ALEXANDER'S EX-ATTORNEY ABOUT WORKING ON BOXER'S CONTRACTS, FRIENDSHIP WITH LOPEZ AND LOMACHENKO'S PROSPECTS
In a
heart-to-heart male conversation, Mykola Kovalchuk told why Usyk surprised him,
why Teofimo Lopez and his father are very grateful to Honduras and why he
celebrated US Independence Day at Terence Crawford's house.
- Mr. Mykola, you have
been an attorney to Oleksandr Usyk. When did you start cooperation?
I was
not hired as a lawyer, but I was his attorney. Also, our law firm provided him
with a range of services for the registration of trademark rights, including
USYK, USYK-17, LOMUS and other. We have built the right legal models of brand
ownership, carried out constant systematic monitoring of infringements of
Alexander's intellectual property rights and instantly eliminated such infringements,
using certain legal mechanisms. We also accompanied all his family affairs,
audited transactions. Personally, as his lawyer, I audited and adjusted his boxing
contracts for fights, promotional and co-promotional agreements with K2
Promotion and Matchroom Boxing of Eddie Hearn's. I was also engaged in the
multilateral negotiation of conditions of matches and much more.
I was
introduced to Oleksandr by Serhiy and Tetyana Vatamanyuk, with whom we are family
friends. It was Serhiy, as his coach and manager in Ukraine, who insisted that
Oleksandr should have proper legal support and asked me to get involved in this
process in 2017. I have a law firm with relevant competent specialists in
respective fields and I am personally familiar with the sports and boxing
specifics of the legal aspects. As a friend of Serhiy and a big fan of boxing,
of course, I accepted this offer. Moreover, I carried out all this array of Pro
Bono work, that is, for free.
- Maybe you
immediately made a key mistake when you started working with Usyk under Pro
Bono terms? After all, even in my head there is an idea that a qualified lawyer
cannot work for free. By the way, was it your initiative, Serhiy’s or Alexander’s
initiative?
We
started cooperation, as I mentioned, upon the initiative of Serhiy. My friend
asked me. In addition, we had to decide what the volumes would be and so on. I
was also very interested in this sphere. I saw the possibility of my
development as a sports lawyer, manager, because I already had the idea to do
managerial and promotional activities, which I, in fact, am doing now. And I
have absolutely no regrets. Moreover, I help and will continue to help many of
our professional boxers who do not
yet have a steady significant income. There are close friends who help me a
lot, and I help them - a kind of barter. Of course, if we have a systematic and
stable cooperation, it will be only on a commercial basis. I need to keep the
business of a law firm running, and sometimes I have to involve many lawyers in
multitasking cases. But you're right - Pro Bono relaxes customers and your work
looks less valuable, as something self-evident and appropriate, so it's really
not the best and often ungrateful way.
- How long did your
cooperation with Usyk last? How many contracts for fights were prepared?
A
little more than two years. I don't recall the exact number of contracts.
Exactly all the contracts of the Super Series. The accompaniment and the
process before the fight with Gassiev were especially difficult and capacious.
There were a lot of points that we tried to establish in favor of Alexander,
especially since he had to box in Moscow. Representatives of all 4 major boxing
organizations (WBC, WBO, WBA and IBF), a representative of the Super Series,
the Russian side, Egis Klimas and Alexander Krasyuk were involved in the
process of agreeing on all the terms of the contract. We worked especially hard
with Egis on this at the time, because there were a lot of problems failure to
fulfill obligations on the side of the Russians. Moreover, all these moments arose
on the eve of the match, about a week before. It was important not to unbalance
Oleksandr Usyk before the fight and to solve all legal problems properly.
- What surprised Usyk?
Was Alexander’s exceptional religiosity already noticeable then? Do you
understand what it was grounded on?
Usyk
is a nice guy in communication. He values his family very much, his children,
wife and mother. Usyk is a creative personality. He does not like to delve into
the routine details of processes. People like him as he is unique. That's why
his so-called hype before fights works better than with any of our boxers.
Well, except that Ivan Redkach’s hype is at the same level.
Yes,
he is a religious person, he goes to church every Sunday, he prays, and especially
a lot before fights. This, as I understand it, is to some extent a meditation
for him. He is thus even better morally balanced and approaches the fight in
the right mood. Usyk enjoys religious rituals before the fight in the locker
room as well. And that’s good, because it disciplines him.
- How did your
relationship with Usyk’s promoter Oleksandr Krasyuk and manager Egis Klimas
develop?
