Interview Dated 2004

Sergei"White Wolf"

Siarhei Liakhovich is a long way from home. The native of the former Soviet republic of Belarus lives near Phoenix, but is training in Houston for what is arguably the biggest fight of his pro career. On December 3rd he faces Dominick Guinn in Atlantic City. I spoke with him after a recent workout at the Galena Park Boxing Academy.

HBS - Tell us a little bit about Belarus.

SL - My country is beautiful. Many woods, lakes and winter, yes, it's cold but summer, very nice.

HBS - How did you first become interested in boxing?

SL - My father. Before I was doing three years of freestyle wrestling and my father had done a little bit of boxing so he told me, "Why not try it?", so I told him, "Why not?" So I trained a little bit, I liked it.

HBS - What did you enjoy about boxing in particular?

SL - It's man business. Many people don't understand what fighters do before they come to the ring. There's lots and lots of hard work and what I like, it's the feeling when you've won against great fighters, when you beat great fighters.

HBS - You went to the Olympics?

SL - I had a pretty good amateur career. I had a bronze medal in the World Championships in 1997. I fought in the Olympic Games. I lost to Paev Wolfgram by one point, 10-9. He won the silver medal. He lost to Klitschko in the final.

HBS - How did you end up in the U.S. and how long have you been here?

SL - I've been here almost five years. I met my manager a while ago at the Olympic games. He watched my fights, he told me how about trying professional. I told him "Why not?". So after 1996 I've been in the amateurs two more years. I turned pro and in Belarus I had two fights and one fight in Russia in St. Petersburg and after that I came to the United States.

HBS - So you live near Phoenix, how do you like it?

SL - I love Phoenix, especially Scottsdale. It's a beautiful life and beautiful weather and nice people.

HBS - Tell us about the differences in the styles of boxing, the United States as opposed to your part of the world.

SL - European and Soviet school, it's a little bit different. We fight all the time in the amateurs and the rules are a so different and that's why boxers from Europe almost stay straight. We use our legs more.

HBS - Did you have any trouble adjusting to the American style or did you have to make any changes?

SL - Not many changes but especially my trainer Kenny Weldon has corrected me on some things. We work on some little things. Now I use more body movements, different movements, especially for more rounds you need to be more relaxed and explosive.

HBS - You lost one fight as a pro. What happened there?

SL - I'm not taking any credit from Maurice Harris. He did a pretty good job with me, he boxed me. I'm not looking for excuse in this fight but it depends how you take it, what you do after it, what you change, it's a good learning session for me.

HBS - What was the biggest lesson you learned from that fight?

SL - He's a pretty good boxer, he came to the ring, at that moment, I needed to change my strategy but I just did the same thing I always did.

HBS - Tell me what you know about Dominick Guinn.

SL - I sparred him one time a long time ago, four years ago as an amateur, I had one bad hand. He didn't show me nothing. He's a good fighter, I'm not taking anything from him but he's one fight for me and after this fight I'm looking for somebody in the top ten.

HBS - The Klitschko brothers have done well. They're from your part of the world. Is that encouraging to you?

SL - I'm not looking to the Klitschko's or some other fighters from Russia. I'm doing what I'm doing and I'm looking for my career and my future.

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W.B.O. Heavyweight Champion Sergei "White Wolf" Liakhovich

Sergei Liakhovich is enjoying the peak of his career, having ascended to the World Boxing Association Heavyweight title with his recent victory of Lamon Brewster last April in Cleveland, Ohio. The 30-year-old native of the former Soviet Republic of Belarus now lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is trained by Kenny Weldon of the Galena Park Boxing Academy. He is preparing for his first title defense, against the veteran Shannon Briggs on November 4th in Phoenix. I spoke with him at the recent Top Rank Boxing event in Pasadena.


HBS - Let's talk about the Brewster fight and how it went the first couple of rounds.

SL - Actually it's pretty good. Here's what happened. I confused this guy in the press conference. So they don't know what to expect from me. So it was a very good fight.

