Igor Vysotsky Cause of Death, Bio, Age, Career, Family
Igor Vysotsky, the USSR’s heavyweight boxing champion in 1978, passed away at the age of 70.
How Did Igor Vysotsky Die?
On April 2,2023, Igor Vysotsky, a former USSR boxing champion, has passed away at the age of 70, according to the Russian Boxing Federation’s news department.
“Great grief came to the Russian boxing family: Igor Yakovlevich Vysotsky passed away on the 70th year of his life.
He was loved and appreciated by all. Although big titles bypassed Vysotsky’s side (his highest achievement being the victory at the USSR Championship in 1978), he was incredibly popular with fans. High glory to Vysotsky was brought by two victories over the invincible before meeting with Vysotsky Cuban Teofilo Stevenson, a three-time Olympic champion, the boxing superstar of the 1970-80s. The second match turned out to be particularly bright, when the Soviet boxer twice sent his opponent into a knockdown, and in the third round knocked him out.
In 1978, Vysotsky became one of three Soviet boxers who participated in sparring with Mohammed Ali.
Unfortunately, Vysotsky ended his sports career early: at the age of 27, he decided to hang his gloves on a nail. After sports, Igor Yakovlevich engaged in business, made a movie, opened a boxing club in Mytishchy, where he trained new champions for free.
Very recently, the wife of Vysotsky Marin passed away, whom he simply adored. It was the heaviest blow from which Igor Yakovlevich never recovered…
The staff of the Boxing Federation of Russia, the whole boxing family express their deepest condolences to the family and friends of Igor Vysotsky.”
Prior to his encounters with Cuban Vysotsky Teofilo Stevenson, a three-time Olympic champion and boxing icon of the 1970s and 1980s, Vysotsky attained considerable reputation with two triumphs against the Invincible.
After the fighter Soviet knocked the opponent down twice and ended the fight in the third round, the second encounter proved to be very outstanding.
One of three Soviet boxers who competed in the match against American Muhammad Ali was Vysotsky. He was named the USSR champion in 1978.
According to the Russian Boxing Federation’s Telegram account, the team and the whole boxing community send their sincere sympathies to Igor Vysotsky’s family and friends.
Igor Vysotsky Cause of Death
Igor Vysotsky cause of death was not disclosed yet. There is no information available about Igor Vysotsky cause of death.
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Our staff does not confirm any rumors regarding the news, but you can be sure that we are doing everything in our power to gather relevant information about the tragedy and present the most recent updates as quickly as possible; nevertheless, remember that family privacy should be respected.
Who was Igor Vysotsky?
Igor Yakovlevich Vysotsky was a Soviet boxer who fought from 1971 to 1980. Though he never took part in the Olympics, he is most remembered for twice knocking out triple Olympic champion Teófilo Stevenson, outlasting more than 200 of his opponents.
Igor had received daily instruction from Yakov Antonovich since he was six years old, who later served as a mentor for his son. Igor Vysotsky, who was 12 years old and weighed 163 lbs, joined a gym. Upon his debut in the 1966 Magadan municipal championship, he was defeated. Vysotsky completed his studies at the Magadan Teachers Training Institute to become a physical education teacher.
Igor Vysotsky Boxing Career
Igor Vysotsky competed in his first national boxing contest at Alma-Ata in 1971. At the Soviet Youth Boxing Tournament in Moscow in 1972, he took home silver. He competed in his first international boxing match in 1973. In their first fight, which took place in July 1973, Vysotsky came out on top 3-2. Their second and last encounter took place in April 1976. Stevenson was defeated by Vysotsky in the third round.
Vysotsky was severely cut during a sparring practice just before the 1976 Montreal Olympics, which prohibited him from competing. The Cubans sent Stevenson and Angel Milián Rivero, two heavyweights, to Montreal without being aware of the injuries. Stevenson would have been seated on the alternate’s bench had Vysotskiy taken part. He defeated Tony Tubbs, the eventual WBA Heavyweight Champion, in two rounds in 1976.
He faced Greg Page, who would go on to become the WBA Heavyweight Champion, the next year and lost on a split decision. The two contests, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, were a part of a run of games between the American and Soviet teams.
Midway through the 1970s, when Vysotsky was at the height of his powers, he had won 98 amateur matches against just 13 defeats. He said that up to that point, all of his defeats had come at the hands of Soviet fighters. Strangely enough, the Soviet boxing authorities named Yevgeniy Gorstkov as the top heavyweight boxer in the USSR in 1975, even though Gorstkov had previously faced Vysotsky and defeated him on cuts. At the time, Vysotsky was the top-ranked amateur heavyweight boxer in the world, recognized by AIBA, and highly praised by the Western press.
In June 1978, Muhammad Ali travelled to the Soviet Union for ten days. He played numerous rounds against Vysotsky while there. In hindsight, while watching the fight, Ali said to Howard Cosell,
“He hits real hard.”
The 1980 National Championships included Vysotsky’s final match. A cut caused him to lose to Yevgeniy Gorstkov once more. After retiring, Vysotsky worked as a coach and in the sports industry, most notably as vice president of the Moscow Oblast Boxing Federation.
After quitting fighting, he created the Yakov Vysotskiy Memorial yearly open boxing monument in Yagodnoye, his hometown, to honor his father.