Relations
with Oleksandr Krasyuk have developed well. He is an open-minded person and is
easy to work with. Egis and I worked with Gassiev intensively before the fight,
because that was Alexander’s demand. Also, upon request of Egis, a week before
the fight between Hvozdyk and Stevenson for the title of world champion
according to the WBC I flew and helped him with dietetics, as the famous nutritionist
Alexander Foka did not receive his visa in time. So I was, as they say, the
hands and eyes of Foka in the diet of Alexander Hvozdyk and achieving the
required weight on the scales. I also dealt with many other organizational
issues for Hvozdyk and his coach Teddy Atlas. Then I met Alexander and Teddy.
Since then, we have been friends with Hvozdyk and his family and it is no
longer about boxing. It is more, perhaps, based on other common interests and
mutual sympathy.
- During his
professional boxing career, Usyk changed 5 coaches. Were you surprised by such
frequent changes?
No. As
the only coach whom Alexander appreciates is Anatoliy Mykolayovych Lomachenko.
This is the only authority for him and only his remarks and advice are accepted,
apparently, similar to those of his father. Anatoliy Mykolayovych has always
influenced Oleksandr's training process in one way or another. I am surprised
by another – the way he did it! Without any explanations, warnings and simple
"thank you for your work". James Ali Bashir still does not understand
how and why this happened. Vatamanyuk has been with Alexander for 5 years in a
row and worried about all the organizational details of the preparatory
process, the terms of contracts for Alexander and so on. He always tried to
achieve maximum benefit and comfort for Usyk. I know this because we were in
touch 24 hours a day and Serhiy paid attention to even the smallest details. In
short, he added work to me. And this is very correct, as I think. And so, Serhiy
learned about the termination of cooperation with mass media. Almost the same
thing happened to me. In the fall of 2019, the guys from Usyk’s team arrived,
took all the documents, thanked us and left, without any explanations. I still
do not know the reason. And the same story happened to Foka.
I will
add that “The retinue plays the king!”. Therefore, no matter how talented an
athlete is, he should be surrounded by professional people who will
professionally close those areas of activity in which the athlete is either not
competent at all, or is slightly competent. Americans often use a term that I
really like, it sounds like "to add value." Team members must
strengthen the athlete. If random people do it, the respective result will take
place. I always cite the example of a successful team of Vitaliy and Volodymyr
Klychko! With their teams and excellent work of specialists, Vitaliy and
Volodymyr have achieved and are achieving excellent results and are growing and
developing further, achieving incredibly high results in everything. They
always hire people who know more than they do.
- Did you introduce
Usyk to nutritionist Foka? Did Alexander have problems with a nutritionist
before that?
Serhiy
Vatamanyuk introduced Usyk to Oleksandr Foka. And it happened almost
simultaneously with the beginning of cooperation with me. Serhiy did everything
to staff Usyk's team with good and necessary specialists. And he was right.
Everyone must perform their job well and the boxer should not be distracted by
the details, especially in preparation for the fight. Before Foka, Usyk had no
nutritionist. And all the food and weight loss happened in an “old-fashioned”
manner, according to the Soviet classical scheme. Foka showed Alexander a
completely new, professional scientific approach. We have all seen the results,
namely, the form and functionality of Alexander in the battles with Gassiev and
Bellew. Neither before nor after that Usyk has not been in a similar form.
- Foka said that it
was you who introduced him to Lopez, after which he began to work with them.
When did you meet Teofimo and his father?
About
three years ago. He has been in constant contact with his father ever since. By
the way, Teofimo is the youngest third in the genealogy of Teofimo. His
grandfather Teofimo the Elder is from Spain, a native of Bilbao. His father,
Teofimo Lopez, was born in Honduras, where his grandfather moved with his wife.
And Teofimo the youngest was already born in the United States. Lopez, the
middle son, and Lopez, the youngest son, love and respect Lopez Senior so much
that the youngest son has a tattoo of his grandfather's birthday in Roman
numerals on his chest.
Another
interesting story about the support of the boxing establishment of Lopez:
Teofimo was discarded from the team, although he had a license and had to box
for the US team. And only the government of Honduras gave him the opportunity
to box for their national team, for which they are very grateful to Honduras.
"Why did Lopez
sink into your heart?"
He has
something that many other modern boxers do not have. It is like a reflection of
the great boxers of the past: with excellent timing, cannon fire and the desire
to make a show. In all fights except with Nakatani, his opponents fell, as if
they were cut down. And Lopez did it beautifully. This is mostly due to his
father, who is in love with boxing and constantly repeated that boxing has
become very boring and he wants to bring back the past greatness of Era Ali and
Mike Tyson. We met them after a fight. It turned out that the Lopez family and
my close friend, the only WBC ambassador in the world, Chico Lopez, were
compatriots and they had a lot of acquaintances and connections - so we became
friends. The family is very decent and pleasant to talk to. Camera trash
talking is just the right hype, a tool that is needed in boxing, especially in
the United States to achieve certain commercial goals.
