Trainer of the former heavyweight champion (up to 90.7 kg) Latvian Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20) Dmitry Shikholai gave
interview for the YouTube channel “Viktor Yalymov’s Boxing Studio”.
In a conversation, the specialist spoke about the main reason for the defeat and loss of the title of Briedis in the last duel with Australian Jay Opetaya (21-0, 17 KOs). Dmitry also expressed his opinion about the defeat of Mairis in the unification fight against the then WBO champion Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) in January 2018 and the desire to move up to heavyweight (over 90.7 kg) to get revenge with the Ukrainian .
– What did not work out in the fight with Jay Opetaya?
– I probably rewatched the fight yesterday. Didn’t want to watch for a long time. I had to step back, exhale, cool my head. After the fight with Mairis, of course, we hugged, we understood why this happened. A program was being prepared for a completely different character of the duel. They had to turn the pace from the first round, but Maris did not succeed. He was brought down by the disease that was in him. He is after Saturday… We sparred and on Sunday he wakes up and starts coughing. Starts to cough, starts to feel bad. And this whole week we tried to align it. He did not have supercompensation, which is usually gained over the last week. I had to lose weight. It interferes. The water is not in the right form for the sickness to get it out quickly, and naturally he has a weakness. He left, but he lacked this focus in order to start the work that we had planned.
When we worked on sparring, this was a completely different person. I do not want to make excuses and say that we would have defeated him. Perhaps it would also be hard to say. I cannot foresee. But knowing how an illness of this nature affects the fight… In the first half of the fight, he could no longer do anything. We understand that we are already lagging behind, the rounds are lost, the first half of the battle is not taken. Mairis morally-volitional has already begun to work more. In principle, we were going to do this from the first round, to instantly tighten the screws, because Opetai did not have such experience with long rounds and with such (an opponent) as Mairis. And we wanted to hit him right away and bring him to the final rounds already tired. And he should have given up earlier and conceded more, but it didn’t work out.
We tried to regroup in battle, but it was hard for Mairis. I was in the corner trying to tell. Those developments that we did – they did not work. I had to switch to a primitive that could be seen to work. Two hits, and then there is a continuation from below. It went on later. So Mairis broke his jaw in the 11th round. I went to him at the jump, and then raised him from below. This uppercut – it worked. I wish it had happened sooner, but Mairis couldn’t do it.
Opetaya broke his jaw in the 2nd round of the fight with Briedis – coach
– Will there be a rematch?
– I hope it will. It all depends on our promoter from Kalle Sauerland. Now everything is in his hands. As far as he can, he will do it. Naturally, we will prepare even harder, even better.
– When champions sign a contract, there is a clause about revenge. Did Mairis have one?
– We had further plans, so we did not set such an item. Not because they thought that we would pass it, because there was another plan further. We didn’t want to stop if we win. We had a different path that we had to go. We did not want to return to this issue. We understood that Mairis could lose, and we could still bring Mairis back – make him a mandatory contender and bring him to the same rematch. The Australians themselves are also very interested. The fight was interesting. I think Australia will be happy to see (another) fight. Will Opetaya himself want? I dont know. According to one of the promoters, Opetaya didn’t want to. I don’t know if it’s true or not. He said after the fight: “No, I don’t want a rematch.” But these are probably emotions, because the jaw is broken. He has now undergone surgery. He will recover for six months, at least, possibly more. How strong it will be with him will be seen further by his preparations for battle.
– Tell me, what did Briedis lack in the battle with Usyk?
– It’s hard to say. The camp itself should take place… How fresh are you when you enter the ring? He was tired, he said. He was overtired. He did not get into the right shape, there were many diseases. His arm hurt, the injury was to his arm. His right hand was injured. She was just crystal clear. He couldn’t even hit her. Naturally, it all adds up. And it’s hard, of course, to conduct a 100% battle when your health is lame. I think it has more to do with health.
– You watched the fight – and the first thoughts, what was missing?
Usyk has a good school. Probably not enough more school. Usyk has a great school, great timing, feels great on his feet, and he has a good IQ. But Mairis’s boxing school is slightly different from Usyk. Plus a stand to which you need to adapt. It is more convenient for left-handers to work with right-handers, but not vice versa.
– Was there an idea to go to heavyweight?
Well, there was a moment. I wanted to see. Mairis boxed in the heavyweight division. In particular, we wanted to overtake Usyk somewhere, try to make a duel, but after talking with the promoter, with the whole team, we decided that it was better to go to the cruiser and not torture our body, because a completely different job is recruited for heavyweight. Switching is not one year.