Boxing Article: Sergei Liakhovich

by Kevin Iole

Click for larger image © Mary Ann Owen/For Showtime Boxing

Everybody, whether 8 or 80, seems to remember a time when there was only one champion per division and all of the champions took on the toughest challengers all the time, even though such times never existed.

Sergei Liakhovich is one of modern boxing’s many anonymous champions, a heavyweight so lightly regarded he attracted exactly one television camera person (the reporter couldn’t bother to show up), one newspaper reporter (yours truly), three Internet reporters and, stunningly, no hangers on to an open workout Wednesday at the Top Rank Gym.

Liakhovich walked into the gym by himself, taped his hands by himself and climbed into the ring by himself, as pretty much everyone in the room was amazed at, well, how normal he seemed.

He isn’t sharp-tongued like Hasim Rahman or introspective like Chris Byrd or outrageous like James Toney.

But Sergei Liakhovich, in his own serious, low-key way, managed to charm the few who bothered to accept the Showtime invitation to see him work out prior to his Nov. 4 WBO title defense in Phoenix against Shannon Briggs.

Liakhovich was born in Belarus, which is not noted as a hotbed of, well, any sports that Americans care much about.

Its boxing history pretty much seems to begin and end with Liakhovich, who has lived in Phoenix for seven years.

Liakhovich was born in the Soviet Union and was 15 when it dissolved on Christmas Day in 1991.

He’s often silent and stoic in public — only because, he confided to Showtime public relations whiz Ivy Moon, he’s concerned his English isn’t good — and he’s frequently regarded by those who even know who he is as one of the stereotypical ex-Soviet athletes.

That, however, is hardly the person Liakhovich showed himself to be Wednesday.

A guy good enough to beat Lamon Brewster convincingly in April in one of the better heavyweight matches in recently memory, Liakhovich is the kind of guy you wouldn’t mind sitting with at the corner bar, throwing back beers and debating the world.

If you think you know him, then answer this:

Who are a few of his favorite boxers?

Hint: None was born later than 1927 and two were born prior to the start of World War I.

“He’s a complete fighter,” he said of one on the list. “He had a full arsenal of punches and great power. He was a great fighter.”

He beamed as he said the name — Rocky Marciano, a guy who was dead seven years before he was born. And a guy who reigned at the peak of the Cold War, a world away from the cloistered country where Liakhovich was raised.

But Liakhovich said he loved boxing as a child and made a point to read about the men who made the game what it is today.

In addition to Marciano, he said he grew to admire Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, Carmen Basilio and the great Sugar Ray Robinson.

“I always loved boxing,” he said, grinning. “When you love something, you want to know more about it. And so I read and found out more.”

He’s one of four heavyweight title-holders from the former Soviet Union and, though he’s too polite to say it, is tired of the steady stream of questions about why that is.

Briggs, who has somehow maneuvered himself into position for a title shot despite not beating as much as one credible fighter since he won a gift majority decision from 47-year-old George Foreman in 1997, is the latest American hope.

Liakhovich, though, doesn’t understand the fuss.

And it’s hard to imagine too many Americans rooting against this guy.

“I don’t get into the ring and look across and see color or a nationality, I see a guy who’s there trying to take my head off,” Liakhovich said. “You start thinking of that other stuff, you’re making a mistake and you wind up (losing).”

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E-Mail Kevin Iole at keviniole2@cox.net