Igor Yakovlevich Vysotsky was a Soviet amateur boxer who competed from 1973 to 1979, best known for twice defeating the triple Olympic Champion Teofilo Stevenson, being the only boxer out of more than two hundred of Stevenson's opponents to ever knock him out, though he himself never participated in the Olympics.
14 Facts About Igor Vysotsky
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Igor Vysotsky was born to a family of exile settlers.
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Igor Vysotsky's father Yakov Antonovich Vysotsky, a Soviet Jew, an amateur boxer, was a Soviet Naval Infantryman, serving with the Red Navy, fought the Germans during the World War II, after being severely wounded he was taken a prisoner of war.
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Igor Vysotsky tried to escape several times, his ninth escape attempt was successful Yakov Vysotsky was moved to a Soviet filtration camp, and then to the Far Eastern part of the USSR, to a GULAG camp at Kolyma, where he met Meeta Joganovna Suve, an exiled Estonian woman, whom he married, and she became mother of Igor Vysotsky.
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Igor Vysotsky lost at his debut at the 1966 Magadan city championship.
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Igor Vysotsky graduated from the Magadan Teachers Training Institute, where he studied to become a PE teacher.
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The first nation-wide boxing event for Igor Vysotsky was a matchup in Alma-Ata in 1971.
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Shortly before the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Igor Vysotsky was badly cut in a sparring session, which prevented his participation in the Olympics.
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Igor Vysotsky lost to Yevgeniy Gorstkov again due to a cut.
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Igor Vysotsky won eight out of his first ten bouts with American boxers, six of them by knockout.
11.
Igor Vysotsky said his most difficult opponents were Angel Milian Rivero, whom he fought several times winning once, and Yevgeniy Gorstkov.
12.
Teofilo Stevenson was known for two fights with Igor Vysotsky, who defeated Stevenson twice.
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Igor Vysotsky later revealed in his interview to East Side Boxing:.
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Igor Vysotsky employed evasive infighting tactics during his standoffs versus Stevenson, by cutting distance and constantly ducking under Stevenson's left hand, thus escaping from his devastating jabs and straight punches, and then driving upwards, getting him with short, effective hooks.