bivol ethnicity

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Bivol is half Moldovan and half Korean. Moldovans are a significant minority in Russia (and Ukraine for that matter) which is where he lives. There's nothing strange about his ethnicity or nationality. It's not complicated to understand.

 

[Feniamin]

The Ukrainians are pretty much all slavs though right? Do they not have big populations of muslims and central asians like russia?

In UFC there is Sholinian who is ethnic Armenian from Ukraine, Georgian Dolidze is living in Ukraine, Turkmenistani Bellator fighter Yagshimuradov lives in Ukraine too.

 

[froggyluv]

Well, basically here (Russia/ex-USSR) you can look at name to understand person’s ethnicity.
If surname is Li/Yan/Ten/Tsoy - that person probably comes from ethnic Chinese or Korean background; Manukyan - Armenian; Rabinovich - Jewish and stuff like that. Of course there is fighters with Russian roots from Brazil, North America, Hong Kong, Australia and other countries or Chechens from US and a dozen of European countries.
Like, when you see surnames like Matsumoto, Choi, Dos Santos, what do you think? I think that person with such surname are probably have Japanese, Korean, Portuguese roots. And in reality they can be from a lot of countries, like there is Brazilian and Swiss fighters with a Japanese surnames, Swedish and Canadian with Korean, American and Swedish with Portuguese. Same here. For example, I remember interview with fighter Sergei Choi - ethnic Korean, born in Tajikistan, lived there, then in Uzbekistan, then returned to Tajikistan, then moved to Russia and currently lives and fights in South Korea.

You knows theres such a thing as "too intelligent.." Right?

 

[Kratos94]

The Ukrainians are pretty much all slavs though right? Do they not have big populations of muslims and central asians like russia?

There is a small minority of Crimean Tatars if you want to consider them Ukrainian. In Ukraine also live some of the smaller groups from the Caucasus, eg; Ossetians, Circassians, the many from Dagestan etc. In wrestling, you can see many different ethnicities fill out their international team.

 

[Kratos94]

In UFC there is Sholinian who is ethnic Armenian from Ukraine, Georgian Dolidze is living in Ukraine, Turkmenistani Bellator fighter Yagshimuradov lives in Ukraine too.

Magomed Zakariev also lives/trains in Ukraine, if I am not mistaken. Not an MMA fighter, but another example of an athlete representing Ukraine.

 

[Feniamin]

Magomed Zakariev also lives/trains in Ukraine, if I am not mistaken. Not an MMA fighter, but another example of an athlete representing Ukraine.

I think I’ve seen Ukrainian mma fighters of Chechen, Azeri, Crimean Tatar, Tatar and of Dagestani ethnicities (if we are remembering Muslims of ethnicities that you was able to find in USSR). But I think Crimean Tatars fighters that I can remember moved to either Russia or rebel republics.

 

[ironfist05]

not surprised dozens of grown men on a karate forum are struggling to understand how maps work

it's kinda funny because the actual history of Soviet demographic engineering (and how it produced, as an example, mixed koreans like Bivol, Tszyu and GGG) is really interesting but you got a bunch of people jsut saying "no map says no that doesn't work"

 

[ironfist05]

Golovkin, Janibek, Jalolov, Beterbiev, and gassiev are a few that I can name off the top of my head. Fighters from kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have a pretty strong presence in Olympic boxing.

throw in Gussy Nazarov, he was from kyrgyzstan. Arbachakov was of some small Siberian minority background too IIRC, Darchinyan was from Armenia

 

[SuperLuigi]

Seriously Korean mom having people have to be the most overrepresented people in prize fighting gold. GGG, Bivol, BJ Penn, Ben Henderson, plus all the full blooded Koreans like Hong Man Choi.

 

[aries]

i was curious to find bivol is 1/2 romanian 1/2 korean
raised in Kyrgyzstan, and moved to russia when he was 11

golovkin is also 1/2 korean 1/2 russian

coincidentally 2 of the 3 best russians in the sport

Add to that the great Kostya Tszyu, quarter Korean, quarter Mongolian and half Russian. Seems like a good mix.

 

[aries]

Not really. There's very few central Asian/Caucasian boxers. Good ones, anyway.

Kazakhstan boxers have won at least one gold medal in every Olympics since 1996, boasting 22 men's and women's medals. Not bad for a country of 19 million. We will see more of them make it through in the professional ranks I'm sure.

 

[SandisLL]

Why not.
Actually soviet boxing initially was ....KD/KO type boxing not point fighting. Very close to pro boxing in 1925-1950 ies...while with 3 rounds ( mainly ) and it was....cool.
Later since 1960 ies coaches adapted stuff more and more according to current am rules....imposed by world federation and IOC.
After WW2 it was...almost like western pro boxing, just with 3 rounds ( mainly ).

Ofc later they get that easier is to get points from judges if you are active, move a lot and ....preferably work in long or mid distance....
In order that old judges will easier to see your work.

Guys usually villingly are learning also vestern stuff, look even Klit hired western coach...

 

[pugilistico]

I'm full Korean and got knocked out a few times. It's probably the moldovan side

 

[ironfist05]

Kazakhstan boxers have won at least one gold medal in every Olympics since 1996, boasting 22 men's and women's medals. Not bad for a country of 19 million. We will see more of them make it through in the professional ranks I'm sure.

IIRC a Kazakh won olympic gold at WW every olympics from 2004 to 2016

 

[kfighter]

Not really. There's very few central Asian/Caucasian boxers. Good ones, anyway.



And which central Asian/Caucasian ones are there?

I sense a fragile white soyboy

 

[goldennirvana]

I sense a fragile white soyboy

It's not my fault you don't like the truth.

 

[aries]

IIRC a Kazakh won olympic gold at WW every olympics from 2004 to 2016

Didn't know that, that's very impressive for such a small country.

 

[SandisLL]

Didn't know that, that's very impressive for such a small country.

Kazahstan is larger than U.K and Ireland together.If we look on territory size.
While with small population, yeah...

 

[codfather]

On a related note, people like to exaggerate how much of Russia's recent Olympic success comes from "stealing" athletes from other ex-Soviet states.

ROC finished 5th in Tokyo 2020, and they only had 3 gold medalists born outside Russia, all 3 of which won their medals as parts of a team:

• Kazakhstan-born Sofya Velikaya won gold as part of a 3-man women's fencing sabre team.
  
• Moldova-born Artur Dalaloyan won gold as part of a 4-man men's artistic gymnastics all-around team.
• Ukraine-born Marina Goliadkina won gold as part of an 8-man women's artistic swimming team.

ROC finished 9th in Beijing 2022, and every single one of their gold medalists was born in Russia.

 

[Osculater]

I'm full Korean and got knocked out a few times. It's probably the moldovan side