It’s not bad being the only Olympic champion in a country.
When boxer Bakhtiyar Artayev brought home Kazakhstan’s only gold medal from the 2004 Athens Games, the government gave him a Toyota Land Cruiser and a two-bedroom apartment.
And there was a parade and a fireworks show for Artayev in his hometown, the ancient Silk Road city of Taraz.
“That was the best thing. It was a big show only for me,” Artayev said through an interpreter Wednesday.
He had just won an opening-round bout at the World Boxing Championships when Giorgi Nakani of Georgia was injured in the second round. Artayev led 16-8 at the time.
Artayev, 24, can only imagine what might happen if he becomes the first double gold medalist in the history of the former Soviet Republic, which competed independently for the first time at the 1994 Winter Games.
Maybe it will prompt people to have a different impression of his country than the one everyone got from the biting, if not mean-spirited satire in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
“I have not seen this movie, but the way it has been described makes me very angry Kazakhstan is depicted in a very negative manner,” Artayev said.
It goes without saying that angering a 165-pound man with flying fists could be dangerous, even if he has a sweet smile, a degree in law from the University of Taraz and a killer recipe for marinated roast duck he makes, with his mother’s help, from birds he hunts himself.
Artayev is going after bigger game at these worlds. He moved up from welterweight (152 pounds) after the 2005 worlds, where he took third — “The judging was not fair,” he said — to middleweight (165 pounds).
From Florida with love
Russian middleweight Matvey Korobov’s parents came to Chicago to watch him defend his world title from their home in … Palm Beach County.
Laura and George Korobov moved to Lantana, Fla., almost 10 years ago — a year after Matvey, then 13, moved to Moscow to train at the Central Army Sport Club (CSKA). The family had lived in the remote Magadan region of eastern Siberia.
“I didn’t really think of moving with them,” Korobov said through an interpreter. “I had a really good situation with a really good coach.
“My parents left for the United States during a 1998 economic crisis so they could help me. They sent me money.”
Korobov won his first bout by a superior decision — when one fighter is 20 points ahead before the last of four two-minute rounds. He led Francy Ntetu of Canada 24-4 with 23 seconds left in the third round.
Tough loss
Poland’s Krzysztof Zimnoch beat U.S. heavyweight Deontay Wilder in the best bout of the first two days. Zimnoch rallied from a 9-1 deficit after one round for a 23-20 decision that made Wilder the only loser among the six U.S. fighters who competed Tuesday and Wednesday.
Another U.S. fighter, Shawn Estrada of East Los Angeles, won on a superior decision, 25-5.
Quote of the day
“With all the fires back home, I’m sure I will be hired,” Estrada, knowing the sad truth will be in his corner when he goes to look for a job. Estrada is training to be a firefighter.
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phersh@tribune.com
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