HBS - When you say you confused him, what do you mean by that?

SL - They don't know what to expect from me.

HBS - Tell us about your strategy in the fight.

SL - I know he was very good with the inside left hook and he will try to use it but I don't give him the chance for this so I use my jab, stay away from his left hook, move to my right and every time he would try to do something I take my jab and move back and side to side step so he was confused.

HBS - Then you took a knee in the seventh round. What happened there?

SL - We worked before with Kenny Weldon, we know he is going to raise me up, push me to the ropes and he try to catch me. I took pretty good shots nd after he totally raised me up and it's nothing bad by I took a few pretty good shots so after I felt my back straight up so I decided to take a knee. I needed time to recover.

HBS - Were you worried at that point at all and how did you go from there?

SL - Actually no, I'm not worried about this. I know after this knockdown I know the fight will be much closer but you know like I told you before I needed time to recover so this is what I did and after I came back and start doing my things.

HBS - You kept the same strategy, using your jab and moving side to side, you pretty much stuck to that throughout the whole fight?

SL - Some moments of that fight, you need to understand, my corner, I have a great corner. Kenny Weldon is a great teacher and a great cornerman and he told me stick your jab, move, don't stand toe to toe with this guy, but some moments in this fight, actually I felt this guy was a little bit confused. He don't outbox me. He don't outslug me. So basically I beat him at his own game.

HBS - So then at the end it has to be a pretty good feeling when you hear the decision and you're the winner, hHeavyweight Champion of the World.

SL - It was great. They raise my hands up and man, it's just amazing.

HBS - So your life's a little bit different now when you're heavyweight champion of the world. People treat you a little bit differently.

SL - I'm never change. I'm still the same Sergei but actually it's nice, it's very nice. People recognize me and I have right now lot's of attention.

HBS - So now this Briggs fight. How are you preparing for him?

SL - I will be prepared for him. This guy, he has a big mouth. He don't understand who gave him this opportunity. He don't appreciate it but believe me on November 4th I will give him a real good lesson.

HBS - You say he has a big mouth. What has he said that has made you angry?

SL - Not made me angry. First of all, he tried to disrespect me. He don't disrespect me. He disrespect himself and everybody right now know who he is, the reality. He's up talking about how big and how strong he his, how he'll knock me out. We'll see. Bring him in, you know? So November 4th I will give him nightmares. Nightmares on November 4th.

HBS - Again he is a really strong fighter and so what do you see as his strengths that you're going to have to work around and how will you do that?

SL - I don't want to talk about this. Everybody will see on November 4th but I will be prepared. I am training right now totally different and we have a good strategy and I need to just come to the ring and use it.

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July 2005 Siarhei Liakhovich

Siarhei Liakhovich knows what it's like to see a mirage. After having been promised, and beginning to train for a title shot this summer with I.B.F Heavyweight Champion Chris Byrd, Byrd has now pulled out of the fight. The 29-year-old native of the former Soviet republic of Belarus is the # 7 ranked I.B.F. Contender. He is now preparing to fight # 7 W.B.C. contender Owen Beck on August 13th in Chicago. What follows is an interview conducted in two parts: First as he was preparing to fight Byrd, and subsequently after hearing that he would now be fighting Beck.

HBS - You just finished your first workout here with Felix Cora in quite a while. Tell us a little bit about how you feel and what you did today.

 SL - I feel good you know. We practiced what we need to do with Chris Byrd in the ring. So this week we just practice these things. Probably next week we'll start more boxing, do what we need to do.

HBS - You mentioned you're down a couple of pounds from where you were at when you were fighting Dominick. (Currently about 238 lbs.) You've still got a ways to go in training. Do you plan on losing a little bit more weight before you're ready to fight Chris Byrd?

SL - You know what it's not more losing my weight. Just maybe losing my body fat. But you know I have probably a few pounds you know. Not a bad few pounds but you know a little bit heavy but it's okay right now.

HBS - Let's go back to the Dominick Guinn fight. Tell us what happened there.

