Мichael Kozlowski’s Boxers in the International Boxing Tournament in Kazakhstan.

Posted on 29. May, 2011 by BoxingCoachMike in News

In Pavlodar City, Republic of Kazakhstan, was the 19th International Boxing Tournament “For Prizes of Serik Konakbaev.” This tournament represented more than 150 athletes from Hungary, Greece, Georgia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Syria, USA, Uzbekistan and many regions of Kazakhstan.

The USA Team consisted of Michael Kozlowski’s students, 2011 Daily News Golden Gloves Champions Juan Roman, Kamil Abdulshanov, Yegor Plevako and 2010 silver medalist of the International tournament “For Prizes of Serik Konakbaev” Jeremy Fiorentino.

On the first day of the competition, Kamil Abdulshanov (165 lb) fought. His opponent was from the Georgia Team, Niki Gvadjava. In the beginning of the first round, Kamil Abdulshanov received a standing 8 count from a powerful left hook from the Georgian boxer. Then Gvadjava landed a one-two combination to Abdulshanov’s guard and the referee stopped the fight.

The referee’s decision was a surprise not only to the American boxing Team.

The second representative of the New York ‘WIN or DIE’ Boxing Club to come in to the International ring in Kazakhstan, was the “Outstanding Boxer”of the 2011 New York Golden Gloves, Iegor Plevako (201+ lb). His opponent was a member of the Kazakhstan National Team, Kenge Musabaev.

After knocking the Kazakhstan boxer down in the second round, the referee stopped the fight and Yegor Plevako went to the quarters…

Jeremy Fiorentino (152 lb) fought the next day. The USA boxer had no problem in the first round against his opponent from Kazakhstan, Daniyar Baygelov. But Jeremy Fiorentino and his trainer Michael Kozlowski were very surprised to learn they were 5 points behind at the end of the first round. This destroyed Jeremy Fiorentino’s fight strategy and from the first seconds of the round, he fought toe to toe with his opponent and he fought the judges too! After a very good second round, the USA corner was shocked to find out the USA boxer was behind by 6 points!

The final score was 18:10. This score explained that the judges only cared about the boxer from Kazakhstan…

After watching the video of Jeremy Fiorentino’s fight you cannot see any differences between judges #1, #3, #5 and judges #2,#4…

After the first round, the score was 9 : 4

The judges decisions after the first round:

KAZ:	10	6	12	9	9
USA:	4	4	4	7	5

After the second round, the score on computer was: 15 : 9

The judges decisions were:

KAZ:	15	9	23	14	15
USA:	9	7	9	15	11

After looking at the scoring of the judges, you don’t have to be a boxing expert to understand the psychology of the American going into the third round, who did enough to make a close fight, but was still very behind according to the judges. Fiorentino’s trainer, Michael Kozlowski, is sure that it was the bad decisions of the three judges in the first and second rounds that interfered his student winning the fight!

After the controversial decision of Jeremy Fiorentino, his team-mate, Juan Roman (114 lb), came in to the ring trying to knock out his opponent from Kazakhstan. The 2011 USA National Golden Gloves Bronze medalist spent three rounds trying to catch his opponent and lost by decision.

In the quarter final, Yegor Plevako faced one of the best super heavy weights of Razakhstan in the last ten years, Rustam Rigebaev. Again, after the Fiorentino decisions, Yegor Plkevako understood that he had to stop his favored opponent. In this very stressful situation, Yegor started very aggressively style until he took a strong right hand from the national team member of Kazakhstan. Referee gave him a standing 8 count… Yegor showed his warrior character and continued to fight for a victory. But, the bigger experience level of his opponent allowed him to keep his score the same as in first round when he hurt Yegor…..

Michael Kozlowski, is the first trainer from Russia to produce Golden Gloves Champions in the USA and was one of the stars of the tournament and received awards in the 178 lb medalists ceremony.

International boxing tournament in Kazakhstan was very good experience for Juan Roman and Jeremy Fiorentino before upcoming in June 2011 USA National Championships in Colorado Springs.