Richard Bolotnik | Photo: Reuters/Andrew Couldridge/Scanpix
The outcome of the fight of Latvian boxer Richard Bolotniks on Saturday in the Mexican city of Guadalajara was largely decided by one blow of the representative of Ukraine, Oleksandr Gvozdik, with which the Latvian boxer’s eyebrow was cut, Bolotniks revealed in a conversation with the news agency LETA.
It has already been reported that on Saturday in Mexico, Bolotnik lost to Gvozdik by technical knockout in the sixth round in the weight category up to 79.4 kilograms. “Gvozdik injured my left eyebrow in the sixth round after hitting me with a right hand. Blood started to flow from the wound into my eye, and I could not understand what was happening in the ring, because I could not see much,” says the Latvian boxer about the details of the fight.
He says that after the eyebrow was bandaged, the Ukrainian began to attack and gave Bolotnik several blows, but at least at that time they would not have allowed the opponent to win by knockout, if not for the injury. “I didn’t get dizzy or otherwise sick after Gvozdik’s blows. I controlled everything and heard how the trainer shouted to squat in the ring with one leg,” says Bolotnik about the end of the fight. “It turned out that one blow decided everything. God thinks that Gvozdik needed more victories.”
He stood up after the fight was stopped and was ready to continue the fight, but the judges decided not to call the doctor in the ring, considering that his decision is not necessary to decide whether the Latvian boxer can continue the fight. “I think the Ukrainian won the first round, but from the second to the fourth round I was better. I don’t really remember the fifth. I think I was ahead by points until the sixth round,” Bolotniks evaluates the fight.
Before the fight, the goal of the Latvian boxer was to win. It was noted that Gvozdyk hadn’t been in the ring in over three years and that he might struggle because “his style is all about moving in the ring and a lot of punches.” With this style of boxing, you have to have a lot of endurance, but the Ukrainian is already 36 years old.
Bolotnik fought at the event, which saw host Saul Alvarez defeat British boxer John Ryder and defend his world titles in five boxing organizations. “For Gvozdyk, the fight was almost like a home game, because he is in Alvarez’s team. That’s why I thought that I wouldn’t be given the victory by points, and the task was to win by knockout,” the boxer reveals.
Bolotnik says that the first round went more calmly, but after that he began to attack more and more, and “in the fourth and fifth rounds, Gvozdik already started to throw more punches.” “I think that if it wasn’t for my eyebrow, I would have won,” says Bolotnik about the possible outcome of the fight, revealing that he and trainer Dmitry Shiholai wanted a 12-round fight, but the opponents agreed to only ten rounds.
“I was in the best shape of my life. When the fourth of the scheduled ten rounds ended and I sat down in my corner, I didn’t feel that I had boxed four rounds,” says the Latvian boxer who is Jesus’ age. He says that a year without fights has not reduced his ability, because during that time three good training camps with good sparring partners have been held, preparing for this and two canceled fights.
Bolotnik does not feel like a loser, because the outcome of the fight was not determined by the athletic superiority of any boxer, but he would like to hold the next fight in August or September. The 33-year-old Latvian boxer has won 19 out of 27 fights during his career, eight of them ended with a knockout, and one fight ended in a draw. The 36-year-old Gvozdik has fought 20 fights in professional boxing, winning 19 of them, 15 of them by knockout.