SL - You keep his jab away, take his jab away so he just became a very simple boxer. But you know this guy I give him credit. This guy has a heart, has skills, and he has a real strong chin. So this is our strategy in this fight so we practiced with James Walton to prepare for this fight and James he's a pretty good fighter and the throws a very quick jab. So we tried to take his jab away so how is now a different story. So I would try and catch his jab and match his jab and counter-jab, and overhand right, right hand to the body and mix it up. So a few times when I hurt him he was just confused when I throw, of where I throw from, so he just stopped throwing. And after this he started throwing no punches, only when his head is in front of his body so I throw on his lower body, shoulders, and so in the later rounds he started to slow down. So this is our strategy.

HBS - So you think you had him hurt a couple of times?

SL - Oh absolutely. I think I hurt him bad probably in the eight and tenth rounds. So like I told you I give him credit. This guy, he will fight.

HBS - And the press coverage, the commentators seemed to be only talking about what was wrong with Dominick and they weren't giving you any credit for what you were doing in the fight.

SL - I'm okay with this you know. I understand boxing and who watches this fight. I think people understand what's going on in the ring. So I'm okay with this.

HBS - Now you're getting ready to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. You mentioned when I spoke to you last year that it was your father that first encouraged you to get into boxing and how did he react when you told him you were going to fight for the title?

SL - All my family is very happy. They say "Do your best, beat this guy, you will win a world title". So you know myt whole country is happy.

HBS - So this is obviously something that you've been working toward for a long time and what goes through your mind when it hits you that you're going to be fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world?

SL - I'm just focused on what we're doing right now so I will be ready for 12 hard rounds and I will not say I'll knock him out. He's a real good fighter. He's fought everybody. And thanks to Don King who gave me a chance to fight for this title so I will do my best.

HBS - So he's kind of a slick guy, sort of hard to hit, moves around a lot and can you say anything about how you plan to neutralize those things?

 SL - We'll see. Everybody says he's a slick guy, very fast hands but you know the time is coming. We'll see how fast and slick he is.

INTERVIEW PART TWO--- HBS - So what went through your mind when you heard Byrd had pulled out of the fight? You think he's afraid of you?

SL - I don't think he's afraid of me but I think too much politics is why this fight is now happening.

HBS - So what do you know about Owen Beck?

 SL - He's a strong opponent. He has pretty good hand speed but nothing special. He's just a guy who fights all his fights with heart and you know he's a pretty good fighter.

 HBS - So you were training to fight a left-handed guy and now you're going to have to prepare to fight a right-handed guy. What are the differences in the training and what you'll be doing now?

SL - I was training with Kenny to prepare for Chris Byrd so just you know we work on position. You know Chris Byrd he's a pretty smart fighter and you know he's a left-hander but you know he's nothing special. So we don't care what he will do in the ring good, but what he's doing bad. But you know my next opponent he had pretty good hand speed but it's nothing special. He throws punches, but from what I saw he's not a good defense guy so we'll see.

 HBS - There are a couple of other heavyweight champions. What do you think of John Ruiz?

SL - He beat pretty good guys but I don't like this guy, how he boxes.

 HBS - What do you think of James Toney?

SL - You know what I like James Toney, his style, but he has a cocky attitude this is what I don't like. But you know he's a real good boxer.

HBS - Then there's Vitali Klitschko, who's from Ukraine, your part of the world.

SL - He's a big, strong guy. Very powerful guy. Very awkward style. But he's nothing special. I think what keeps him champion is his awkward style and nobody knows how to box him.

HBS - Are there any other heavyweight contenders that look good to you, impressive at all?

SL - You know what I don't think so. Everybody right now, I'm not saying they're bad fighters. They're okay, they're good fighters but nobody impresses me. They're just fighters.

HBS - So is there any doubt in your mind at this point that you will become the heavyweight champion of the world in the near future?"

SL - I am certain this will happen. I'm working every day, making my skills much better and I need just time, just time.