Azeri stars retiring?

[yu265545]

According to this article, Azeri star boxers are retiring: Lorenzo Sotomayor (age 31), Albert Selimov, Magomed Medzhidov (age 30, aka Majidov), and Abdulgadir Abdullayev (age 28).

http://www.azernews.az/sports/101384.html

I really hope they are only retiring from the Azeri national team and are set to turn professional. Medzhidov is in his prime with excellent power - I think he is already a top 20 heavy in the world (similar to Pulev in my opinion). Sotomayor would be a nightmare for most boxers. Selimov is excellent and gave Lomachenko close fights (and his only defeat). Abdullaev has a good record with the WSB and has a KO win over Clemente Russo.

These guys, especially Medzhidov (Majidov), could make some serious moneys in the pros. Why would they retire when all still in their primes?

Then again, when you look at the Boxrec ratings, there are ONLY 14 ACTIVE BOXERS FROM AZERBAIJAN??? This is a country that is an amateur boxing powerhouse - why are there so few professionals? They probably have close to 50 - 60 fighters who didn't make the national team but are excellent fighters - why wouldnt they turn pro?In contrast, two other AIBA powerhouses, Kazakhstan has 54 active boxers and Uzbekistan 85.

Any ideas?

I have reached out to the report on twitter to get some clarification

[JMac]

According to this article, Azeri star boxers are retiring: Lorenzo Sotomayor (age 31), Albert Selimov, Magomed Medzhidov (age 30, aka Majidov), and Abdulgadir Abdullayev (age 28).

http://www.azernews.az/sports/101384.html

I really hope they are only retiring from the Azeri national team and are set to turn professional. Medzhidov is in his prime with excellent power - I think he is already a top 20 heavy in the world (similar to Pulev in my opinion). Sotomayor would be a nightmare for most boxers. Selimov is excellent and gave Lomachenko close fights (and his only defeat). Abdullaev has a good record with the WSB and has a KO win over Clemente Russo.

These guys, especially Medzhidov (Majidov), could make some serious moneys in the pros. Why would they retire when all still in their primes?

Then again, when you look at the Boxrec ratings, there are ONLY 14 ACTIVE BOXERS FROM AZERBAIJAN??? This is a country that is an amateur boxing powerhouse - why are there so few professionals? They probably have close to 50 - 60 fighters who didn't make the national team but are excellent fighters - why wouldnt they turn pro?In contrast, two other AIBA powerhouses, Kazakhstan has 54 active boxers and Uzbekistan 85.

Any ideas?

I have reached out to the report on twitter to get some clarification

Basically if they want to turn pro, they need to move to another country in Europe that has pro boxing like Germany or the USA. Maybe they don't want to leave. I remember about 12 years ago maybe more, two brothers moved to Baltimore to turn pro. They changed their last name to Baku since their real name was hard to pronounce. They both had decent records but mainly boxed on the local club level. I sort of remembering one of them recently passed away. Did Sotomayor have to defect from Cuba to box in Azerbaijan? The Cuban coach Pedro Roque that coached the Azeri's defected to the US and was national coach for awhile but left over money issues and ended up in Azerbaijan. He is an excellent coach.

[Woldemar]

I don't know how said this in English - who want translated

"Азербайджан очень богатая страна,и я думаю что после окончания карьеры этим парням предлагают работу,на которой они заработают гораздо больше чем в профессиональном боксе"

[mike222]

All four boxers have retired for good per Azeri news

[Tarquin Tarpaulin IV]

I don't know how said this in English - who want translated

"Азербайджан очень богатая страна,и я думаю что после окончания карьеры этим парням предлагают работу,на которой они заработают гораздо больше чем в профессиональном боксе"

It says......


"Azerbaijan has a very rich country , and I think that after these guys careers offer job where they earn much more than professional boxing "

[ogii3]

This is very strange. I am sure Sotomayor would like to do something more on international level, because for many years he ddn't have a chance. Selimov is very experienced fighter, who had more than 300 bouts. I can understand about him, but his result at Rio wasn't a great satisfaction. He is Russian from Dagestan and those guys are born fighters. I can't believe that Albert will retire with pension. He has such a great qualities and maybe only an injury would stop him to fight.
Majidov is not the same as he used to be. But why not to turn pro?
I am not sure if this is the last time we heard about these guys.