- What if you had an opportunity to meet Dyuverhel now?
- I would take up the challenge and win.
Yermakhan Ibraimov is a Kazakhstani boxer, Olympic champion, the prizewinner of world championships, Honored Master of Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Honored coach of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the director of the Republican Olympic Center for training in boxing.
- The title of champion is much and not easy work and it is great patience. As a friend of mine Bulat Zhumadilov said, you have to queue for a title of champion as you queue for bread and you have to stay in your position until the end and finally it will come.
- Overall, in the battle against McCormac Abylaikhan performed well. In next Olympiad Zhusupov can really claim for a medal if he puts on some weight.
- We are holding the ninth position in the world even though we are only 17 million people. Our land exists even if our quantity is not big. Some time ago Silk way was on our roads, we have wonderful nature, and a lot of people wanted to live here. However, they did not get it, because our ancestors were strong and militant. Boxing, fight is in our blood.
- The world championship has finished recently, where Kazakhstan held the first team position. We were on our way to this victory for 80 years. Our generation was leading several times, but we only held second and third places. It is not easy to get a title of champion, yet it is much more difficult to keep it. Now we have to get at least 2 gold medals in Doha in 2015. We have to prove our championship in the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio and hold the first position in the team title.
- I do what I love, it is the greatest happiness. To see the results is the most important thing. I am going to be involved in boxing for the rest of my life. I took this path when I was young, became the Olympic Champion, I was a coach, a vice president, now I am a head of Olympic Center for training. Do what you are good at, be the best in your field.
- You have to love and respect your competitors, opponents because they do not let you relax. However the main opponent is you yourself. You always can beat someone, but it is much more difficult to beat yourself. You have to defeat laziness, unwillingness to train, “tomorrows”.
- A boxer has to be intelligent. Just fighting does not work, he has to improve his intellectual abilities, play chess, study mathematics, read Chingiz Aitmatov, Mukhtar Shakhanov, Abai, Mukhtar Auezov's books. Only a highly developed person is able to become a champion.
- Take it easy and you will attract people. I have never lost because of it. I can go to shops and markets at the weekend easily. I live without any security guards, because I know that people respect me not because of money. People at the market say: “It is free for you, Yereke.” And I reply: “ Why free? You work when it is cold, just say the price!” I haggle and joke this way.
- Interesting fact: Yermakhan Ibraimov has found his grandfather's tomb who passed away in 1944 while releasing Vitebsk.
- I think that during our last meeting Dyuverhel understood that I was stepping on his toes (in the final of world championship in 1997 in Budapest. He won punching twice conclusively in last minutes. I was sure that I would beat him next time, but we have not met each other in the ring. I beat Cubans substituted him though.
- - What if you had an opportunity to meet Dyuverhel now?
- - I would take up the challenge and win.
- I am going to get PhD in Academy of Tourism and Sports. I would like to implement a new scientific methodology to prepare young boxers on basis of my own experience.
- I bring up my own children, as I was brought up. There were ten children in our family, and our parents were never bothered with us, especially with me. I do not cut any slack to any of my children. They have “military” routine, my orders are not discussed. I have five children in total: four sons and one daughter (from different marriages – Author's note) .
- After going to the village some time ago, where I had eaten “ beshbarmak” well, I was 80 kilos on scales. I went off the scales quickly and ran away in order not to be seen by anyone.
- I was sparing as a junior with such a boxer as Yershov at that time. I even did not notice the hook. I wanted to get up, but I could not. There is a funny story. A boxer says: “I am in the ring, boxing. Suddenly the light went off, and when it was on I ended up in a changing room”.However, it has never happened to me again.