Ukrainian Boxer Egor Plevako Spent His Summer Vacation in New York City

Posted on 09. Sep, 2010 by BoxingCoachMike in News

On September 1st, 2010 Ukraine boxer IEGOR PLEVAKO came to Gleason’s Gym for his last workout before returning home.

Three months of summer passed for Egor like one day!

In the beginning of the summer, the young, heavyweight fighter came to train with me in Gleason’s Gym for the first time. He introduced himself by saying, “My name is IEGOR PLEVAKO, I’m 19 years old, I’m from Ukraine, and I’m the bronze medalist of the 2008 Under-19 World Championship in Mexico. I came to New York to check out my future opponents for when I become a professional boxer.

To check the skills of my new student, I made him spar with my fighter, former 2004 Junior Olympic and 2005 under-19 USA National Champion, Sasha Mamoshuk. Egor had terrible footwork and defense, also his punches weren’t as strong as they could be, because he didn’t have the technique to use his bodyweight to make his punches more powerful.
I could tell that he was not ready to go in the ring with the heavyweight Americans boxers.

Egor kept pushing me to let him spar once more. Finally, I told him, “You can go to any coach and do what you want, but if you really want to get something from your visit in the USA, you have to listen to me and do what I say. Only work on your technique for a minimum of one month! I don’t want you to get destroyed in your first fight in America…”. Egor said, “You are my coach and I will do whatever you say!”

We worked very hard and after couple weeks he sparred against some heavyweight boxer from Gleasons…

It was not perfect, but at least Egor started to understand that he must work harder on his technique.

After Egor’s first sparring session against an American heavyweight, the Ukrainian prospect asked me to arrange more sparring. I told him that his next sparring will be against the professional heavyweight prospect and former USA National GOLDEN GLOVES Champion, Tor Hamer. But first, we had to work more on his technique and physical conditioning.

Three weeks later, Egor Plevako stepped in the ring against professional heavyweight prospect, Tor Hamer. In the first round, the young boxer from Ukraine was a little nervous, but in the second and third, Egor was more confident in the ring. He was a little faster than Tor Hamer by his movements in the ring…

A week later, I asked my fighter: “Do you know Taurus Sykes?” “I know him,” he answered, “He fought Alexander Povetkin… “Are you sure you want to spar Taurus Sykes?” I asked again. “I will spar with anyone you pick!” answered the young man.

In my opinion, Egor’s sparring with Taurus Sykes was his best session.

Sparring with professional boxers in Gleasons Gym gave my young prospect more confidence for his future fights!

Before returning to the Ukraine, Egor Plevako told me that, in the three month period that he trained with me, he developed more than in the last two years he trained in the Ukraine…