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Grasshopper

06-11-2005, 03:27 PM

http://www.maxboxing.com/Gerbasi/Gerbasi060905.asp

Kid Diamond’s Do’s and Don’ts

By Thomas Gerbasi (June 9, 2005)

http://www.maxboxing.com/media/kiddiamond_Main_teddyblackburn.jpg

NEW YORK, June 8 - “How many pictures am I gonna take?” asked Almazbek Raiymkulov as the flash bulbs went off all around him Wednesday at midtown Manhattan’s Kingsway gym.

His trainer, Don House, just chuckled and called his charge over to the side of the ring.

Raiymkulov aka Kid Diamond, is just days away from the biggest fight of his career - against former world champion Joel Casamayor this Saturday at Madison Square Garden – and he was ready to work. Everything else could wait.

And once House secured the mitts on his hands, the show began. Hooks, uppercuts and crosses slammed into the trainer’s pads, emitting a sound impossible to describe on paper. Over and over Raiymkulov worked on the combinations that he hopes will break Casamayor down this weekend, and while it was close to 90 degrees outside, the action in the ring was even hotter.

“You hit like my wife today,” said House.

“Not on Saturday,” Raiymkulov retorted, just before another round began.

When it was over, it was like someone hit a switch. The frighteningly intense look faded, and Raiymkulov met with a small group of the media and charmed everyone in attendance. It was Jekyll and Hyde of the highest order, and while some fighters try to manufacture charisma, “Kid Diamond” has it in spades.

On Saturday, the world will get to see whether Raiymkulov is a talented fighter on the verge of a title shot, or a talented fighter who was rushed too soon into a fight with a man who was a few judges’ points away from being undefeated today.

“His time is done already,” said Raiymkulov (20-0, 12 KOs) of Casamayor. “It’s time for the new generation. I’m really ready for this.”

House agrees, having no reservations at all about the leap up in class either.

“He deserves this fight,” said the underrated Las Vegas trainer. “I look at Casamayor as a great past champion, but as you start noticing in the game now, there’s a lot of new faces coming along and all the old guys are falling to the wayside. (Kostya) Tszyu just fell to the wayside; Winky Wright ran through (Felix) Trinidad like it was nothing, and it’s his turn now. I don’t take anything from Casamayor, but his time is due and the new guys are coming in.”

Raiymkulov is one of those fighters who has been on the fringe of everyone’s conversations for months, sometimes even years, and then all of a sudden – boom – here he is in everyone’s living room. But if he makes a big splash on the world scene against Casamayor, you have to remember, this is no overnight success story.

Born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, Raiymkulov came to boxing like many pugilists – through a desire to defend himself from local bullies.

“I have a heart and I wanted to kill those guys,” he recalled, but his parents, both doctors, weren’t too thrilled about seeing their son get involved in any sports, let alone boxing.

“My parents were totally against sports, so I started sneaking,” said Raiymkulov.

First he tried wrestling.

“Two guys hugging each other, what the hell is this?” :biggrin: he exclaimed in horror. “This is not for me.”

Next came running.

“I went running and I used to run good, but I was thinking, where am I gonna run if I have to fight in school?” he asked rhetorically. “Slap the guy and run? Anyway tomorrow he’s gonna catch me.”

Raiymkulov said he tried every sport before finally finding boxing.

“I wanted to learn how to defend myself,” he said. “I wanted to learn how to punch right. With a big guy you don’t have to throw 100 punches. You have to throw one single punch and destroy the guy.”

Soon, Raiymkulov was hooked. “Whoa, this is my sport. I have to keep going.”

There was just one problem. His parents had no clue he was sneaking off to the gym after school every day, and as the youngest of six children (some of whom were lawyers and government workers) the teenage Almazbek was expected to be the first Raiymkulov child to become a doctor.

For the next year and a half, Raiymkulov would go to school, grab a couple of books from the library, and then go to the gym to train. On the way home on the bus he would read the books so he would pass inspection when his parents would ask him what he had studied at the library. His siblings knew what their youngest brother was up to, and stayed quiet with the enticement of chocolates.

But one day when his mother was cleaning his room, she found a cup he had won in a local amateur tournament. A family meeting was called, and his older brother eagerly jumped up and claimed the cup as his.

“That’s mine,” said Raiymkulov’s brother. “Don’t you remember I won it a long time ago?”

Mom wasn’t fooled, especially after reading the date 1997 on the cup.

“You lied to me,” she scolded her youngest son.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I had to because I love this sport.”

Raiymkulov then turned to his father, a former member of the Russian National volleyball team.

“Dad, you were a sportsman too,” he pleaded. “Tell mom I like this and I’m not going to quit.”

Mrs. Raiymkulov acquiesced, and the future “Kid Diamond” continued to make progress in the sport he loved to the tune of 280 amateur wins and a spot on Kyrgystan’s 2000 Olympic team.

