On December 13, the World Boxing Championship ended in Dubai, in which Russians participated without any restrictions. The opportunity to compete under the country’s flag motivated the athletes, who simply did not give their opponents a chance. All 13 members of the team won medals, 12 people reached the finals, seven of whom reached gold! Never in history has our country won so many medals of the highest standard.

This was a real triumph for Russia – after a series of victorious finals, even foreigners could learn the anthem of our country.

Strong rivals

The UAE hosted the World Boxing Championship with the participation of the Russian team. The Russians had no restrictions at this tournament: the International Boxing Association (IBA) returned national symbols to our athletes back in 2022. True, the matter turned into a conflict with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which supported the creation of an alternative federation – World Boxing. The organization even held its own World Championship in 2025, where there were no Russians. However, many of the World Boxing champions took the risk to come to Dubai to compete for new titles, for which they are honored and praised.

The Russians were among the favorites even before the start of the tournament, but few predicted total dominance. But all 13 people reached the semi-final stage, guaranteeing medals in each weight. Only Andrey Peglivanyan (weight category up to 57 kg) remained without the final, losing in the semi-finals to the future world champion from Kazakhstan Orazbek Asykulov. And even here it was difficult to talk about any unconditional advantage of the opponent, because the Russian looked no worse in the ring.

Some of our compatriots had difficulties in the finals. Still, strong opponents fought against them, including the current Olympic champions. Edmond Khudoyan, who competed in the up to 48 kg category, Bair Batlayev (51 kg), Vyacheslav Rogozin (54 kg) lost their fights. Fans have already begun to worry: will the triumphal march to the most important fights of the tournament really turn into failure in the finals?

Victory in the team competition

A native of the Sverdlovsk region, Vsevolod Shumkov silenced the skeptics by winning the final match in the up to 60 kg category. But his opponent was the current Olympic champion and World Boxing world champion Abdumalik Khalokov from Uzbekistan. Spectators had just enjoyed the Russian anthem for the first time, when they soon had to do it again: Ilya Popov confidently won gold in the up to 63.5 kg category.

Vsevolod Shumkov / Photo: © Russian Boxing Federation / Leonid Uteshev

Then the Russians took a break: Evgeniy Kool lost to the world champion according to World Boxing and current Olympic champion Asadhuzha Muydinkhuzhaev from Uzbekistan in the weight category up to 67 kg. In the up to 71 kg category, Sergei Koldenkov was also left without gold, although he forced Kazakhstani Ablaykhan Zhusupov to run around the ring for the entire third round. After this failure, our boxers never lost in the finals!

Ismail Mutsolgov (up to 75 kg) defeated Sabyrzhan Akkalykov in a kind of Russian-Kazakh revenge. Khamzat Chimaev and Artur Beterbiev came out to reward the champion. And Dzhambulat Bizhamov (up to 80 kg) closed the question of victory in the team competition, defeating the World Boxing champion from Uzbekistan Zhavohir Ummataliev in a close match.

Bright finale

In the up to 86 kg category, fans could count on success even before the start of the tournament. Russia was represented by world and European champion Sharabutdin Ataev, who on the way to the final knocked out World Boxing champion Akmalzhon Isroilov. In the final, our athlete dealt with Alexey Alferov from Belarus without much difficulty. After the appearance of Beterbiev and Chimaev in the ring, one could assume that the native of Dagestan would be congratulated by Khabib Nurmagomedov or Islam Makhachev, but another UFC star, Khasbik, appeared in the ring.

After some time, fans finally saw another UFC champion: Petr Yan awarded Muslim Gadzhimagomedov, who became the amateur world champion for the third time, taking the final in the weight category up to 92 kg. Our champion left another world champion according to World Boxing, Turabek Khabibullaev, without gold.

Muslim Gadzhimagomedov / Photo: © IBA

The tournament ended with a bright victory for 20-year-old heavyweight from Russia David Surov. The Russian was opposed by the experienced Arman Makhanov from Uzbekistan, who was knocked down three times in the main fight. After another strong blow from the Russian, a towel flew into the ring, which meant that our athlete completed the tournament with an early victory. With such a bright finale, after which the Russian anthem was played again, the tournament for the national team at the World Cup ended.