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The title fight was the pinnacle and the Bulgarian boxer is heading inexorably towards the end of his career.
On the night of Saturday, December 12, 1,000 people in the stands of Wembley Arena and millions in front of the screens watched the hard defeat of Kubrat Pulev. The Bulgarian world title contender in the professional boxing heavyweight category was totally outmatched and brutally knocked out by champion Anthony Joshua.
It happens to everyone, to Pulev for the second time, and to Joshua himself only 18 months ago, when he was overthrown by the Mexican from California Andy Ruiz. The question after such bouts is whether the fallen man has the strength and ability to return to the great game of professional boxing. With Kubrat, this seems completely impossible.
When he chose to turn professional after losing in the first match of the Beijing Olympics ’08 (5:11 points from Colombian Oscar Rivas), he was already 28 years old, an age at which many have already achieved great success in the profile. . Pulev entered this world as European champion (2008) and bronze medalist in the World and European Amateur Championships. And he accomplished something that few professionals have accomplished: he played twice for a world title, he was a total of three contenders (in 2018 he was injured before the match with Joshua), he won 4 championship belts from various boxing organizations.
The problem, however, is that
Pulev stayed in place in its development,
purely as a technical arsenal of the ring. At first, when he was still in his prime, this was not a problem. He defeated rivals such as the Russian Alexander Ustinov and the Ukrainian with a German passport Alexander Dimitrenko. And in 5 years he achieved 20 victories without losing a single one. With this asset, he entered the fight for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title with Vladimir Klitschko. We know how it all ended: a heavy knockout and … “Let’s move on!”
Then this comment from Pulev was accepted with skepticism, but he managed to reach a second such match. Taking a completely different approach, he first changed his coach and then his management agency. His team chose to select the rivals so that they are not an obstacle, but also contribute to Kubrat’s promotion in the rankings and to the challenging place.
Therefore, until the match with Joshua Pulev, he would only fight in 9 games in 6 years, not enough to keep up the game practice. And the rivals were “better” than the other: from the Brazilian Jorge Arias (then 42-year-old midfielder at the end of his career), to the American Maurice Harris (in a series of 6 defeats in the last 8 games) and the Nigerian Samuel Peter (coming back is in boxing after a 2-year hiatus), and the last two: the Romanian Bogdan Dinu and the American Rydell Booker, who are not even in the Top 15 of the ranking. The only more serious obstacles were Britons Derek Chisora and Huey Fury, against whom Kubrat won strongly on points after 12 full rounds.
Although with mandatory contender status, against Joshua
Pulev seemed completely helpless, ideologically helpless
His votes (“I took my lessons. I had no experience then, I was green”) after Klitschko’s knockout showed no effect. In the ring at Wembley Arena there was a boxer who had no tactics against the younger Joshua (8 years), taller and obviously healthier. A basic rule of thumb in boxing is that since you are shorter than the opponent, you must either be faster or shorten the distance and push it, that is. be at a convenient distance for you. Kubrat didn’t do any of that, he took single shots to the left, but didn’t double them up so he could get close to Joshua. And the Brit often just came back with a right hand to the head.
Pulev’s behavior was strange during the opponent’s strong uppercuts: he stayed in place and took hit after hit, rather than after the first or to enter a trade and possibly a clinch, or to fold, or to deflect into a side.
So the statistics are totally in favor of the champion. Joshua threw a total of 310 punches, 116 of which turned into punches. He placed the most in III (27 of 62 attempts) and IX (25 of 41) rounds. Pulev tried 217 times, but hit just 41, with a single-digit number of hits in each round (most in Round VI: 8 of 44).
As for turning his back after Joshua’s cannonball in the third round, this is one of the most embarrassing things a boxer, especially a professional, can show, and it deservedly received criticism from Western experts.
His own manager, the legendary Bob Aram, did not forgive him. “Pulev couldn’t do anything with Joshua. Just a few good hits, but that’s it. He did the best he could, but it wasn’t good enough,” the 89-year-old American said.
Some Bulgarian specialists did not forgive him either. They noted the fact that there is absolutely no improvement in his game from the time he was a fan and won the Strandzha tournament. Former national team coach Palmi Ranchev stated directly that Pulev has been taught the Russian amateur style since the 1970s and that is how he plays.
“In amateur boxing it’s like this: keep your distance and with straight left and right. In professional boxing you can’t keep your opponent 12 rounds at range. He played with old Russian weapons against the modern weaponry of a complex boxer like Joshua.” said the boxer writer.
And our former heavyweight star Svilen Rusinov, 1993 European Champion, silver medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1991 and 1993 World Championships, was even more critical.
“The truth is that he made a lot of mistakes.
He had no strength, he had no power, he was cowardly
– in the sense that he did not dare to attack. Maybe so that what happened in the ninth round doesn’t happen. You can’t prepare for such a match with hikes to Zabcheto (the peak above the sports base in Belmeken, where part of the training took place) and a 10km run, Rusinov said. – He didn’t see much desire to win, and this was the last chance for him, this was the game of his life. It is best after this fight to consider whether you should continue boxing. He received quite severe blows from Klitschko and Joshua, which are detrimental to his health. “
With his last words, Rusinov opened the topic for the end of Pulev’s career. Is it really coming?
Kubrat is 39, turning 40 in May, and is still talking about boxing in the future. Even two days after the loss, he said that if Joshua was a man on the spot, he would give him a rematch, and then it became clear that Huey Fury was ready to fight again. As for the rematch, it was not written in the contract for the match and Joshua has no obligations in this regard. And a meeting with the young nephew of Tyson Fury (26 years old), who has just made his way (on the same gala night he achieved his 25th victory, over the Polish Mariusz Wach) and is still looking for rivals to climb the classification, it seems quite desirable.
The truth is that Pulev no longer has the opportunity to return to reach a fight for the world title. Even if coaches still provide him with relatively easy opponents for his 40s, such a breakthrough in the contender’s place would take several more years, and age will speak for itself more and more. It’s fantastic to talk about the title – the only two over 40 to become heavyweight champions are George Foreman (46 years and 5 months) and Vitali Klitschko (42 years and 2 months), and Pulev cannot be compared. with them either way.
Yes, he has passed the peak of his career. From now on, he can play more games, but they will not be for any championship belt. So even if Joshua’s heavy knockout wasn’t the immediate end of Pulev’s boxing career, it marked the beginning of his decline. And the sunset, as we know, is an irreversible phenomenon …
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