Rufat Ryskiev: biography and photos

It's been 43 years since the victory of the Uzbek living legend Riskieva Rufat at the world's first amateur boxing championship in Havana took place. Cuba took in 1974 the best boxers, among which was Riskiev.

A little running forward, it is encouraging for such a titled athlete, because on his 65th birthday, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) decided to repair his house. The house of the "Tashkent tiger". This is the name of Rufata in the seventies throughout the world. The reason for this was his brilliant victory in the world championship.

Unfortunately, not all well-known athletes in the past can boast of a calm old age, which they live in abundance. A few years ago, Rufat's pension was about $ 40. We can say that Riskieva was very fortunate, as his pension was increased. Friends, relatives, decent workers of the Ministry of Culture and Sports helped, as well as thanks to the efforts of the district, the pension of the former boxer was recalculated upwards. As Rufat Ryskiev himself admitted, he is especially grateful to the Moscow archivists who found the lost documents on his labor activity. The head of the NOC, Mirabrour Usmanov, also helps him in many ways, and now, in particular, he organized repair of Riskiev's house, spending about $ 15,000. As a result, the ex-world champion was able to celebrate the anniversary dates of his life in a normal house. This is how the legendary Rufat Riskiev lives today.

Biography of the famous boxer

And it all began in the distant 1949, when Rufat was born in the small town of Akkurgan, on October 2. His father Asad Ryskiev was a local doctor. However, he was destined to go not in the footsteps of his father, but to fly to the fantastic heights of life. Today his name stands next to the famous boxers of all nations and times, such as Teofil Stevenson, Mohamed Ali, Laszlo Papp, Boris Lagutin, Joe Frazer and other world boxing legends.

For the first time Rufat stepped into the boxing ring at the age of twelve. Like any boy, he dreamed of victories and beautiful battles. The first coach Riskieva was Sydney Jackson. He had his own view of how the future boxer should start his career, and so Rufat could only try on boxing gloves a few months after the start of training.

Rufat had an older brother, who by that time had already become quite a famous boxer. After two years of training with Jaxon, Alisher Ryskiev invited his brother Rufat to the sport society "Burevestnik". In that sports section, in which he trained himself.

Rufat made his debut in 1966, when he won the city's boxing championship among the teenagers as part of the Burevestnik team. Connoisseurs immediately noticed a young talented young man, who demonstrated not only a beautiful box, but also a smart one. They predicted a great future for him.

Becoming a great athlete

The real story of the greatest boxer took off from the moment when Rufat met with the new coach, Granatkin. Boris Granatkin believed that without donating for the sake of boxing, without exception, by their own interests, not to reach the heights of skill. Rufat Ryskiev shared these views, and, without a doubt, this greatly helped him in the future. Granatkin gave Rufat all his knowledge, and the rest they studied together at the competitions. Interestingly, they both valued the defeat no less than victory.

After Rufat sent Cuban Silvio Kesalo to the knockout at the very beginning of the match at the 1968 Olympic Hope tournament, the Polish coach Felix Stamm, who was there, advised the coach of the Soviet national team Alexander Kapustkin to take him to the national team. Kapustkin could not ignore the words of the legend trainer, "Daddy Stamm," who, by the way, owns the famous phrase: "A boxer must have a warm heart, a cold head, light legs and only then fast hands." So the boxer Rufat Ryskiev got to the national team.

The young boxer differed in his own style of combat, skilfully combining classical techniques with the techniques of famous boxers developed over the last decades. His fights always stood out with beauty, in harmony with strength.

The first victories are especially valuable

And so, in 1968 in Lviv he became the champion of the country among the youth.

Two years later Riskiev became an "adult fighter". Now in front of him in the ring stood the strongest fighters not only in our country, but also abroad. But Rufat was always confident in himself and was ready to fight whenever and with anyone. In the same year at an international tournament in Yugoslavia he won a gold medal.

Rufat performed in the category of 75 kilograms from the sports society "Dynamo" of Uzbekistan. Ryskiev becomes the strongest in his weight after the Games of 1971 and for many years retains this title. He was the first glove of Europe until 1976 in middleweight.

World glory

In the history of world sports on June 17, 1973 entered as the opening of the very first international championship among boxing fans in Cuba. Of the 263 athletes representing 45 countries, it was Rufat Ryskiev who won the champion's gold, but crippled his hand. He was introduced to the title of "Honored Master of Sports", received memorable gifts and even the right not to purchase a car "Volga" out of turn. True, he had no such money at that time.

The only one of all the boxers of our team, Rufat was able to get into the finals of the XXI Olympic Games. But fate gave him only silver. The first he could not become, but as a result of gossip and rumors, smirks of mediocre boxers and the creation of artificial isolation. Silver is not gold, but envious people are evil and ruthless.

Leaving the box

Rufat Ryskiev left boxing himself. He left the undefeated champion of the Soviet Union and the silver medalist of the Olympics.

It is not surprising that when in 1979, Mohammed Ali flew to Tashkent, then, despite the "bread and salt", the girls and pioneers with flowers, he wanted to see Rafat Riskiev. And about the famous boxer has long been forgotten and not even invited. But I had to remember that there is such Rufat Ryskiev.

Boxing is an amazing sport. Riskieva loved even the fans of those foreign boxers, whom he, in fact, came to beat! So beautiful and bright boxing he demonstrated in his performances.

A film about Rufat Riskiev

But, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that the domestic cinema even released a film about the famous boxer - "The ring is called ...". It is noteworthy that with a huge number of actors, the main role could not be found except for Rufat himself. Yes, it was Ryskiev who starred in this film, and at the festival of sports bands in the city of Frunze, in 1980, this film took second place. Rufat was awarded the prize for the best performance of the male role. Later, Rufat appeared in several more tapes, but left the cinema, confessing that it was "not his" ...

In 1997, Rufat became the first judge of the WBA and the international category of Central Asian professional sports.

All this was a long time ago. The glory goes away, and goes gray and humdrum. Nobody came with gratitude to the former teacher and the legendary mentor in his 60th birthday. There were no flowers, no speeches. Rufat was even surprised that the local newspaper suddenly remembered about him.

Over thirty years of his sports career, Rufat Ryskiev conducted about 200 fights, of which he won 174. Until recently, he was vice-president of the Federation of Professional Boxing of Uzbekistan.

Now Rukiev Rafat Asadovich is an ordinary pensioner.