Yuri who? (Yuri Arbachakov)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Yuri Arbachakov
Date:	29/05/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Skill,power, a greta lil man

Disadvantages: the matter that he wasn't well known

Boxing at the lower weights is often a forgotten part of the sport, with a highly blas view in the modern western world of the likes of the great flyweights such as Armenian great Yuri Arbachakov. Yuri was arguably the first true great exponent to the professional ranks that the former USSR gave the world, and what a fighter he was.

Yuri started like most in the amateur ranks, for the USSR in the 1980's and reaching the pinnacle of his amateur career with a gold medal in the World Boxing Championships held in Moscow in 1989, which was coupled with a win in the European Championships the same year in Athens, both medals coming in the Flyweight division.

Before turning pro Yuri's record stood at an astonishing 165-21 with 53 KO's.

Yuri made his professional dbut in Japan where the little men of boxing are seen with a lot less contempt than they are in the west, on the 1st of February 1990. Yuri's impact was felt by Alan Tanaka who was stopped in the third round by the Armenian, who would stop all his opponents of his first year, ending the year 6-0 (6).

1991 was an equally good year for the fighter who was now re-named by the gym he fought for, to Yuri Ebihara, after the former Japanese world champion (Hiroyuki Ebihara-Who was the first world Flyweight champion, with the WBC, and was also recognised by RING and WBA). A 7th stoppage win (against Hyun Ki Lee, in round 4) lead to Yuri to get a shot at the Japanese Flyweight title in his 8th fight (sometimes incorrectly mentioned as his 7th) against Takahiro Mizuno. Mizuno was overwhelmed in the first and stopped after an early blitz, handing the Armenian amateur star his first professional trinket.

After 2 successive 5th round KO defences of his title he went looking for bigger fish to fry and had two fights with Samanchai Chalermsri, the first went the 10 round distance, the first of Yuri's career, the rematch was over in the third as Yuri advanced ever closer to a world title fight. He got his chance at Muangchai Kittikasem (the WBC Flyweight champion of the time) in the summer of 1992.
The fight was a mini classic with Yuri fighting back from a third round knock-down to dethrone the Thai star by 8th round KO from a beautiful counter shot, becoming the champion in just his 13th fight, Yuri was now 13-0 with 12 wins inside the distance.

Yuri's first defence was against Yun Un Chin, who took Yuri the distance for just his second time as a professional. The second defence though was a rematch with Muangchai Kittikasem which was controversial, with it being fought in the Thai's home land. When the Thai was in a bit of trouble, the bell was rang early to save their man, though it did little to help their man who was stopped in the 9th round.
Ysaias Zamudio was the champions summer defence who had gone back to his birth name after winning the title due to language problems (the Japanese name was rather close to a swear word in Russian).

Zamudio would copy Chin and take Yuri the long and hard 12 rounds, so would his winter opponent, Ham Hoon cha in December of 1993.

1994 started with a non-title fight against Hiroshi Kobayashi in May, which saw Yuri again take home the victory via a 9th round tko. His following defence lasted 1 less round with Hugo Rafael Soto only stretching the now wonderfully rated by boxing insiders Yuri, who had racked up 6 defences in 2 years.

Oscar Arciniega was the next challenger for the title in the summer of 1995 who again took Yuri the distance likewise did the following challenger Chatchai Sasakul in September of '95. Raul Juarez would also take the great man the distance in February of 1996, however the following fight was the start of the end for Yuri who was now etching his names into the books as one of the greatest flyweight champions. A fight with Takato Tokuchi in July of 1996 which ended in the 9th by TKO by Yuri would see him injure his hand quite badly in his 9th defence. The injury forced him into a lay off until November the following year when a rematch with Sasakul (who had picked up the interim title) was arranged.

Yuri was 23-0 with 16 KO's leading into the fight, but was just shy of his 31st birthday, which for a fly weight is ancient. The younger Sasakul was 27 and in his prime, having lost just 1 of his previous contests (the first match with Yuri) this was a true revenge fight for Sasakul, who won a points decision for the WBC Flyweight title.
After the fight Yuri retired (in January of 1998) while Sasakul made 2 defences in 1998 before running into Philippine sensation Manny Pacquaio who picked up the title in late 1998 becoming the first man to stop Sasakul.

Yuri's 9 defences during his 5 year reign is one of the best seen in the division, as champion he also became the first former USSR boxer to turn professional to win a world title.

Summary: One of the best boxers you wont have heard off