There would be no doctorate degrees for Raiymkulov, but no money either if he remained in Kyrgystan. So he decided to pack his bags and move to Las Vegas to chase after pro glory. Needless to say there were some growing pains to go through in terms of getting to grips with life in the States; including adding English to the other languages he’s fluent in - Russian, Kyrgys, German, and Turkish. After a few fights around the Vegas area, Raiymkulov started to get a little bit of a following, including a local fan in his apartment complex named Tony.

Tony saw Raiymkulov one day in the neighborhood.

“Hey, what’s up dawg?”

Tony went on speaking a mile a minute while Raiymkulov tried to keep up.

“Slow down, slow down,” he said, but one thing definitely stuck in his head. “I was thinking, ‘he called me dog.’ In Russia if you call somebody dog, you’re dead. They’ll break you.”

Tony kept talking.

“Don’t call me dog,” repeated Raiymkulov.

“Nah, man it’s like calling you a brother,” explained Tony. Raiymkulov still didn’t get it.

“Don’t call me dog,” he said a third time. “My name is Almaz.”

Giving up on the conversation, Raiymkulov went to the gym, where he heard a bunch of his gym mates using the same phrase on each other, with obviously no ill feelings attached.

“I heard everyone in the gym saying the same thing and then I understood,” said Raiymkulov. “After I moved out of the complex I came back six, seven months later just to see Tony and to apologize.”

“What’s up Almaz?” said Tony.

“What’s up dawg?” answered Raiymkulov.

“Don’t call me dog,” laughed Tony.

In the ring, Raiymkulov had no translation problems when it came to his fists as he piled up win after win. But with a name like Almazbek Raiymkulov, no one was exactly beating down his door to sign him.

Cameron Dunkin remembers the first time he was approached by manager Garnick Khachikian to sign the lightweight prospect, and his reaction when he heard his name.

“Forget it,” said Dunkin.

Khachikian persisted, and after telling Dunkin of Raiymkulov’s Olympic pedigree, the longtime fight agent agreed to give him a look and he brought him into the gym to work with Steve Forbes and Marshall Martinez. After an impressive workout Dunkin was sold. By the time Raiymkulov hit 15-0, Top Rank was on board as well, and during a marketing meeting dubbed their new signee “Kid Diamond” (translated, Almaz means diamond).

House was also brought in to train Raiymkulov, a decision that has led to five wins and five knockouts in their time together.

“You’ve got 15 fights with 7 KOs,” remembers House of one of his first meetings with Raiymkulov. “You’re hitting too hard and hitting too fast – what seems to be the problem? So after about five months in training, I taught him how to put the punches together and where to land the punches. And if you notice, guys are quitting, they’re not getting up, and he’s keeping guys down. He’s actually a decent boxer, but he loves to fight.”

And his reputation got around, especially when the stories circulated of his sparring sessions almost two years ago with Cory Spinks and Floyd Mayweather Jr. – the latter being especially compelling.

“He used to talk dirty,” said Raiymkulov of the sessions with “Pretty Boy” Floyd. “F-words, Chinese, this and that.”

Raiymkulov soon had Mayweather in a corner with a glove on his neck.

“I’m gonna cut your throat off,” said Raiymkulov. “Then five of his people jumped in the ring and I was by myself. I said ‘don’t talk to me like that.’” :eek:

When the actual fighting got underway, Raiymkulov reportedly broke Mayweather’s rib.

“After that, no more sparring,” he deadpanned.

Sparring’s one thing though; fighting for real is another, and luckily, Raiymkulov has been on a tear as of late, knocking out Ghanaian Olympian Raymond Narh in June of 2004, stopping Lamar Murphy in five in November of 2004, and in his last fight, on March 4, stopping formerly undefeated Koba Gogoladze in six rounds.

But is he ready for Casamayor, the atmosphere of Madison Square Garden, and fighting in front of his parents for the first time as a professional?

“It’s just like fighting back in Vegas in one of those small clubs,” said House. “I’ve been all over the place and he’s fought all over the world, so this is nothing. Actually, we feel comfortable because what do we have to lose for this fight? The pressure’s not on us, it’s on Casamayor. He (Casamayor) is trying to prove something to the world, that he’s the best 135-pounder. The question is, why does he want to prove it with this guy? Go prove it with Diego (Corrales), go prove it with (Jose Luis) Castillo. You don’t choose a guy like this. Not this guy. I worked with Diego for three years and this guy hits harder, he hits faster, and you can hit him with a brick and he won’t fall down.”

So let’s recap…

Don’t call Almazbek Raiymkulov a dog…

Don’t call him Chinese…

Are we missing anything?

“Don’t make a mistake,” said House. “All we need is one mistake with this guy (Casamayor), and trust me, he can’t hide for 12 rounds.”