Oleksandr Gvozdyk has every excuse to retire. He\u2019s had 22 pro fights, many of them against feared light heavyweight punchers, and spent time as the lineal champion of the division. He took Artur Beterbiev\u2019s best in 2019, resulting in a tenth-round stoppage loss that actually did see him take a three-year break from the sport. And with the 175lbs class stacked with quality fighters, most would believe that Gvozdyk\u2019s time has passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not only is Gvozdyk not done, his training routines at 38 years old are the same as earlier in his career. He wants activity. And he wants another world title. <\/p>\n
But first, Gvozdyk will fight Anthony Hollaway on April 19, his first fight since a unanimous decision loss to the surging David Benavidez in July 2024. The fight will be on the undercard of Gabriela Fundora\u2019s undisputed flyweight title defense against Marilyn Badillo Amaya.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to interpret Gvozdyk\u2019s 10-month layoff as time needed to recover from the effects of \u201cThe Mexican Monster\u2019s\u201d power punches, or time spent contemplating retirement. <\/p>\n
Gvozdyk set the record straight in a conversation with BoxingScene. \u201cI was ready to fight basically in September, right after my fight,\u201d he said. A fight with a 15-1 opponent, whose name Gvozdyk can\u2019t recall, fell through. \u201cNow, finally, I get an opportunity to fight, and that\u2019s great.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to stay active,\u201d Gvozdyk stressed. \u201cLook, I\u2019m not delusional. I\u2019m 38 years old, and there\u2019s not a time where I can wait for a couple years before the next fight. I want to fight any fighters. I\u2019m willing to fight the best one, I\u2019m willing to fight just some fighter just to stay active. I\u2019m open to any options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gvozdyk\u2019s aspirations are strikingly high, particularly so for someone nearing the end of their fourth decade who has been through some wars, to boot. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo become world champion again is the main goal,\u201d Gvozdyk said. \u201cI will try to make it here at light heavyweight. If it\u2019s not gonna work, I\u2019m gonna move up and [try] cruiserweight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The willingness to move up to 200lbs reflects the depth of Gvozdyk\u2019s ambition \u2013 he\u2019s fought at 175 for his whole career, and while most fighters struggle to remain in their initial weight class as they age, Gvozdyk said he has no issues making light heavyweight. <\/p>\n
If Gvozdyk, 20-2 (16 KOs) gets through Hollaway \u2013 and if he retains even the majority of the skills he had at his peak, he likely will, Hollaway is 9-7-3 \u2013 he\u2019d like to fight Callum Smith. Last seen in a war with Joshua Buatsi (which Gvozdyk didn\u2019t watch in its entirety, but did catch highlights of), Smith could be an excellent matchup. <\/p>\n
One might reasonably counter that at 38, and on the wrong side of an Artur Beterbiev beatdown, Gvozdyk is on the decline. And his relatively defensive, jab-heavy showing against Benavidez bolstered that notion. At the same time, Gvozdyk was in excellent condition and took Benavidez\u2019s punches well. A fight with Smith figures to be more competitive. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I\u2019m 38, I still feel healthy and young inside, so, perfect. I still have some time,\u201d Gvozdyk said.<\/p>\n
Gvozdyk seemed more burned out from events outside of the ring than inside it. Asked about the ongoing war in his home country of Ukraine, Gvozdyk was understandably weary. <\/p>\n
\u201cListen, it\u2019s already happened for more than two years,\u201d he said. \u201cI even limited myself in watching news, because the only thing you\u2019re getting from there is some bad news. It\u2019s horrible, and I\u2019m supporting my country as much as I can. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I do about it? If I would be able to stop it, I would. But unfortunately, I can\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gvozdyk\u2019s father remains in Ukraine, and at his advanced age would prefer to stay than relocate to the United States with his son. \u201cFor him, it\u2019s better to live in Ukraine under war conditions than to move here to the United States. So it\u2019s his decision, and I cannot force him. So he\u2019s in Ukraine, and seems to be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gvozdyk is blunt and honest. He does not try to sell the idea that Hollaway is better than his record, or that the fight will be an action blockbuster. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo disrespect to Anthony at all, but we just take the fight which is available,\u201d Gvozdyk said. \u201cWe were supposed to fight different guy, but it didn\u2019t work out \u2026 basically, Anthony [took] the fight on short notice, 10 days. We just take the fight which is available.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked at the end of the interview if there is anything he wants to say that he hadn\u2019t been given the opportunity to, Gvozdyk offered \u201cno, not really. All good. Thank you,\u201d instead of the seemingly inevitable \u201cmake sure you tune in on April 19.\u201d His track record and lofty goals are sufficient reason to care about his results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Gvozdyk has every excuse to retire. He\u2019s had 22 pro fights, many of them against feared light…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4496,4495,19520,16965,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-33305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-boxingscene","11":"tag-david-benavidez","12":"tag-oleksandr-gvozdyk","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114365423021489808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}