Former Kazakh amateur standout retires
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Earlier this month news broke from Kazakhstan that former amateur standout Kamshybek Kunkabayev (5-0, 4) [Камшыбек Кункабаев] had decided to hang up his gloves and retire from the sport at the age of 33.
As a professional Kunkabayev promised a lot, and made his debut in 2-020, stopping veteran Issa Akberbayev in his debut, in 2 rounds. It looked at the time like he was on the fast track to the top at Cruiserweight, and in little more than 6 months he had also stopped Serhiy Radchenko and Server Emurlaev, to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Cruiserweight title By the end of 2021 he had also added Steven Ward to resume to move to 4-0 (3), whilst also claiming the WBA Gold title. Sadly as a professional he would only fight once more, stopping Farrukh Juraev in 2 rounds in early 2022.
Despite his professional career being little more than a footnote Kunkabayev was a stand out amateur winning silver medals at the World Amateur Championships (2017, 2019), Asian Championships (2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and the Asian Games (2022, 2023) as well as a bronze medal at the Olympics (2020). During his long amateur career he beat the likes of Bakhodir Jalolov (in both the Amatuers and the WSB), Solomon Dacres (again as both an amateur and in the WSB) and Sergey Egorov.
As an amateur Kunkabayev’s final bout will be the 2024 Olympics loss to Ayoub Ghadfa.
The news was announced by Kazakh head coach Kairat Satjanov, and subsequently reported through the Kazakh boxing press.
As a professional Kunkabayev promised a lot, and made his debut in 2-020, stopping veteran Issa Akberbayev in his debut, in 2 rounds. It looked at the time like he was on the fast track to the top at Cruiserweight, and in little more than 6 months he had also stopped Serhiy Radchenko and Server Emurlaev, to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Cruiserweight title By the end of 2021 he had also added Steven Ward to resume to move to 4-0 (3), whilst also claiming the WBA Gold title. Sadly as a professional he would only fight once more, stopping Farrukh Juraev in 2 rounds in early 2022.
Despite his professional career being little more than a footnote Kunkabayev was a stand out amateur winning silver medals at the World Amateur Championships (2017, 2019), Asian Championships (2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and the Asian Games (2022, 2023) as well as a bronze medal at the Olympics (2020). During his long amateur career he beat the likes of Bakhodir Jalolov (in both the Amatuers and the WSB), Solomon Dacres (again as both an amateur and in the WSB) and Sergey Egorov.
As an amateur Kunkabayev’s final bout will be the 2024 Olympics loss to Ayoub Ghadfa.
The news was announced by Kazakh head coach Kairat Satjanov, and subsequently reported through the Kazakh boxing press.