Olympic Champion fights King Kong and destiny warns Jono Carroll
If nothing can stop destiny, Albert Batyrgaziev is in trouble warns Jono Carroll.
‘King Kong’ is in Moscow where he fights undefeated former amateur sensation Albert Batyrgaziev for the vacant WBA interim super featherweight world title.
Russian ‘Al Ba’ only has 10 pro fights on his slate but has won all 10 with seven coming inside the distance. The 24-year-old also boasts a brilliant amateur CV and won Olympic gold in Tokyo.
The IBA Champions’ Night in Serpukhov is meant to be a big coming-out party for the Russian and it’s been arranged in a bit to secure him a shot at World champion Lamont Roach, who made a successful defence against Tyrone’s Feargal McCrory last month.
However, the Dubliner says he is in Russia to spoil the party and claims nothing will get in the way of his world-title dream.
The 32-year-old southpaw strongly believes now is his time and that he goes into the fight armed with weapons his opponent can’t compete with faith and destiny.
“I feel like I need to win a world title,” he tells Irish-boxing.com
“I feel like I’m destined to win a world title. I also feel that I didn’t choose to box, boxing chose me. I kept getting opportunities and I dedicated my life to it because of those opportunities.
“God put me on this path in order to win a world title. I don’t feel he would have put me on this path if I wasn’t going to win one because I never wanted to be number 2.
“My Dad always told me if you’re not going to be the best then don’t bother. I think it’s destiny that I win a world title.”
Discussing how important boxing is to him he adds: “I lost my mom in a car crash when I was 15 and I didn’t care about my life any longer; but in the ring, my life gets the purpose back.
When asked about his opponent’s Olympic pedigree comments: ‘I’ve never boxed against someone with Olympic gold medal, and he didn’t have any seasoned pro on his record.
“During the first year of my amateur career, I had two fights, in the next two years I took part in 67 more. I couldn’t be an amateur boxer any longer because I needed to provide for the family, so I chose professional boxing. I didn’t dream to become an Olympic champion because I needed to earn money first.’”
