On Sunday 17 June, within the boxing holiday Pro Boxing Show – 2018, the world champion WBA Artem Dalakian and a contender for Thai Sirichai Thayen belt took part in a fight. Michael Buffer is famous among the fans of this sport for the phrase ‘Let`s get ready to rumble!’ announced a champion fight. On the results of the fight the Ukrainian got a resounding victory, and before that the spectators could observe several ratings and title fights. But what do we know about success or career of Artem Dalakian?
The main chance of the whole career of Artem Dalakian fell on 25 of February when the Ukrainian got an opportunity to compete in a champion fight. Thanks to a simple surprise: a Japanese boxer Kazuto Ioka decided to finish his career. Of course, Dalakian didn’t miss a chance and later got a victory in a fight with ex-champion, American Brian Viloria.
Nowadays, there are four world champions among professionals in Ukraine: Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk, Oleksandr Hvozdyk, and Artem who is discussed rather less than previous names.
In fact, Dalakian is the same age with other three champions and even started his way with them in a national team. But Artem couldn’t achieve great results, the same can’t be said about his star colleagues. After the Olympics in 2008 all the world started discussing Vasyl Lomachenko, but Dalakian came just as a spare one.
During the next champion cycle Artem decided to join professionals and signed a contract with promoting Donetsk company Union Boxing Promotion. But after Russian aggression in Donbass he had to move to Dnipro.
By the way, after the last fight Michael Buffer compared Artem with Lomachenko, writing in his Twitter that Ukrainian combines speed, force and legs power as if he is a ‘small Loma’. It is difficult to say how pleasant that comparison was for Artem because for a long time he stayed in the background of Lomachenko and other stars. Maybe this year could change career and life of the Ukrainian boxer of the Armenian origin.
Photo: Maryna Bandeliuk
Text: Dmytro Zhyravel
