FanPost

Dmitry Pirog - The Forgotten Grandmaster

Dimitry Pirog made his ring entrance first when fighting for the vacant WBO title against a young and exciting prospect in Danny Jacobs. With Black Sabbath serenading his entrance, Pirog tapped his glove to any willing fan on the way to the ring, gently shaking his fist to the camera before winking to it. With the recent passing of his grandmother, an emotionally charged and confident Jacobs made his entrance to much more fanfare, talking to the audience and cameras as he bounded towards the ring. Whilst Michael Buffer was peddling sponsor adverts and introducing officials, Jacobs was speaking to different members of his entourage, his people shouting generic words of encouragement. Pirog was silently bobbing up and down. The fighter’s introductions were much the same, Jacobs cheered and Pirog did not. Just before making their way to the centre of the ring for the referee’s final instructions, Pirog winked one last time to the camera.

Pirog’s nickname of The Grandmaster originated from his love of chess, the game constantly used to metaphorise boxing to the point of cliché. The story goes that the Russian was looking for chess opponents as a child when he stumbled across a boxing gym and the sport, which became nothing more than physical chess to him. He was likely one of the few fighter’s to fully understand or care about the metaphor’s relevancy. His calm approach to boxing was as if he would only be playing chess, rather than have professional fighters try and render him unconscious.

As chess produces grandmasters, so too does boxing. In lieu of not having a trainer in his early amateur days, Pirog sought the grandmasters out. Who better to teach him than the masters via VHS tapes? He found videos of the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard to guide him through, a champion who appeared to have it all. Later on in his career he would also implement what he could from Floyd Mayweather Jr. Through chess he knew the importance of being able to attack and defend simultaneously, and these fighters demonstrated to him how it was possible in boxing. Having styled himself primarily on African-American greats, his boxing was not typical of the amateur Russian boxing programmes. He was often overlooked in favour of more traditional fighting styles. Not that it mattered, as it was in the professional ranks where Pirog would seek his glory.

The first stat to appear on screen was the fighter’s first round knockouts - Pirog had 1, Jacobs’ had 10. Immediately after the first bell rang, Jacobs fired and landed a straight right hand before skirting away. As the round went on, Pirog bent his body into shapes and his punches into angles which Jacobs was unfamiliar with. Commentator Emmanuel Stewart repeatedly predicted that Jacobs would have not have it easy. The second round can be summed up by Jim Lampley’s comment - "He is beating Jacobs up." Pirog constantly had his man against the ropes, mauling him to the head and body at mid-range. Jacobs expended a lot of energy painting circles with his feet in the third round - trying to avoid the dominant figure in the centre constantly pressing forward. If Jacobs was a rook constantly moving side to side, Pirog was the opposing bishop cutting in diagonally and forcing the battle to be had in the corners. No matter how hard he tried, Jacobs always found himself at the periphery of the ring and the fight, looking in, unsure how to assert himself. Occasionally Jacobs would switch to southpaw to try and confuse Pirog and create space for himself. This served as nothing more than a grim foreshadowing of what was to come.

Every step Pirog took was calculated and necessary, which in turn led to reactionary and excessive movement from Jacobs, whose arms were low at his waist by the fourth. Pirog understood the long game, the many micro-actions which culminate in being steps ahead. While Jacobs rallied in a competitive fourth round, he worked at a much more ferocious pace than his opponent. Heading into the fifth round and what would become the end of the fight, Jacobs became a pawn in The Grandmaster’s game to achieve his first world championship.

From the centre of the ring, Pirog started a world title winning sequence of movements which only included one punch. Darting forward, a switch to southpaw, 2 feints, a switch back to orthodox, 2 more lead-handed feints and his opponent had run out of room to escape. Back the ropes, Jacobs realised the danger he was suddenly in after allowing himself to be mesmerised and corralled. Knowing that he did not have enough time or room to escape to safety, he tried to uncork a right hand. Before the punch had fully left Jacobs’ chest, Pirog was already midway through throwing his own right hand, which would land directly on Jacobs’ chin and render him unconscious. It was checkmate. Before his opponent had stopped fully sprawling on the canvas, Pirog had both arms raised above his head. He knew the fight was over before the referee because he was the master and everyone else was a part of his game. At last Pirog jumped, cheered and spoke to the camera in his native tongue – his team ecstatic around him. From VHS self-training in Russia to middleweight champion of the world in America.

