Andrei Wassiljewitsch Abramow

Andrei Wassiljewitsch Abramow ( Russian Андрей Васи́льевич Абрамов ; born December 5, 1935 in Izhevsk ; † May 4, 1994 ) was a Soviet boxer . He was the European amateur champion in 1957, 1959 and 1961 in the heavyweight division.

Career

Andrei Abramov came to boxing as a teenager in 1952. At the age of 18 he joined the Soviet Army and was stationed in Moscow , where he found the best training conditions. For a heavyweight he brought with him excellent physical conditions. With a height of 1.88 m, he weighed around 105 kg in his best times and was still agile and technically very well trained. But his trainers A. Dudarew u. K. Birka responsible. Sergej Tscherbakow, the Soviet national coach of those years, also contributed a lot to Abramov's successes that were soon to come.

After the Lithuanian Algirdas Schozikas, who dominated the Soviet heavyweight boxing scene until 1956, had resigned, Abramov won his first title at the 1957 Soviet championship, ahead of Abdusalam Nurmachanow and Lev Senkin. Then Abramov won the 6th World Youth Festival in the heavyweight final over the Czech Benesovsky. In the same year he was also used at the European Championships in Prague. Abramow won there in the round of 16 against the Finn Mäkela by knockout in the 1st round, defeated Ulli Nitzschke from the GDR just 3-2 in the quarterfinals , won in the semifinals against the strong Czech Jozef Nemec and defeated the Romanian in the final Vasile Mariuţan clear on points. The reward for these victories was winning the European title.

In 1958 Abramov won the Soviet championship for the second time and also won the heavyweight division of the 1st Army Championships of the Socialist States in Leipzig .

In 1959 he was absent from the Soviet championship due to injury, but was used after his recovery at the European championship that year in Lucerne . He won there in the semifinals over Poland's Wladyslaw Jedrzejewski and in the final over the surprise man of this tournament he won the Englishman Dave Thomas on points.

In 1960, Abramov won his third title in the Soviet championship by beating Janis Lancers in the final and drove to the Olympic Games in Rome as a high favorite . In Rome he beat the Spaniard Manuel Garcia in the first round, who had to be taken out of the ring unable to defend against him in the first round. In the quarter-finals, he met the Italian Francesco de Piccoli , a man previously unknown in the international amateur boxing scene. De Piccoli, who was almost as tall and heavy as Abramov, had been specifically prepared for the Olympic Games with the entire Italian boxing relay in months of "barracking" before Rome. This effort paid off, because de Piccoli surprisingly dominated Abramov clearly and won unanimously with 5: 0 judges' votes on points. De Piccoli was then also Olympic champion through a knockout victory in the 2nd round over the South African Daan Bekker , while Abramow received nothing.

Abramov continued despite this disappointment and won again in 1961 at the Soviet championship. He was also at the start at this year's European Championships in Belgrade . He won his third European title in a row there. He only had to fight three fights, in which he defeated the Hungarian Laszlo Szabo by knockout in the first round and the Poland Zbigniew Gugniewicz and the Italian Benito Penna each on points.

In 1962 and 1963 Abramov won his fourth and fifth Soviet heavyweight championship titles. At the European Championship taking place in his hometown of Moscow, he wanted to add the fourth European title to his successes. Everything went according to plan in the beginning when he defeated the Hungarian Antal Budai in the round of 16, the German Hans Huber in the quarter-finals and the Italian Dante Cane in the semi-finals on points. However, it was already evident in these fights that he was no longer quite the same. He had slowed down and had problems with his stamina. The Czech Jozef Nemec exploited these weaknesses in the final and made Abramov look bad in some situations. Nemec received a 3-2 point victory over Abramow, who therefore had to be content with the runner-up European title. Boxing experts nevertheless spoke of a blatant misjudgment (see Boxing Sport No. 23 of June 4, 1963, page 14).

In 1964 Abramov tried again to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. But he was defeated in the final of the Soviet championship against Alexander Isossimow and was no longer considered in the further selection process.

As a result, he resigned at the end of 1964. He had fought 160 fights, of which he won 148. Abramov was without a doubt one of the top amateur heavyweights in the world by the late 1950s. It would have been interesting how far he would have made it with the pros if he had the chance.

Andrei Abramov's international fights (as far as known)

• 1957 in Kiel , FRG against USSR , point winner over Ulrich Ritter ,
• 1957 in Hamburg , FRG against USSR, 1st round demolition winner over Uwe Jansen ,
• 1958 in London , London against Moscow , winner by breaking off in the 2nd round over Page,
• 1958 in Moscow, USSR against FRG, winner of the 2nd round over Paul,
• 1959 in Glasgow , Scotland against the USSR, points winner over Hobbs,
• 1962 in London, England against the USSR, points winner over Ronald Davies

Results of the USSR heavyweight championships from 1957 to 1964

• 1957: 1. Andrei Abramov, 2. Abdusalam Nurmachanow, 3. Lev Senkin,
• 1958: 1. Andrei Abramov, 2. Lev Senkin, 3. Jaris Lancers,
• 1959: 1st Alexander Vladimirovich Isosimov , 2nd Janis Lancers, 3rd Abduslam Nurmachanow,
• 1960: 1. Andrej Abramow, 2. Janis Lancers, 3. V. Grischin a. Lew Muchin ,
• 1961: 1. Andraj Abramow, 2. Anatoli Ivanov, 3. Janis Lancers a. Vadim Mikhailovich Jemelyanov ,
• 1962: 1. Andrej Abramow, 2. Abdusalam Nurmachanow, 3. V. Seleznow a. Nikolai Sukharev,
• 1963: 1. Andrei Abramov, 2. Alexander Isossimow, 3. Janis Lancers a. A. Baranov,
• 1964: 1. Alexander Isossimow, 2. Andrej Abramow, 3. Janis Lancers a. Abdusalam Nurmachanov

swell

• Box Sport magazine from 1957 to 1964,
• BOX ALMANACH 1920 - 1980 , published by the German Amateur Boxing Association, 1980,
• Website "www.sport-komplett.de",
• Website "www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl",
• Website "www.peoples.ru"

Web links

• Portrait of Andrei Abramov in Russian
• Andrey Abramov in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )