Noel Mikaelian and the politics that threatened to steel his determination
With just three weeks to prepare for his first fight with Badou Jack, there was always a nagging doubt in the back of Noel Mikaelian’s mind that he did not have enough time.
In May, many felt Mikaelian was unlucky not to capture Jack’s WBC title when he lost a decision in Saudi Arabia, but they meet again on December 13 in Los Angeles at Ace Mission Studios.
“This time I'll be more confident, have a complete camp, endurance training, cardio, sparring sessions, and yeah, not just go like a journeyman into a world title fight,” said the 35-year-old challenger.
“I had it [the lack of time] in the back of my mind because I know how it feels to be better prepared. But I was very, very, very confident that I would beat him… which I actually did. But who cares? It's now in the past. And this time I will make it even better.”
One judge scored the bout a draw, with the other two favoring the Las Vegas-based Swede by 115-113.
It has been a frustrating year for Mikaelian, who has been at odds with promoter Don King and been jostling for the titles as the WBC attempt to clear up the mess at the top of that division.
For the IBF, Jai Opetaia feigns supreme while Zurdo Ramirez holds the WBA and WBO belts.
“I had a couple of issues, as you probably read in the media with my promoter and here and there,” Mikaelian added. “It was a little bit of off-season already. But I'm now motivated and back on my back on my A-game again with a goal in my mind and regaining my title back. I'm focused and I feel better and much more confident now. We sorted it [the issues with King] out with my manager and they found an agreement and we're good to go.”
Going into the first Jack fight, Mikaelian had hoped to emerge talking about unification fights. But when it was all over, he knew he wanted to get Jack back in right away.
“Yeah, because they took my title,” he added. “So I have to regain the title again to move on with the unification fights because the title matters for the unification fights obviously.
“Those are the fights who make sense, which are lucrative and which the fans want to see, as Zurdo or Opetaia, and I think they wanted from their side too. The promoters wanted, the fans wanted, and we wanted too. We have to fight to find out who's the better man.”
Does he rate Jack highly having shared the ring with him?
“He's good. He's a former champion, but I'm better,” Mikaelian continued. “And I showed it with just two and a half weeks or three weeks, so come on. Like you couldn't beat me at my worst, how will you beat me at my best? And I had to cut a lot of weight last time too. And I had only three sparring sessions. I was actually only eight or nine days in London. And then I was nine days or eight days in Saudi. That was pretty much it. So you can imagine for a 12-round world title fight, it's probably not enough, but I made it enough.”
And for what it’s worth, Mikaelian did feel like he was the moral victor and that public sentiment was in his favor after the Jack fight.
“Everybody from the important people around the ring approached me and told me such as allegedly, some presidents of the other sanctioning bodies, the German, BDB boxing president who was also sanctioning fights there told me, everyone told me they had me winning. So we filed an appeal and appeal was successful. Then we watched the fight back.”
Then Mikaelian saw more and more scorecards that gave him the win, but he had a sinking feeling even before the scorecards were read out because he’d been told he hadn’t got the decision.
With issues both in and out of the ring, not just this year but also in the past, there have been times when the Florida-based Armenian has considered walking away from the sport.
“Absolutely,” he admitted. “Every three times after the three robbery decisions [he is referring to a narrow loss to Mairis Briedis in 2018 and a split decision to Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in 2017]. Also last time with that fight, I was talking with my family and asking, ‘why do you do this?’ You put so much effort and then you don't get like the praise and it's always something; some excuse. And it's always something there's always, ‘Oh, this is a close fight, this is that, this is that, here's some sort of excuses.’ I had it many times, many times. Oh, uh, should I stop and do something else? But you know, if I had that before I wouldn't be a world champion right now. So I'm glad that I didn't stop after the first, second times I got robbed. And I won't stop after the last time too, because I will serve justice on December 13th. So who cares?”
Mikaelian admits that when he found boxing, he did not expect the business side of the sport to be so hard to navigate.
“And they don't like you to talk about it,” he continued. “They don't even like fighters mentioning some sort of politics because it's sports. What has sports to do with politics? And they don't like to hear fighters talking about, ‘Oh, this was a political decision’ and even question anything which is done there behind the scenes. It is very unfortunate that the sport is going that route, but that's one of the reasons why I think probably the major TV partners in the US and also in Europe and Germany went out of boxing, although they have the budget because of these politics.”
There is a joke somewhere in the conversation about how Mikaelian should have studied politics to prepare him for boxing, and he only found the sport through his stepfather, Khoren Gevor, who was a good-class middleweight and who challenged Arthur Abraham for the IBF title in 2007.
So Mikaelian grew up in and around the Universum Box Promotion Gym, home of some 20 champions, and he paid attention to the coaches. There were also plenty of fights on German TV and the country adored its fighters. Universum and Sauerland Event battled for dominance and Mikaelian knew early in his twenties he wanted to be a pro.
Ironically, Sauerland would become his first major promoter and now the Pedro Diaz-trained Mikaelian fights out of Miami.
It is there when Australian Tim Tszyu has begun the next phase of his career.
“Very nice guy. Very likable person, good fighter, skillful, very nice kid. I like him,” said Mikaelian, who hopes that – beyond Jack – he will get to fight the likes of IBF champion Jai Opetaia and Zurdo Ramirez.
And Mikaelian was happy to say who he felt might win should the Zurdo and Opetaia ever meet.
“I think Zudo because Zudo has a really strong resume and he surprised me with his last win against, [Yuniel] Dorticus. That was impressive. And yeah, Opetaia is also very good, very good fighter, he beat Briedis twice, life and death situation, but he beat him. [He’s a] good technician, both southpaws.”
Who would Mikaelian prefer to fight?
“Whoever has the belt, whoever has the belt for the unifications, I'm ready for Zurdo or Opetaia,” he said.
Asked who the best 200-pounder on the planet is, Mikaelian replied: “Well, we have to fight and find out.”
If only it were that easy.
“Oh, I could just walk around and talk, talk, hype myself up but if we want to find out who's the best one, we have to step in the ring and fight and see who's the best.”