- Who would you bet on
in a possible rematch of Lopez-Lomachenko?
Personally,
I really do not want this fight to take place. I would like Vasyl to win all
the men in the 135-pound division. Gervonta, Ryan Garcia, Haney are serious
challenges for Vasyl, but he is stronger and more experienced than all of them.
Either way, I would like if he went down and took all the 130-pound belts and
became the absolute champion there. This is important both for Vasyl and for
us, his fans. I really want and wish him these victories! Because he deserves
it more than anyone else. And with Lopez - I think that the rematch will be
even harder than the first time, because now Lopez has already studied Vasyl
and will not be wary of him as the first time. It would be a very tough fight.
It's just that Lomachenko is no longer interesting to Lopez. For reasons known
to all - financial and sports. He has someone to box with. In addition, there
is a certain resentment and a principled position that the team of Vasyl or Bob
Arum did not allow to include the item about the obligatory revenge that Lopez
asked for.
- Do you think that
Bob played on the side of Vasyl, not Teofimo?
Arum,
when signing a contract for the fight, set a condition to Teofimo that if Lopez
loses, his minimum reward, specified for further fights, is reduced. But if he
wins (which Bob obviously didn't believe and didn't want to happen), the reward
will increase accordingly. So all the talks about a bought fight, the
disapproval of American judges is nothing more than gossip. Bob Arum was so
upset after the fight that he did not even come up and shake hands with his
father Teofimo and did not come to the press conference.
- And how did you
become friends with one of the best boxers of today, an American, Terence
Crawford?
I met
Terence in 2016. We have a common hobby with him - we do dog trainings and have
dogs of the same breed. However, as it turned out, I have a much more elite dog
breeding (and Chico Lopez's dogs are like a Rolls Royce in the world of dogs),
and he had some stray ones. We began to communicate against this background. I
just flew to the United States with my dog, and that's how we became friends.
He invited us in 2017 to his home in Omaha, Nebraska, to celebrate US
Independence Day. It was unforgettable. We were in a completely different
environment, unofficially, with his family, in his house, in his mother's
house. He is an incredibly simple, kind and open person. In his city, everyone
knows and respects him. He adores his children (he already has six!) And spends
all his free time with his family. He built a huge modern boxing and MMA halls,
where both professionals and school children and students train, from which he
does not charge a single fee for training. He grew up in a poor family and
remembers that he did not have the opportunity to pay for the gym, so now he
gives this opportunity to other children. He does not drink alcohol, does not
smoke and always keeps fit. And this guy does not tend to hype and is very
modest. He grew up without a father, with a mother, and was raised as a man by
his uncle, who is a veteran of the US military, who served as the
"seals". By the way, Terence's assets are managed by Warren Buffett -
Warren is also from Omaha and they are compatriots.
- I saw a photo on
social networks where you play chess with Crawford.
Terence
loves to play chess and I ordered chess set with the Cossacks for him from
Ukraine! And when we all got together in one hotel near Madison Square Garden,
I had a chess tournament in which two absolute world champions in professional
boxing were playing.
- Was Usyk second? Who
played chess better?
Terence
won that time. And I won Terence. We also took part in a charity ping-pong
tournament in New York. Sasha Foka and Crawford reached the final. Sasha
started to win confidently and then the organizers asked Foka to lose, because
Terence had to give some prizes and money raised at the tournament to the
children as the winner. And Terence twice won my billiards (Pool, American).
They played for push-ups from the floor.
- If I’m not mistaken,
you were even in the team of Crawford and Lopez in several fights?
Yes.
Off stage, as they say. It is very interesting how differently these guys
prepare and motivate themselves directly before the fight. The atmosphere is
wonderful. Lopez is a monster, before leaving, he beats his arms so that the
walls tremble. His father motivates him very much before the fight. Teddy Atlas
also has this approach. And Crawford is always calm as a boa constrictor, just
joking with his friends. They laugh, pray in a circle and he goes out and does
his job.
- Now, as a lawyer, do
you work with Serhiy Derevyanchenko?
We
have been working with Serhiy not so long ago. We are family friends. We
support legal processes on the territory of Ukraine and international
transactions, we monitor the legal purity of all these steps. In the United States,
Serhiy has lawyers with whom he works. He has everything very professionally
set in this regard - he and his wife Irina personally delve into all the
details. I am very impressed by their attitude and approach! And they are
wonderful people in ordinary life.
- Who else do you work
with as boxers?
I
provide legal advice and contracts review to Ivan Redkach, Vlad Sirenko, Arnold
Hegai, the Baysangurov brothers, Dmitry Mitrofanov, and K2 Promotion among the
promotional companies.
Maksym ROZENKO
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