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
WBO
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...
middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...
title in 2014, as well as the
WBC interim middleweight title in 2018 and the
WBA interim middleweight title in 2019. As an
amateur
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
he won consecutive gold medals at the
2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
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
*
2001 resultsInterview by FightnewsMatt Korobovat
PremierBoxingChampionsMatt Korobov - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankingsa
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