Sports correspondent talked to the most experienced Russian boxing cutman Dmitry Luchnikov about the features of his work, stellar «clients» and about the long-suffering confrontations Beterbiev — Bivol and Usyk — Fury.
- Cutman — a specialist whose job it is to prevent injuries and treat wounds of an athlete. For example, before a fight, he «tapes» (bandages) the athlete's hands, and in between rounds he stops bleeding from cuts.
«The work of a cutman is far from medicine»
— Cutman is a person who is passionate about martial arts. And medicine?- I have been working since 2006 and at first I was captivated by various misconceptions, because in Europe there was nowhere to get information. But now I will say unequivocally: medicine — no. This is a distant story. Cutman is a person who is in love with martial arts and is ready to benefit in the way that is available to him. Maybe this is an unfulfilled fighter or coach who would like to be closer to the ring or the octagon. And thanks to this profession, he got such an opportunity.
So, why is medicine left out?
— The work of the cutman is limited to stopping the injury, its non-proliferation. There was a cut — my task is to make sure that the wound does not prevent the athlete from fighting. And medicine is a set of knowledge, still associated with treatment. Look, the goals are different.I went to medical school myself. And in my courses I tell young cutmen: forget about sewing cuts — this is due to state licensing. If you “sew” somewhere in the locker room, big problems will begin.
— It turns out that you cannot influence the course of the fight by pointing to a cut that is incompatible with the continuation of the fight?— You can tell the main in the corner, the coach, that the injury can lead to health problems. But by no means stop the fight. There is a certain ethics: the main ones are the fighter and the coach, and you have to help them.
Only the referee can stop the fight. And he, calling a qualified doctor, makes a decision. The referee must also have intuition. I was at serious judicial seminars in the USA: they indicated that you work in professional martial arts. In Olympic sports, even with a drop of blood, it is customary to stop the fight — they monitor the health of fragile juniors. And the pros come out to win, here the injury is not always equal to the loss. But if this is a torn eyelid, which I have observed several times, it must be stopped immediately.
— In professional boxing, if a fight is stopped before the fourth round, it is declared void. And you can stop a dangerous wound, let him fight until the fifth round and count the points. There is a chance to win — a very subtle moment that an unprepared person will not understand.
«
I had a situation. I gave a recommendation to the coach, whose fighter was seriously injured: “The eyelid is actually torn off, in the next break the fight will most likely be stopped. Now either a knockout, or … «. The coach decided to change tactics, and his fighter knocked out his opponent.
MMA»
— You have a touching story of choosing a profession. Feel sorry for the blood-drenched boxer, right?- The story is like in the movies. We watched boxing with Grigory Drozd, then we practiced in the same gym — I was at the amateur level, and Grisha was already a professional. And indeed, the winning boxer bled and lost. In the corner, the coach was wiping his face with a towel and could not do anything. I asked Gregory: «Are there special people who cover up wounds and stop bleeding?» He replied that it was the cutmen who did it. And intrigued, inspired me.
And eight years later, being a professional cutman, I helped Drozd in the main fight of his life when he became the world champion. Helpful (laughs). He then had serious injuries.
— The most terrible thing that you have encountered while in the corner of an athlete.
— It's not about the terrible injuries, but the amount of damage. The wards had nine, ten each … Six cuts and three hematomas — I keep a kind of diary, cutman stories, and I write down such cases. And now, a 12-round fight, so many injuries, and the boxer continues to concede… Probably, I have seen the most horror in fisticuffs and mixed martial arts. There are not as many rounds as in boxing, but there are injuries … The skin instantly diverges — you see the bones of the skull. I worked on the bloodiest MMA fight between Balaev and Zhamaldaev, «lucky». The first one had his face falling apart, the second one, in whose corner I was, had his forehead cut to the skull.
«
Once in boxing, there were six cuts on the scalp. And in the end, these cuts began to come together … The most difficult job is still in professional boxing, mainly due to more rounds in one fight.
— How can you not remember about the problem of mortality in boxing. This is not athletics or football, where people hit the bar with their heads.
Unfortunately, there are a large number of martial arts from the category of YouTube shows, and the level of medical care for them is almost zero. Recently, I caught one «specialist» who worked without a diploma for a dozen events as a tournament doctor. He puts leeches, does a massage, but there is no certificate or diploma. This person offered his services — there are various specialists in my team, and for a long time I wanted a qualified doctor to be with us in the cage. I clarified: «They sent a copy of the diploma, it may be required in the federations.» It turned out that the person was «learning» — then he completely stopped communicating.
— But someone trusts such crooks with their lives.
— I talked with people and realized that many mummers appeared. Including, unfortunately, cutmen. I would like the supervisory authorities in this area to strengthen their control. This is a huge problem: we do not know what will happen to the fighters next. Even after a month.
