Already this Saturday, Serpukhov will host the grandiose boxing tournament “IBA Night of Champions”, in the main battle of which the Muslim Gadzhimagomedov and the Cuban Julio La Cruz will face each other. Before that, the boxers had already crossed paths twice in the ring, and in both cases the Russian was defeated.
Before the rematch, Muslim gave an exclusive interview to “Soviet Sport”, in which he shared his expectations about the upcoming fight, talked about his intentions to go to the Paris Olympics and assessed the probability of his media football debut. .
– You have already faced Julio César La Cruz twice: in the final of the 2020 Games and in the semifinals of the tournament in Morocco, now you will face each other for the third time in the ring. What emotions, expectations do you have before the fight?
– My expectations are to win the duel. Do everything possible to win. We are well prepared for this meeting. We have a new plan, I think it will work and we will prevail. My coach, I and the team had enough time to analyze everything and draw the right conclusions.
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– Ready to share at least common ground?
– We work on mistakes with the coaches. But I will not express the plan itself yet, they will see it in the ring, but I hope that everything will work out according to it. Naturally, you will see completely different fights, unlike what happened before. We made a plan, carefully crafted past fights. Now I’m ready to go out there and fight him.
– There are many interesting fights on the undercard of the tournament in Serpukhov: Mark Petrovsky, Khariton Agrba, Vsevolod Shumkov. Can you assess the level of the card and what fights will be the most interesting for you personally, besides your fight of course?
– The level of athletes, of course, is high. He gathered all the good boxers. There will be very interesting fights. Everything is at the highest level. I can recommend to the public absolutely all the fights of the night, in each of them there will be something to see. Good card, good guys, opponents are quite competitive, it will definitely be interesting.
– How important are events such as the IBA boxing evenings in the current environment?
– Certainly very important. You have to do it, the more often the better. Now there are very few international competitions, which is why the IBA organizes these types of tournaments. This is a great opportunity for boxers to have good fights with strong opponents, as well as for spectators to come and enjoy top-tier boxing. For all this is good, some pluses.
– In professional boxing you do not have as much experience as in amateur, do you have ambitions in this direction?
– It depends on a lot, but at this point I am preparing for the Olympic Games, preparing for it. And today all my thoughts are on the fight with La Cruz. Then we will look further.
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– Do I understand correctly that you will go to the Olympics if the Russians are allowed to attend the Games in Paris?
– Yes, I plan to go to the Olympics if the Russians are allowed. This is the biggest four-year start for so many athletes on the planet, last time I won silver. Of course, I want to improve the result.
– Have you succeeded in amateur boxing and what are your goals in professional boxing?
– Become world champion. We don’t set small goals, we just look up. It is quite a normal desire for any athlete to be the best, to become a champion.
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– This year you became world champion in Tashkent, but many people did not agree with the decision in the final with the Italian Azzis Abbes Mukhidin. Is there any desire after the Cross to meet Abbes again and put the dots on the i’s?
– Abbes boxed well. Then it turned out to be a competitive fight, I had a leg injury, that’s why sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. But with Abbes I have no problems and I never had them. I’ve won it twice before. I also won then, in Tashkent. The fight was close, but I was still better. If there had been no injury, he would have won by far.
– But do you feel like having another fight with him?
– Why not, I want to find it again. You can arrange a meeting with him at the next IBA tournament. I think many would be interested in seeing our fourth matchup.
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What other sports do you practice?
– I like football, basketball, volleyball, wrestling. I like to play team sports with my friends, we usually get together and spend time like this.
– Dmitry Bivol is a fan of Messi, do you have any favorite player?
– I don’t have a favorite player in team sports. I know famous players, Messi, Ronaldo, but I can’t say that I have a player that I follow.
– Now the media league project is of great interest, here are the teams of Kamil Gadzhiev and the team of the Our Business promotion. If you were offered, would you accept to play on any media team?
– If I succeed, then I might try. I think it would be interesting. Again, if they call me, you can try.
– Earlier you said that you are starting to plunge into the business world, building a multi-storey building in Makhachkala, at what stage is the construction?
– So far only the second floor is ready, construction began relatively recently. By 2026 we plan to deliver the house. But I always speak with a margin so as not to disappoint people.
