Matvey Georgiyevich Korobov (; born 7 January 1983) is a Russian-American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

. He challenged once for the

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title in 2014, as well as the WBC interim middleweight title in 2018 and the WBA interim middleweight title in 2019. As an

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he won consecutive gold medals at the

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and 2007 World Championships, and gold at the 2005 Boxing World Cup; all in the middleweight division. Korobov retired from sports in 2023.

Amateur career

Korobov won the European junior title in 2001. He became Russian champion in 2003 and 2004 but did not participate in the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

as his country chose to send Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov, who had lost to him but eventually won Olympic gold. He won the world championships in 2005 against Emilio Correa and the European Championships in 2006, defeating

Oleksandr Usyk Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk (, ; born 17 January 1987) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held the unified champion (boxing), unified heavyweight championship since 2021, and the ''The Ring (magazine), Ring'' magazine title since 2022 ...

. He calls his World Cup win over Cuban Yordanis Despaigne the hardest fight of his amateur career, he helped to edge out a 6:5 team win. In 2005 he was part of the Russian team that won the 2005 Boxing World Cup. He once again won the world title by easily beating Sergiy Derevyanchenko and dominating Alfonso Blanco in 2007 by a score of PTS 29:4. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

he was off-form and was upset in his second bout by Bakhtiyar Artayev. He decided to turn pro afterwards. His record was 300-12.

World Amateur championship results

2005 *Defeated Dzhakhon Kurbanov (Tajikistan) RSC *Defeated Jarrod Fletcher (Australia) RSC *Defeated Darren Sutherland (Ireland) RSCO 3 *Defeated Emilio Correa (Cuba) 49-25 *Defeated Ismail Syllakh (Ukraine) RSCO 2 2007 *Defeated Francy Ntetu (Canada) RSC 3 *Defeated Hamyoun Amiri (Irán) RSCO 3 *Defeated Carlos Góngora (Ecuador) RSCO 3 *Defeated Wang Jianzheng (China) 22-3 *Defeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko (Ukraine) AB 2 *Defeated Alfonso Blanco (boxer) (Venezuela) 29-4

Olympic results

2008 *Defeated Naim Terbunja (Albania) 18-6 *Lost to Bakhtiyar Artayev (Kazakhstan) 7-10

Professional career

In his first world title fight on 13 December 2014, Korobov faced

Andy Lee Andy Lee may refer to: __NOTOC__ Sportspeople * Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter * Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer * Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City * Andy Lee (footb ...

for the vacant WBO middleweight title. Even though he was doing well for the first five rounds, the Russian would end up hurt and then knocked out in the sixth round, losing his opportunity to become a world champion for the first time in his career. On 22 December 2018, WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo was slated to defend his belt against Willie Monroe Jr. However, Monroe Jr's VADA tests came out positive for a banned substance, which meant a new opponent for Charlo was in the works. Korobov ended up being the substitution and gave Charlo a very tough fight, however, was still unable to come out with the win. Korobov started the fight really strong, but gave up the latter part to the WBC champion. After a controversial

majority draw A majority draw is an outcome in several full-contact combat sports, including boxing, mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporatin ...

against Immanuwel Aleem, Korobov, WBA's number #3 at middleweight at the time would go on to fight WBA's #1, Chris Eubank Jr. for the vacant WBA interim middleweight title, which was also the final eliminator for the full WBA middleweight title. Korobov lost the fight by a second-round TKO after suffering an injury to his left shoulder.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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2001 resultsInterview by FightnewsMatt Korobov
at PremierBoxingChampions
Matt Korobov - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korobov, Matvey Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers for Russia 1983 births People from Yagodninsky District Middleweight boxers Living people Russian male boxers AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Sportspeople from Magadan Oblast 21st-century Russian sportsmen