13 facts about iconic boxer Mr. Serik Konakbayev

1. No Kazakh boxers won the European Championship before Serik Konakbayev. Serik Konakbayev had won the European Championship 1979 in Cologne for the first time for Kazakhs.
2. He has coached six Olympic champions. Legendary Polish coach of XX century Feliks Stamm said after seeing Serik Konakbayev for the first time at the ring: “This boy is going to be genius”.
3. Serik’s father Kerimbek Konakbayev studied at the postgraduate and pursued the science. He is an author of the first schoolbook “Descriptive Geometry” in Kazakh language. He is the Candidate of Science in Engineering.
4. In 1981 World Boxing Federation named Serik Konakbayev the best amateur boxer in the world.
5. In 1984 four Kazakh boxers of the USSR team became champions. They are Serik Konakbayev, Karimzhan Abdrakhmanov, Serik Nurkazov and Asylbek Kilimov. These four Kazakh boxers were meant to participate the Olympic Games in Los-Angeles, USA. Unfortunately USSR sportsmen missed the Olympic games that are held quadrennially due to political reasons. Otherwise Serik Konakbayev could exchange his Moscow’s silver to the gold one.
6. The idol for Serik Konakbayev is the French political and military leader Charles de Gaulle.
7. The iconic Kazakh boxer likes the fine literature. He has read foreign and Kazakh classics.
8. The talented champion of Sydney Olympics Bekzat Sattarkhanov took Serik Konakbayev for a model. Bekzat was a little baby when Serik Konakbayev was fighting at Moscow Olympics in 1980. His mother Syrlykul Sattarkhanova dreamt that Bekzat would become the champion as Serik Konakbayev. Later Bekzat fulfilled the dreams of his mother and the whole Kazakh nation proud of him.
9. Serik’s twin brother Yerik Konakbayev. “My mother went to Pavlodar and we together with my brother Yerik came into the world on October 25th”, – said Serik in an interview.
10. Legendary astronaut who was the Head of the Soviet Boxing Federation and the Hero of the Soviet Union Pavel Popovich said: “The movements of Konakbayev at the ring are equal to the space heights. His performance at the ring was the important moment of our sport history. I am proud of Serik as my son”.
11. When Serik Konakbayev was at school he was doing football, athletics and swimming. Famous sportsmen Vakhid Masudov and Anton Shokh were playing football with Serik as youngsters.
12. In 1980-s the glory of Serik Konakbayev made many Kazakh kids to do boxing. Victories at the USSR Championships of 1979-1984, World Championship, European World Championship and Olympic Games were successful for Kazakh boxers. The fact is that Kazakh boxers had won many times at the USSR Championships of during 1979-1991. Serik Nurkazov, Asylbek Kilimov, Karimzhan Abdrakhmanov, Rashid Kabirov, Yerik Kakimov, Beibit Yeszhanov and Bolat Temirov became champions, and Yesbolat Nurymov, Talgat Berdibekov, Kairat Galymtayev and Zhumatai Tusipov became medalists.
13. In those times Western promoters considered Serik Konakbayev as the only boxer who could fight legendary professional boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. They even to arrange the match with great remuneration. But the Soviet Union prohibited him to start professional boxing career overseas.