Athlete of the Month April/May – Serik Temirzhanov, Kazakhstan
Athlete of the Month – Serik Temirzhanov
The Asian Boxing Confederation’s second Facebook voting for the Athlete of the Month delivered a success to Kazakhstan’s AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships bronze medallist 18-year-old Serik Temirzhanov who claimed gold medal in the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships in Pavlodar and his final was the biggest difference between the two boxers.
Serik Temirzhanov was born on May 24 in 1998 and began his boxing career in his home city in Pavlodar at the age of 11. He started his trainings with Mr. Andrei Gensh seven years ago and all of staff recognized his talent to the sport. Temirzhanov delivered his first big success at the 2012 Suleymenov Junior Tournament in Almaty where he defeated one of his main local rival Abylay Saylaubekov.
Temirzhanov won his first national title among the juniors in 2013 when he competed at the 44 kg weight class and defeated all of his four rivals in the competition. He was too smart to all of his opponents and had a clear victory over Alimzhan Beskempir in the final which meant the head coach of the junior national team of Kazakhstan involved him to the squad and short after his title he could get silver in the Aleksey Yukov Junior Memorial Tournament in Gomel, Belarus which was his first event out of his country.
Following his participation at the Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup in Baku he received the right to box for Kazakhstan at the 2013 AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships in Kiev, Ukraine. He moved up to the Light Flyweight class (48 kg) and after two great triumphs over Korea’s Han Young Hun and Russia’s Vladimir Strygin he was defeated by US hope Daniel Gonzales in the semi-final which delivered for him a valuable bronze in Kiev.
Temirzhanov competed in junior age group also in 2014 and firstly claimed silver at the Yakov Vysotskiy Junior Memorial Tournament in Yagodnoye, Russia and secondly bronze at the Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup in Baku where he lost to only Hungary’s talented Istvan Szaka in the semi-final stage of the competition. Later in the year Temirzhanov won the Zhetysu Youth Cup in Taldykorgan and won bronze at the Abbas Agalarov Youth Cup in Baku.
The Kazakh talent was not enough successful in their Youth National Championships in the beginning of 2015 therefore he decided to raise his physical skills at the Bantamweight class (56 kg). After his great job in the trainings Mr. Galymbek Kenzhebayev the head coach of the Kazakh youth squad decided to take him to the Ahmet Comert Youth Tournament in Turkey where his skills were enough to get silver.
Temirzhanov was excellent in the Serik Sapiyev Prizes Youth Tournament in Karagandy in this January where he defeated Berik Dzhedibayev, Mukhamet Al-Makhmut and Sanatali Toltayev among his main rivals. This gold medal meant for him a place in the youth national squad of Kazakhstan and their head coach involved him once again in the international competitions.
He lost his preliminary bout to Uzbekistan’s Shunkor Abdurasulov in the Danas Pozniakas Youth Memorial Tournament in Vilnius, Lithuania but in spite of this bout he could take part in the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships where he fought in the front of the home crowd in Pavlodar.
After two great triumphs Kazakhstan’s Serik Temirzhanov did revenge to his previous loss to Uzbekistan’s Danas Pozniakas Youth Memorial Tournament winner Shunkor Abdurasulov in the semi-final of the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships in Pavlodar and focused to his gold medal bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Mamataly who is a new talent and a big surprise in the event.
The Kyrgyz boxer eliminated Japan’s ASBC Asian Confederation Junior Boxing Championships silver medallist Taiga Imanaga in the semi-final but his opponent in the final was a stronger opponent for Mamataly. Pavlodar-based Temirzhanov used the middle of the ring to control the bout in the front of the home crowd. The referee counted the Kyrgyz boxer in the third round which demonstrated the dominance of the host nation boxer who claimed the gold medal in his home city and received the ASBC Athlete of the Month Award.