Q&A: David Gogiya!

By Alexey Sukachev, June, 5, 2006

Jersey Joe Walcott, Guts Suzuki, Archie Moore, more recently Glen Johnson and lots of other fighters have really much in common. All of them won their most important fights after the years and years of dubious decisions, controversial losses, and alphabet gangs’ treasons and so on. Being journeymen for the major part of their careers, they were experts in upsetting favorites and in rising from the ‘underdog’ up to the ‘contender’ status.

It seems that Russian-based Georgian David Gogiya (originally David Gogiychaishvili, 14-1-0 with 4 KOs right now) is that kind of person. Having won his first eight fights since November 2003 he soundly beat experienced contender Sergey Tatevosyan (23-5 prior the fight) last April for the Russian super middleweight Title but controversially dropped judges’ decision. In a couple of easy wins he found himself against reigning WBU super middleweight king Eric Teymour (18-1) and easily outpointed titlist through the twelve rounds of non-title affair. However, a bit later the result of that bout has been mysteriously changed from the unanimous decision in favor of Gogiya to ‘no decision’ fight. That’s not the whole story yet. After a few fights Gogiya was taken to Germany in order to be a stepping stone for the rising Croatian Stjepan Bozic (18-1), current WBF champion with the wins over Julio Cesar Vasquez and Nader Hamdan. Despite being deep underdog, as always, Gogiya brought a war inside the ring on the 4th of March and earned the split decision by decking Croatian two times and nearly stopping him in the final 6-th round of the slugfest.

Back to his home 30-year old former WBC CISBB and reigning Russian super middleweight champion took a few minutes to speak about his past and future.

How are you doing right now and who will you fighting next?

Things are going their way. I’m feeling myself perfectly and preparing for the upcoming matches with my coach Gennady Grunev and my stablemates from Togliatti, where I’m living now. My chief sparring partner currently is newly crowned WBO Asia Pacific belt holder Alisultan Nadirbegov, a good friend of mine. As for the next bout I’m planning to fight on 15th June in Samara with the opponent still to be named. There are two men to choose between – one from Moscow and another one from Chelyabinsk.

Who will you fight in the further future and where do you tend to arrange your career?

We’re talking about possible fights in Germany where I have earned some reputation after the Bozic fight. I hope I’ll be fighting there in September following two or three weeks in gym. Then in October we’re planning to make a title attempt, perhaps on the EBU super middleweight title, now held by Mger Mkrtchian. All things are now under consideration.

Don’t you mind on continuing your career in Germany, probably with Claus-Peter Kohl or Wilfried Zauerland?

It’ll be great, but as for now I’m fully concentrated on my next fight in Samara. If you want to know something about my future plans, better speak with my manager Alexander Petrov. My goal is to fight the fight and to prepare for the future opportunities. It’s no doubt though, that it will be great to fight in Germany. I can earn more money there than in Russia and also there’s a chance for me to put my name in contenders’ mix.

You have suffered a disappointing loss to well-known Russian boxer Sergey Tatyevosyan. There were talks about controversy, occurred in that fight. What is your opinion on that?

Surely, it was a controversial decision. I did everything and clearly won the bout. Unfortunately, his managers were able to get him an unfair victory over David Gogiya. He talked so much about possible return match, but where is he now? When we suggested it, he began running from that bout. He’s afraid of me. He thinks it’s not a good idea to fight with Gogiya, because he’s capable of beating everybody in Russia in this weight division. Finally he was forced to vacate the belt which is currently mine.

There’s also another dubious bout with Eric Teymour…

I took that fight on short notice and was really surprised when it suddenly occurred that I was fighting Eric. I know him very well, because we had been fighting in different weights for a long time in amateurs and used to spar between each other. Originally he is a bigger guy. In amateurs he was fighting in 180 lbs so I’m still wondering how he was able to make his weight into the limits of 168 lbs. Anyway he was very weak and suffered from dehydration. He was winning after the 6th round of that fight, but was unable to continue in such tempo. I easily outboxed him over the remaining rounds and won the decision…

(Cutting in)… Which was later changed to ‘No contest’? Why?

That’s a good question. I can’t understand this. If I won the fight I’m the winner. In usual cases. I shall discuss it with Petrov and my other representatives. I don’t want to be robbed once again.

Hope you’ll be a bit luckier the next time. Thank you for the interview!

Take care!