Dmitry Yurievich Pirog (russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Пирог; born 27 June 1980) is a Russian politician and former
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 bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
. In boxing he competed from 2005 to 2012, and held the
WBO 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 be ...
title from 2010 to 2012. Although his career was cut short due to a debilitating back injury, he is one of the few professional boxers to
win a world championship and retire undefeated.
Early life and amateur career
At the age of eight, Pirog was a keen
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
player and won some tournaments in the town of
Temryuk
Temryuk ( rus, Темрю́к, p=tʲɪmˈrʲʉk) is a town and the administrative center of Temryuksky District in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Taman Peninsula on the right bank of the Kuban River not far from its entry into the Temr ...
, Russia.
[Sukachev, Alexey (21 June 2010)]
"Dmitry Pirog Talks American Debut, Daniel Jacobs, More"
BoxingScene. Retrieved 25 January 2016. However, he soon felt as though he was not getting enough activity from chess, and decided to seek a sport instead. At his local gym, he discovered boxing and began fighting 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 ...
, having relocated to the city of
Krasnodar
Krasnodar (; rus, Краснода́р, p=krəsnɐˈdar; ady, Краснодар), formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern ...
. At the early stages of his amateur career he didn't have a trainer, instead he studied carefully
VHS tapes of
Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professiona ...
and later
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (''né'' Sinclair; February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer. He currently owns a team in the NASCAR Cup Series named The Money Team Racing. As a professional boxer he competed b ...
, which affected his style heavily. In his amateur career, Pirog claims to have won 200 fights and lost 30,
[ all of which prepared him for the professional ranks.
]
Professional career
Early career
Pirog made his professional debut on 29 July 2005, scoring a sixth-round technical knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
over fellow debutant Sasun Oganyan. On his fourth fight, he defeated Sergey Tatevosyan to become the Russian national 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 be ...
champion. Tatevosyan was an experienced veteran and gave Pirog a tough fight, but Pirog's skills ultimately prevailed and he won a unanimous decision
A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...
98–91, 98–93, and 97–95. From late 2007 to early 2010, Pirog won many regional and international 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 be ...
titles from both the WBC and WBO.[
]
WBO middleweight champion
Pirog's first world title shot arrived on 31 July 2010, against fellow undefeated prospect Daniel Jacobs, with the vacant WBO middleweight title on the line. The belt had last belonged to Sergio Martínez, who was stripped due to not complying with the WBO's rules. Pirog came in as a relatively unknown contender to American audiences, while Jacobs had the overwhelming backing of manager Al Haymon
Al Haymon (born April 21, 1955) is an American businessman and boxing manager. He was the manager of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and has won the Boxing Writers of America Manager of the Year Award five times.
Early life
Haymon was raised in Cleveland, ...
and promoters Golden Boy, as well as a very high knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
percentage. Jacobs started the fight well and was ahead by 39–37 on all scorecards by round four. However, Pirog managed to hurt Jacobs with a right hand. In the fifth round of the fight, Pirog scored a major upset when he knocked Jacobs down with a hard right hand. Jacobs was unable to get back up and the referee waved off the fight, giving Pirog a knockout win and making him the new WBO middleweight champion. After the fight, Pirog said "After the second round, I knew I was good. I hurt him in the second and I knew I could come back and do it again."
Pirog's exposure to worldwide audiences grew overnight, as the fight took place on HBO pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
as part of the undercard to Juan Manuel Márquez vs. Juan Díaz II. However, in his subsequent two years as champion, Pirog only managed to make three defences, the last of which took place on 1 May 2012. In this fight, Pirog scored a wide unanimous decision, with scores of 120–108, 119–109, and 117–111, against Nobuhiro Ishida
is a Japanese former professional boxer. He is a former WBA interim super welterweight champion who is best known for knocking out James Kirkland in a middleweight bout at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in April 2011. Ishida has so far been promote ...
.
Injury and retirement
On 25 August 2012, Pirog was stripped of his title by the WBO after choosing to fight WBA and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin instead of WBO interim
An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities.
Interim may also refer to:
Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept)
*Provis ...
champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam
Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (born 18 February 1984) is a French Cameroonian professional boxer. He has held a middleweight world championship twice, including the WBO title in 2012 and the WBA (Regular) title in 2017, and has challenged once for a ...
. During training for the Golovkin fight, Pirog suffered a serious back injury—a ruptured disc—which forced cancellation of the fight. Several comeback attempts by Pirog to face Golovkin on an HBO pay-per-view main event were thwarted by ongoing back problems, effectively forcing his premature retirement.
Personal life
Pirog is a diploma graduate of Kuban State University
The Kuban State University (russian: Кубанский государственный университет KubSU) is a university in Krasnodar, in the Kuban area of southern Russia. It was founded on September 19, 1920, and since then it ...
and holds a managerial boxing license. Some of the boxers he has managed include Fedor Papazov and Vasily Lepikhin. In 2010, Pirog was the vice president of the Professional Boxing Federation in the Southern Federal District
The Southern Federal District ( rus, Ю́жный федера́льный о́круг, Yuzhny federalny okrug, ˈjuʐnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the federal districts of Russia, eight federal districts of Russia. Its territor ...
of Russia.[https://en.crimerussia.com/gover/private-ambulances-real-estate-in-spain-and-estranged-spouses-main-trends-of-officials-income-declar/]
Political career
In March 2017, Pirog replaced Alexander Metkin in the State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
, the Russian lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
, representing governing party United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Russian conservative political party. As the largest party in Russia, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the State Duma , havin ...
.
On 24 March 2022, the United States Treasury sanctioned him in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
.
Professional boxing record
See also
*List of middleweight boxing champions Championship recognition
1884–1910
Champions were recognized by public acclamation. A champion in that era was a fighter who had a notable win over another fighter and kept winning afterward. Retirements or disputed results could lead to a cha ...
*List of WBO world champions
This is a list of WBO world champions, showing every world champion certified by the World Boxing Organization (WBO). The WBO is one of the four major governing bodies in professional boxing, and has awarded world championships in 17 different wei ...
*List of undefeated boxing world champions
This is a list of world champions in professional boxing who retired undefeated, either during or after a title reign(s). It excludes current titleholders. Each champion's record is shown in the following format: wins–losses–draws.
Undefeated ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirog, Dmitry
1980 births
World Boxing Organization champions
Living people
Russian male boxers
World middleweight boxing champions
Undefeated world boxing champions
People from Temryuksky District
Sportspeople from Krasnodar
Seventh convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Eighth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Russian individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions