fiorentino, went on to win his first tournament after being defeated in the quarterfinals of the USA Boxing National Championships in June, 2011.

Coach Mike and his champion, Jeremy Fiorentino.

It was “Last chance” for any boxer of the United States of America go to the Olympic Team Trials.

Two weeks before the Last Chance tournament, Juan Roman and Jeremy Fiorentino fought in the 2011 National boxing championships in Colorado Springs, where all medalists advance to the U.S. Olympic Trials at the end of July in Alabama.

February 2011 in Lake Placid, Juan Roman and Jeremy Fiorentino won regional boxing tournament

In the USA National Championships in Colorado Springs, Juan Roman was ahead by one point before the last round against the young, talented Emilio Sanchez from California, but then Juan lost a surprising 42:36 decision… It was the biggest score from the all fights of the 2011 boxing National! To win this fight, Juan Roman only missing experience at this level of competition…Emilio Sanchez went to the semifinals and got a ticket to Alabama…

Michael Kozlowski’s other boxer, Jeremi Fiorentino, easily won his first fight in Colorado against the representative of Wasington State, Isaak Tadeo, with a score of 16 : 9. But in the quarterfinals, where the winner gets a ticket to the US Olympic Trials in Alabama, trainer Michael Kozlowski’s worst fear came true. Three weeks before the competition in Colorado, after completing the trainer’s special physical and speed test, the recovery of Jeremy Fiorentino was two times slower than it was supposed to be!

At that time, trainer Michael Kozlowski said to his student, “Jeremy, it will be very upsetting if you lose a close fight in the Nationals only because of your poor conditioning, laziness, and lack of self-discipline…”

In the 2011 USA National Championships in Colorado, Jeremy Fiorentino lost a very close fight to Luis Olivares from Arizona because he was tired in third round! The score was 19:15…

And at the Last Chance Qualifier tournament in Cincinnati, Jeremy Fiorentino lost in the third fight of the tournament against Amir Imam, even though he was ahead in the first round by 7:4. Once again, not enough conditioning for the three rounds resulting in another loss from a very close fight with the score 24 : 19… Amir Imam easily won three more fights and got a ticket to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Alabama!

Juan Roman lost in the Last Chance Qualifier against the more experienced Ernesto Degadillo from Texas. The judges score was only 3:2, because computer in this fight was broken.

Trainer Michael Kozlowski and his 25 year old student, Juan Roman, who impressively won the 2011 New York Golden Gloves and the Bronze medal in the 2011 National Golden Gloves have decided to turn pro after only one and a half years in boxing!