«
Heard another story. The debutant of the league on the medical board was found to have neurological signs, twitching of the pupils. They sent him for an MRI — there was a huge hematoma in his head, with which he performed for more than a month. The guy was removed from the fights and sent to be treated, because he could simply die. And how many of them jump, fight … They say that a stroke has become younger. Need to understand who? Maybe just the fighters.
«From the heat my gloves burst»
— Three main fights in the career of Dmitry Luchnikov, in which he was lucky enough to work.— I would single out the most difficult ones:
- Dmitry Bivol vs. Sullivan Barrera. State of New York, we had a huge hematoma. If I had no experience, we would have received a repetition of the Lebedev-Jones fight. The main thing is that in this state there are certain criteria for cutmen after our boxer Magomed Abdusalamov fell into a coma. The doctor said after the fight: «If you had acted differently, not so confidently, I would have stopped the fight.» Not the fact that we would have won in this situation;
- Sergei Kovalev — Saul Alvarez. Difficult duel for me… World level, exam. It was like I was working for the first time, it was very difficult emotionally. Apparently, I got under the first wave of covid and on the day of the fight I was choking with a cough. Sergey also had an extraordinary taping experience;
- Yuri Nuzhnenko vs. Irving Garcia. Just the situation with nine serious injuries. From the first round we held on until the tenth — medical gloves burst on me from the heat. Stopped. And thank God we won on points.
Three fights. And all for the championship belts.
< br>
— In your social networks, joint photos with many stars. Which of the top boxers do you work most closely with?
“I have been doing my job for 17 years. Everything develops cyclically, in periods: now I have been working with Bivol for a long time, before that there was Sasha Povetkin. I have 34 world boxing champions with whom I collaborated, and of these, about 20 athletes with a long collaboration of 5-8 years. Now, because of the covid, many have ended their careers, the industry was on pause … There were world champions of past years. Drozd, Mairis Briedis, Viktor Postol — I can go on and on.
«They said Usyk would not survive»
Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev. Is there a chance to save a cool poster?
“I think this fight is still possible. But it will depend on private investors — this is my opinion. As a viewer, I think: either a private interest in the Middle East, or America and the status of a co-main event of a grand show. It happens that there is not enough for a big fight program. For a wide audience, this fight is interesting, but will not quite satisfy the ambitions of promoters to maximize ticket sales and paid broadcasts (PPV). This makes the US boxing economy profitable.
About New Investors: Recall the Muhammad Ali Cup — cruiserweight weight category (up to 90.89 kg) in idle time, but came to life thanks to millions of prize money. It seems that due to managerial games, the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury still fell through. Don't you think that world boxing suffers a lot when the best don't fight the best due to financial «showdowns»?
— You are absolutely right. But add a factor: the professional boxing industry has shrunk two to three times in terms of economy. There was a coronavirus, there were no tournaments — Great Britain gave out something in empty arenas. In recent years, MMA has gained momentum, and professional boxing has suffered greatly. Covid, the political situation… Logistics schemes for the post-Soviet space are the hardest.
«
Much has changed in the world — the boxing market has also changed. TV channels have ceased to be so generous: there are no previous advertising contracts, sales have fallen, as the population has not become richer. Global recession after the pandemic. The budgets are smaller, and it is more difficult for promoters and managers to come to an agreement. They have become less accommodating, each trying to achieve the best conditions for himself.
At that time, I did not hear from his entourage that Alexander would compete in heavyweight and defeat boxers like Anthony Joshua. They said that Usyk was not hitting, that Usyk would not stand it … Yes, perhaps he met with the wrong young prospect Joshua. But Sasha walked through the minefield and didn't get blown up — you have to know how.- I would be interested to see how he fights with «strands» of other dimensions. Take Andy Ruiz, for example. There is a feeling that Usyk can dominate big opponents, but the Mexican at the peak of his form can cause a lot of problems. A fight with Povetkin would be interesting in this vein, in due time.
«
As for Fury: I'm not sure that Sasha would have dominated the Brit. But I would love to get up early in the morning and watch the fight live if there was a broadcast from the USA — I have done this extremely rarely in recent years. Everyone believes that the favorite is Tyson, but they would still watch. Suddenly an upset, chance or the crazy preparation and tactics of Usyk. It's a pity that we didn't agree. But maybe later we will see this confrontation.
— Have you crossed paths with the Klitschko brothers?
— I have worked with their company for eight years . I was not in the ring with them, but collaborated with boxers whom they signed, these are about two dozen athletes with whom they also traveled around the world.
* * *
— Do you manage to get high from work?
— Great question. Less and less of this, unfortunately, but I get high from meeting with enthusiasts who have burning eyes. Where there is fair sport. Not necessarily boxing — kickboxing, MMA … Recently I was at a regular kickboxing tournament in Istra near Moscow. Only five fights — I watched from the first to the last, and did not want to leave. Fans of this case gathered, chipped in three kopecks — the guys fought like in the finals of the Olympics! And when the results are muddy, fights with obviously weak opponents … Or, like last weekend, a fighter in a clinch tried to stretch his opponent's cut with his finger — I despise this.