The strange return of Gvozdyk, the first defeat of Vychrist. What you need to know about the battles of Ukrainians on February 11

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, two well-known Ukrainian boxers – former light heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk and promising heavyweight Viktor Vykhryst – had their fights. For Gvozdyk, the fight was the first since 2019, Vykhryst received the first defeat in his professional career. We analyze the fights Gvozdyk – Obando and Vykhryst – Perot, assessing their consequences for the Ukrainians.

Ambiguous fight Gvozdika

Let’s talk right away. The return of the Ukrainian seems strange, given the merits and regalia of Alexander, as well as the level of his opposition in all (!) Previous fights in the professional ring.

See also: Gvozdyk won the first fight after returning to boxing

First, the quality of the opponent. Until Saturday evening, Alexander had never fought a fighter with a negative record in his pro career. The worst records of Alexander’s 18 previous opponents were Lamont Williams (5-5-1) and Michael Gbeng (20-20) in Gvozdyk’s third and sixth pro fights. It should be noted that the first fight with the Ukrainian Mbenga had a record of 19-12 – in a year between fights, the Ghanaian had eight fights, a unique case.

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Moreover, Gvozdyk was originally supposed to fight the Argentinean Jorge Miranda on February 11, but almost the day before the fight, the Ukrainian was replaced by an opponent. Why this happened is unknown. In any case, there was no public explanation for such a decision. It is clear that in such a situation there was not much choice, but the Mexican Josue Obando is the most strange option. He not only spent most of his fights at super middleweight, lost his last six fights, but also had a negative record: 20 wins, 35 losses and two draws.

Secondly, oddities with the category. Again, Obando is a super middleweight. But before the fight with Gvozdik, the Mexican showed 86.862 kg on the scales (super middleweight limit – 76.2 kg). But here you can still explain this by the fact that Josué did not prepare specifically for this date and for this fight and was just an emergency option. But the fact is that Gvozdyk also showed 83.87 kg at the weigh-in, which is 4.5 kilograms more than the light heavyweight limit. We don’t know for sure whether Alexander was preparing to return in light heavyweight (perhaps his body is able to “drive” a couple of kilograms a day), or everything became clear with the category after the failure of the option with Miranda.

Third, show level. Yes, Gvozdyk had his first fight after a long downtime. Yes, he has no promoters now, especially not as powerful as Top Rank used to be. But still, the boxing evening, to put it mildly, did not correspond to the level of the Ukrainian in all scenarios. Not a single fight over six rounds, only two fighters who had more than 20 pro fights (both with negative records), a strange arena, etc…

Gvozdyk won by decision of the judges, failing to stop his opponent. And, perhaps, the motivation and the fight itself were best described by the Ukrainian himself before the fight. “Keeping myself in shape, visiting the gym, sparring from time to time, I realized that I became “hungry” again. So why not try to come back? Let’s see what happens. I am motivated and ready to go into battle. I believe that raising the flag of Ukraine in any corner of the world is, of course, an additional motivation for my people. And, you understand, in these difficult times, this is one of the weighty reasons for my decision to return, ”said Alexander. These tasks, as well as winning, he completed. What will happen next – we’ll see.

Vykhrista slowed down

Saturday’s bout could be much more important for another Ukrainian boxer, heavyweight Viktor Vykhryst. The Ukrainian in the USA lost ahead of schedule to the Cuban prospect Lennier Pero, having received the first defeat in his career. The failure is even more offensive, given the fact that at the time the fight was stopped, the Ukrainian was leading on points and had every chance of winning the first belt in his career – WBA Fedelatin, owned by Pero.

The fact that the Cuban is so far the most dangerous and most serious opponent in Vykhrist’s career, we wrote before the fight. Let’s just repeat a couple of things that made the Cuban the favorite of the confrontation: an excellent amateur career (victories over the great Cuban boxers), a competent coach (Bob Santos claimed the title of coach of 2022), competent management and a good school.

It makes no sense to describe the vicissitudes of the duel. Yes, Perot’s dirty low blow in the sixth round may have had an effect. Perhaps the referee stopped the fight too early, and Victor would have come to his senses. But the result of the duel does not cancel it.

A win over Pero would put Vychrist into the top 25 heavyweights in the world. Defeat – left somewhere in the top ten, plus seriously shaken the future prospects. More precisely, the speed of achieving the goals. So, for example, it happened with the once also considered promising Ukrainian heavyweight Alexei Mazykin, who, after losing at that time to another of our prospects, Taras Bidenko (it was rumored that two undefeated Ukrainians were specially brought together in one duel in 2006, in order to determine who place a bet in the future), and could not reach the top level.

No, Vykhrist surpasses the mentioned boxers both in talent and experience. One loss plus or minus the early stage of his career and in heavyweight is not a sentence, however, we repeat: the Ukrainian at least lost his chance and time. Unless, of course, the promoters agree on a rematch with Perot. Which, frankly, I don’t believe. It is unlikely that the Cuban’s team needs it, and it is doubtful that the Ukrainian will want it right now.