Konstantin Petrovich Ponomarev (russian: Константин Петрович Пономарев; born 17 October 1992) is a Russian

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 the

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

division. Ponomarev made his debut on at the age of 17, without much of an amateur background. He fought under promotional outfit Ural Boxing Promotions. At 18, he moved to Mexico and briefly trained with

Ignacio Beristáin Ignacio "Nacho" Beristáin (born July 31, 1939, in Actopan, Veracruz, Mexico) is a Mexican trainer in the sport of boxing. Beristain is a member of the Boxing Hall of Fame and is considered one of the greatest trainers in the history of boxing. ...

. In 2014, Ponomarev signed with

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including Muh ...

. Ponomarev started training with

Gennady Golovkin Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (Cyrillic: ; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time ...

's trainer,

Abel Sanchez Abel Sanchez is a Mexican-American boxing trainer. He is best known as the former coach of Gennady Golovkin, and has trained other boxers such as Lupe Aquino, Terry Norris, and Murat Gassiev. Early life Sanchez was born in Tijuana, Mexico ...

, shortly after. He defeated

Cosme Rivera Cosme Rivera Yucupicio (born 19 July 1976) is a Mexican professional boxer. He held the WBO– NABO light welterweight title in 1999, the WBC Continental Americas light welterweight title in 2002, the WBA Fedecentro & WBO Latino welterweight t ...

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 ...

(100-90, 100–90, 98–82) in his first fight under the American promotion. In May 2015, Ponomarev claimed the NABF title, beating

Mikaël Zewski Mikaël Zewski (born February 13, 1989) is a Canadian professional boxer. At regional level he has held multiple welterweight titles, including the WBC- NABF title from 2014 to 2015 and the WBO- NABO title from 2019 to 2020. Amateur career Du ...

by unanimous decision (99-91, 98–92, 97–93). In 2016, the

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

ordered an eliminator between

Errol Spence Errol Spence Jr. (born March 3, 1990) is an American professional boxer. He is currently a unified welterweight world champion, having held the IBF title since May 2017, the WBC title since September 2019, and the WBA (Super) since April 2022. ...

and Ponomarev. Ponomarev and Top Rank ultimately decided to not partake in the eliminator and Spence ended up facing

Leonard Bundu Leonard Bundu (born 21 November 1974) is a Sierra Leone-born Italian former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2016. He held multiple regional welterweight championships, including the European title twice between 2011 and 2016; the Eur ...

in an eliminator. In July 2017, the IBF ordered a title eliminator between

Carlos Ocampo Carlos Cesar Ocampo Manriquez (born 9 November 1995) is a Mexican professional boxer. He challenged once for the IBF welterweight title in 2018. Amateur career As an amateur, he won silver medals in the 2009 and 2011 Mexican National Olympiads. ...

and Ponomarev. The winner will be the

mandatory challenger In professional boxing and some other combat sports, a mandatory challenger is an opponent whom a champion must either fight or be forced to vacate their title as champion. A mandatory defence is the opposite of a voluntary defence, where the champi ...

to Spence, who had become the IBF's champion. The fight was later called off as Ponomarev pulled out for undisclosed reasons. On the 21st of July 2018 Sergey Vorobiev ended Ponomarev's undefeated streak.

Professional boxing record

References

1992 births Living people Russian male boxers Welterweight boxers People from Miass Middleweight boxers Sportspeople from Chelyabinsk Oblast {{Russia-boxing-bio-stub