Sergey Kobozev was a representative of the first wave of Soviet boxers who tried to compete in the professional ring even before the collapse of the USSR. In the 90s, the athlete moved to the United States in search of a better life.

But a promising career was interrupted in its prime after a showdown with the local mafia.

Chasing the American Dream

Kobozev took his first steps in boxing back in the Soviet Union. For a long time, Sergei performed as an amateur, but he didn’t have really big successes. In 1989, he won the silver of the USSR Championship and the bronze of the European Championship. At the same time, Sergei was comprehensively developed, the circle of his hobbies was not limited to boxing alone. He graduated in chemistry and also rose to the rank of captain.

After the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Sergei went to conquer the United States, having only four professional fights in his asset. In North America, he signed with promoter Thomas Gallagher. Kobozev was even given a typical nickname for our man – “Russian Bear”.

Career in the US quickly went up the hill. The Russian crushed one opponent after another. In the Kobozev collection there was even a scalp of the future champion in several versions, John Ruiz. It was Sergey who inflicted the first defeat on Tikhon. In total, overseas, a native of the USSR won all 16 fights, winning the IBF USBA belt.

However, the very first trip to Europe turned out to be a defeat for Sergei. In 1995, on French soil, he lost to Argentina’s Marcelo Fabian Dominguez by split decision. The referees were suspiciously favorable to the opponent of the Russian.

The defeat hit the athlete’s ambitions, but it could still be fixed. Sergei was still in the top of the best first heavyweight boxers. Getting to the championship fight was real.

Killed and buried

Despite the solid success in boxing, the financial situation of the athlete left much to be desired. For fights, he received no more than ten thousand dollars. Kobozev even had to earn extra money in a Brooklyn restaurant as a security guard.

It was this activity that became fatal for Sergei. The institution had a bad reputation in New York. The restaurant was regularly visited by members of the local Russian mafia. Kobozev himself did not get into criminal cases, but two weeks after the fight in France, the boxer had a conflict with mafiosi Alexander Nosov and Natan Gozman.

The incident did not end with anything, but the men soon accidentally crossed paths in a car repair shop. This time, the company of the mafiosi was made up of another crime boss Vasily Ermikhin. The boxer was confident in his abilities and voluntarily went along with the criminals to a small room near the auto repair shop.

“As a professional fighter, Kobozev probably thought he had nothing to worry about,” court filings say.

But the attackers did not want to deal with their fists. Nosov pulled out a pistol and shot Sergei in the back. The mafiosi pushed the wounded athlete into the trunk of a car, and no one else saw him alive.

The FBI took up the case of the disappearance of the Russian boxer, but there were no results for a long time. Only four years later, Kobozev’s body was discovered in the backyard of Nosov’s house. He, along with Yermikhin, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Gozman managed to escape to Europe. The search for the last participant in this brutal murder continued for another two years. In 2003, the criminal was detained in Ukraine for using fake documents. After serving his sentence, American law enforcement agencies lured Gozman to Poland, where he was arrested.