Kazakhstan is a nation well renowned for the quality of fighters that they produce. Predominantly, they have been known as a nation of great boxers, particularly in the amateur game but also in the pros. Current examples of successful Kazakh boxers include middleweight king Janibek Alimkhanuly, Sultan Zaurbek, and Sergey Lipinets. And the all-time great and arguably the best middleweight ever Gennadiy Golovkin AKA GGG. Kazakhstan has also started having success in MMA with contender and next UFC welterweight title challenger undefeated Shavkat Rahmonov. Kazakhstan haven’t produced many heavyweights of renown however one stands out amongst the rest Ivan Dychko.
Ivan Dychko is a 34-year-old, 6’9( probably closer to 6’7), 236lb Kazakh heavyweight based in America. He has an exceptional amateur resume with a record of 84-15 with many achievements. In the professionals, he has been underwhelming however amassed a record demonstrative of his ability being 14-0 with 13 of those wins being by KO. Dychko has a methodical style befitting his amateur pedigree finding his range with jabs and right hands and then turning up the heat.
The Extensive Amateur Career Of Ivan Dychko
As befitting a fighter from the former Eastern Bloc Dychko had a very extensive amateur career. His amateur career spanned from 2007-2016 and by the end of his amateur career had a record of 84-15. Throughout this amateur career, Dychko would win many tournaments and pick up wins over impressive names and also lose to recognisable names.
From early on Dychko was achieving high coming 2nd at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships 2008. In 2009 he would run into Zhelei Zhang for the first time and would lose on points. He would also lose to another somewhat recognisable name Sergey Kuzmin. He would then come across Zhang for the second time in the 2010 Asian Games and would lose on points again coming 2nd. In 2011 He would come third in the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships. Despite coming third in that tournament he would finally beat Zhang on points. He would also pick up a win over another recognisable name Filip Hrgovic.
2012 would be a big year for Dychko as he would have his first stint in the Olympics. At the 2012 London Olympics, he would make it to the semi-finals and run into a very recognisable name Anthony Joshua. He would lose on points to Joshua and pick an Olympic Bronze medal. However, rather than turn professional Dychko would elect to continue his amateur career.
Following the loss to Joshua Dychko would go on a great winning streak in 2013. He would win the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships 2013 and come 2nd at the AIBA World Boxing Championships 2013. In 2014 he would have the first of his run-ins with Bakhodir Jalalov and would beat him on points. This would set the trend for the 4 other times he would fight Jalalov.
Continued Amateur success
2014 also saw Dychko win the 2014 Asian Games and in 2015 had success in the World Series of Boxing. 2015 was another eventful year for Dychko as he would run into Jalalov twice. The first time was at the 2015 Asian Amateur Boxing championships which Dychko would win and subsequently win the tournament. He again encountered Jalalov at the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships and again beat him on points. Dychko would make it far in this tournament but would lose the final to another recognisable name Tony Yoka coming 2nd.
2016 would be the final year of Dychko’s amateur career beating Jalalov again and would be when he competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In his first bout, he would beat highly decorated Uzbek amateur rival Mahammadrasul Majidov. Dychko and Majidov had fought three times before Dychko winning the first encounter and Majidov the subsequent two. Dychko would even score winning this bout.
The Olympic campaign would continue and Dychko ran into another name that should ring some bells Efe Ajagbe. He would defeat Ajagbe and make it to the semi-finals against another recognisable name Joe Joyce. Dychko would lose on points but still come out with another Olympic Bronze Medal. Following this defeat would be when Dychko finally decided to turn pro.
Dychko’s Professional Career
Dychko’s professional career has been a mixed bag as despite the success being 14-0 the progress has been slow and the level of competition inadequate. At first, Dycho’s career was off to a blinding start having 4 fights in 2017 all in the US. A perfect start is being active and fighting somewhere which will get you noticed. Understandably, the level of competition wasn’t that high as Dychko had just turned pro. Come 2018, he would again be very active, fighting 3 times again in the US against slightly better competition.
However, in 2019 we started to see Dychko’s career slow down he would only fight twice and both times in the US. To be fair this is likely the result of Covid which for a lot of boxers who weren’t massively known shut down their careers for a while. In Dychko’s case, it meant he did not fight at all in 2020 and would come back in the 2nd half of 2021. He would only fight twice in 2021 against some slightly better competition and would be fighting in his native Kazakhstan. The inactivity at this point is understandable due to the nature of the pandemic however Dychko still has remained fairly inactive.
He only fought once in 2022 in some show in Argentina and would be the only fight of his pro career to make it to a decision. Again in 2023 same story of one fight in Argentina however but this time knocked his opponent out. It should also be mentioned he also took a step backwards in his level of competition which wasn’t great to begin with. In 2024 he did take a step back up in competition and fought in the US but frustratingly only once.
Career Going Forward
Ivan Dychko was scheduled to fight on the 27th of December in Kazakhstan however had to pull out due to injury. He suffered a shoulder injury and the commission would not let him fight. Now his inactivity would not be as big of an issue if Dychko was younger it would not be ideal but it would not be as big of a problem. But, Dychko is 34 years old turning 34 on August 11th this year. Whilst age is not as much of a factor at heavyweight seen in Usyk 38, Fury 36, and Zhang 41 being older when reaching the top is not ideal. Zhang has demonstrated that with his cardio issues and while Dychko has kept himself in shape for a man of his size age will take its toll as seen with his injury.
But what’s worse for Dychko more than anything is inactivity fighters need to be active it is how they stay sharp. It’s also how fighters make a name for themselves by actually fighting. In fact, I had not even heard about Dychko until his most recent fight announcement which is insane given his amateur pedigree. This also leads to another point the matchmaking and Dychko’s promotion.
Dychko seems to be fighting under the Allstar’s Boxing banner and may have some relationship with ProBoxTv fighting on one of their cards. That may be part of the problem he is fighting for smaller promotions which may be unable to keep him active or get him the bigger fights. Promotions such as Queensberry and Matchroom are the promotions with the best heavyweight stables. So if Dychko wants the bigger fights and steps up in competition he needs to get with a bigger promoter.
Mismanagement
Ivan Dychko is currently being managed by Ziya Aliyev and Elvis Crespo who in the pro game are relatively obscure names. Aliyev only manages a handful of fighters including Mahammadrasul Majidov(3-1), Daniyar Yeleussinov(12-0), and Dychko. Crispo also helps manage Yeleussinov as well as Dychko. This pair have done a mixed job. Like Dychko, Yeleussinov faced tougher opponents, such as Julius Indongo, but fought less frequently, with gaps until 2024.
As for Majidov he fought twice in 2019, once in 2020, once in 2021 and got knocked out. Since then Majidov has not fought until this year when he fought on an obscure card in Azerbaijan. So they have been a mixed bag doing decent for Dychko and Yeleussinov initially in getting them fights but have gradually become less able to.
Dychko should really get with new management or if nothing else try and get his management to sign him with an actual known promotion. Dychko is very talented, as shown by his record in the amateurs, and almost definitely could do well against some better opposition. If he’s fine with the management at least get them to sign him with a bigger promotion. Dychko should be an easy sell to any promotion a massive heavyweight with a great amateur record.
Hopefully, 2025 is the year Dychko will be able to get some momentum for his professional career. It would be a shame to see such a decorated amateur who has beaten some of the current elites in the amateurs not to prove himself in the professionals. We shall see what the future holds for the career of Ivan Dychko.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