Tragically, that night in 2010 remains the crowning achievement of Pirog’s boxing career.

After three dominant title defences in his home country of Russia, Pirog was bored and contemptuous of the opponents he was having to fight as a champion of the world. He wanted more money, more exposure, and more glory than he was receiving. In 2012, he very nearly got it. Enter a Kazakhstani named Gennadiy ‘GGG‘ Golovkin, the WBA ‘Regular’ champion at the time. Today it may seem bizarre to think that a champion actually wanted to face a prime Golovkin, as his career is now mostly defined by fights he has had in his late thirties. Pirog not only agreed to fight who would become the most avoided man in boxing, he even vacated his own world title for the opportunity to do so.
The acumination of all his hard work represented in a world title he no longer wanted – it meant nothing to him without the challenge. In an age where fighters have to grow into divisions as if they were a large new coat their mother bought them, this desire to fight the best is something fans mostly reminisce about. They were set to face each other in the USA on what would have been Golovkin’s HBO debut, and the world was due to see 2 daring middleweights create an under the radar classic. The secondary WBA title was not worthy of the men fighting for it, but their opponent’s distinguished scalps were. Sadly, during his training, Pirog ruptured a disk which cancelled the fight and also his career. The Grandmaster never boxed again and Pirog-Golovkin was assigned to the "what ifs" of boxing history.

Betting against a 2012 Golovkin is difficult, as he likely would have been a challenge to any middleweight in history. He possessed two steel fists and an iron chin hidden beneath an enduring smile. Even today’s 2020 version of GGG is a world champion, despite the previously non-existent conga line of younger opponents now tentatively forming towards him. The switch-hitting, ring cutting and defensively slick Grandmaster may well have been Govovkin’s match. Pirog had a busy and probing jab which he sent down any defensive holes to scout out and bait mistakes, whilst disguising his true intentions with throw away shots and distracting movements. He worked the body well and had an acute awareness of angles and foot placement. Much like chess’ queen, he could attack or defend in any direction.

Calculated, boastful, punishing and sometimes complacent, Pirog was as entertaining as any middleweight who has come after him. No doubt his style and self-belief would have complemented a prime Golovkin to the point of reshaping middleweight history. One of the fighters would have had a classic victory, and a true and dominant force with a signature win would have emerged. Instead we have the middleweight landscape today: an old Golovkin looking set to have one last shot at a signature win after years of languishing to find suitable opponents. GGG’s own story, despite success and riches, is made more tragic for the premature retirement of The Grandmaster. Since missing out on what could have been his greatest adversary and possibly a career defining triumph – age has become Golovkin’s most formidable enemy, followed closely by Canelo Alverez.

Being 40 years old, Dmitry Pirog likely would be retired today even without the back injury. Had they met, what would have happened that night and its effects for Golovkin and Pirog is anyone’s guess. However, Pirog’s decision to give up his middleweight crown to fight the man who would become so avoided demonstrates a confidence unlike any other middleweight in the past 8 years. Since then, champions have only ever vacated titles to avoid Golovkin. That choice is arguably Pirog’s greatest silent accomplishment, made glaringly loud by his peers’ inability to do the same.
Ironically, it was Danny Jacobs who was the man to give GGG his first real test in 2017. The Grandmaster was hardly mentioned in the build-up to Golovkin-Jacobs, but he was ever present as the slender and cutting figure of the ‘1’ occupying Jacob’s loss record. Danny Jacobs lost a competitive decision to Golovkin but had a small victory in ending his monstrous knockout steak - a streak which GGG has not been able to resurrect since. Despite Jacob’s ’1’ since becoming a ‘3’ with Canelo and Golovkin adding their names, Pirog remains the only man to knockout Danny Jacobs.

And so, if Canelo and Golovkin are set to face off for a third and final time, there may well be a tall Russian man watching. Now a politician once referred to as The Grandmaster, he would be dissecting the fight like a game of chess and thinking to himself with absolute conviction and zero bravado – ‘I would have beaten them both.’

FanPosts are user-created content written by community members of Bad Left Hook, and are generally not the work of our editors. Please do not source FanPosts as the work of Bad Left Hook.