Apparently he did, won some medals at some Asian tournaments, made it to the 2004 Olympics, says he broke a hand in a fight he won but lost the next one mainly because of that, whether that's true or its the broken hand excuse, I have no idea.

I just tend to assume guys from places like Kazakhstan have long amateur careers, I guess some might not.

There's a Q&A with him on fightnews, talks about that and other stuff.