Huge talent does not guarantee a grandiose sports career. The potential of Oleg Korotaev was great – the Soviet boxer was predicted for the gold of the Olympics, and in the USA they even offered a colossal one million dollar contract at that time … However, the athlete’s life was tragically interrupted as soon as he reached New York.

The country is worth more than dollars

Oleg Korotaev was considered one of the most talented representatives of his generation in boxing. The first great success for the young athlete was the victory at the USSR Championship in 1970. In Kaunas, he never met an equal opponent in the light heavyweight category. Having defeated Vladimir Nesterenko from the Labor Reserves in the final, the young representative of Burevestnik made the team’s coaching staff draw attention to himself.

In the autumn of the same year, the 21-year-old athlete went to Cuba as part of the national team, where, in front of Fidel Castro, he knocked out several strong boxers, including the champion of the Pan American Games, Luis Vallero. In 1971, Korotaev already conquered the American public, having dealt with local stars. Even Muhammad Ali’s sparring partner, William Ratliff, got it.

American businessmen immediately decided to lure Oleg into professionals. Boxer promised a million dollars! However, since the agents tried to negotiate through the Soviet delegation, there was little chance of success. Because of such close attention of the capitalists, the athlete only found new problems. Oleg had to publicly refuse a generous offer, declaring that millions of Soviet citizens were dearer to him than dollars.

Oleg Korotaev / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Moreno

Be that as it may, the athlete approached the Munich Olympics in 1972 in the status of a contender, if not for gold, then certainly for a medal. But the conflict with the coach Anatoly Stepanov prevented. The exact reasons for the antipathy are shrouded in mystery, but it is known that the specialist disliked the boxer, and he, in response, accused the coach of low qualifications and even hinted that Stepanov took money from the athletes for getting into the national team.

In practice, all these contradictions resulted in a real problem for the boxer. The sports committee approved Oleg as the first number for the European Championship, but in Spain Korotaev never appeared in the ring. Stepanov chose another athlete as the main one and lost. The representative of Lvov, Metelev, failed, and at the 1972 USSR Championship, Oleg proved in practice who was stronger by knocking out his competitor.

Korotaev still didn’t go to Munich – he lost in the final of the national championship, and even returned to the base of the national team half an hour after the lights out. Stepanov raised a scandal, sports officials sided with the coach. Oleg was deprived of all titles, sports scholarships, and even disqualified.

Problems with discipline

In Munich, the USSR national team performed poorly, Stepanov was fired, Korotaev was rehabilitated. He never became an Olympic champion, but won the bronze of the European Championship in 1973, and a year later the silver of the World Championship. In both tournaments, he lost to Yugoslav Mata Parlov, who acted in an extremely dirty manner. Both times, the Balkan deliberately cut his opponent’s face, forcing the doctors to stop the fights ahead of schedule.

Oleg Korotaev / Photo: © RIA Novosti / D. Mikhailov

By the way, at the 1974 World Championships, the Soviet boxer knocked out the American Leon Spinks in the semifinals, who took gold at the 1976 Games, and in 1978 beat Muhammad Ali himself as a professional. Korotaev, in those years, was not going through the best period of his career. He began to have problems with discipline: fights outside the ring became commonplace.

One such showdown in a restaurant ended very badly for Oleg. He went out to chat with one of the representatives of the noisy company and knocked out the enemy. The victory turned out to be pyrrhic – the son of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Nikolai Shchelokov, turned out to be defeated. What it could turn into, it was easy to guess.

New life

For an athlete, everything could do with a slight fright. Coach Georgy Dzheroyan connected all sorts of connections to get the boxer out of jail. The athlete even performed at the last USSR championship for himself in his native Sverdlovsk, where he took bronze. But problems with the law are not a thing of the past. At home, Korotaev found a complete set of what a Soviet citizen should not have: from weapons (even if it was a machete from Fidel Castro) to drugs of dubious origin. Evil tongues hinted that this was the revenge of a high official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs – opinions differ on this matter.

In prison, Korotaev was provided with conditions for training, but Oleg had already lost interest in sports. He began to be imbued with a criminal culture and went free with new connections that allowed him to live differently than before. Soon the former athlete was behind bars again, and when he once again became a free man, he found himself in business. True, the activities of the “businessman” were very similar to working in an organized criminal group.

In 1992, well-wishers hinted to Korotaev that an assassination attempt was being prepared on him. He did not believe, but soon he himself felt that he was really in the sphere of someone’s close attention. The former boxer raced across the ocean and tried to start a new life in the United States. He left criminal activity, began to engage in the tourism business, despite the presence of a fictitious marriage, sent money to his family in Russia. The new life did not last long – in January 1994, not far from the Arbat restaurant on Brighton Beach, Korotaev received a bullet in the back of the head. The murder has not yet been solved.