Professional sports are not only crazy physical activities, but also a colossal risk not only to lose health, but even to lose life. Unfortunately for all of us, this world is sometimes left by young and worthy people due to a combination of tragic circumstances. One of such famous athletes who was not destined to live to a very old age was Roman Simakov, a boxer with outstanding abilities. We will talk about him in detail in the article.
Brief information about the fighter
Roman Simakov was born on March 28, 1984 in the Siberian city of Kemerovo (Russian Federation). During his short enough life, he managed to achieve a lot: he was the Asian boxing champion in the prestigious version of the WBC, the eighth in the rating list of the same boxing organization in the world, held third place in the Russian rating, and was seventy-fourth in the World rank. He performed in the light heavyweight category and was right-handed.
Amateur Sports
Roman Simakov came to boxing at the age of 14. And just a year later, he managed to become the best at the all-Russian tournaments that took place in Kemerovo and Rubtsovsk that year. In 2000, the fighter won the Russian championship among military personnel, thanks to which he received the right to speak at the country's main championship, which was held in Kursk. The strongest boxers of the state gathered at that tournament. Roman Simakov spent four fights and became the champion. Such success allowed him to go to the 2000 European Championships. And it should be said that the championship of the Old World also obeyed the Russian - he became the best among boxers whose age did not exceed 17 years.
The very next year, the athlete became the champion of Russia, and in 2002 became the winner of the same tournament. At the Cup of the country, the boxer took an honorable second place.
Since 2003, Roman Simakov began to actively perform among adults and almost immediately won the international tournament in Kemerovo and took the “silver” of the Russian Winter Championship among boxers under 23, for which he received the title of Master of Sports.
In 2004, the athlete won the competition of the Siberian Federal District and the All-Russian tournament.
In 2007, Roman Simakov, a boxer with excellent equipment, attended a long training camp in Germany, where he actively sparred with professional world-class athletes.
In total, our hero spent 210 matches in amateurs, of which 185 he won, with 120 ahead of schedule.
Career in the pros
Roman Simakov - a boxer whose photo is given in the article, first entered the ring as a professional in 2008 in Yekaterinburg. Already in the first fight, he rigidly knocked out his opponent in the second three-minute period. In the same year, the fighter was in Germany three times to conduct crucial training camps with the current world champions.
In 2009, the Russian fought with a Kazakh boxer thanks to the assistance of the legendary Kostya Tszyu. Roman confidently defeated his opponent and received the Alexander Tikhonov Cup .
The first title fight
In July 2009, Simakov fought for the Baltic title with Vasily Lepikhin, who had no defeats at that time. In the first round, Roman was better, but in the third he was knocked down, and after the meeting he lost by a separate referee's decision.
2010 was also a busy year for Simakov. He boxed three times in international matches and twice in rating matches. In all these meetings, he was able to win, and in the summer held training camps in Ghana. Seeing boxing in Africa, Roman concluded that he should choose an opponent from this continent and subsequently held a successful match for himself with a representative of the African boxing elite.
Serious success
In the spring of 2011, Roman met with Kenyan Douglas Otieno. The fight took place in a twelve-round format, since the WBC Asia belt was at stake. The Russian was able to beat his opponent and become a champion.
After this fight, Simakov co-trained with such outstanding boxers as Karo Murat, Arthur Abraham and others.
Tragedy
Roman Simakov is a boxer whose personal life has never been well known to the public. But his career has always been under the gun of specialists and journalists.
December 5, 2011 there was a duel between him and then still not too famous Sergey Kovalev.
The applicant from the very beginning of the battle seized the initiative and literally beat the champion. As a result, in the seventh round, Roman fell on the canvas, and the referee stopped the match. Simakov almost immediately rose, but fell again and lost consciousness. Doctors carried him out of the ring on a stretcher and sent him to the hospital, where he eventually died on December 8 from a brain hemorrhage without regaining consciousness. Relatives of the boxer did not have time to say goodbye to him. Friends of the athlete paid for boxing gloves made of stone, which were installed on his tombstone in the cemetery.
As a sign of respect and memory, after defeating Chilemba, Kovalev transferred part of his fee to Roman’s parents.