By Dan Ambrose: Former middleweight world title challenger Matt Korobov (27-1, 14 KOs) plans on being active in 2018 by fighting 3 times. Korobov didn’t fight at all in 2017, and he hasn’t fought since defeating journeyman Scott Sigmon by an 8 round unanimous decision in November 2016.
Korobov also didn’t fight in 2015. Korobov has fought only 3 times in the last 3 years. That’s poor. It’s not believable that he’s going to fight 3 times in 2018. That doesn’t seem realistic.
2008 Russian Olympian Korobov has been fighting in the pro ranks for the past 10 years, but he’s been slow in pushing himself against quality opposition. It wasn’t until Korobov’s 6th year as a pro that he finally for a world title. Nowadays, Olympians don’t fight poor opposition for periods of time at the start of their careers the way that Korobov did. By the time he stepped it up, he was in his 30s. It was such a waste to see Korobov fail to take advantage of his career.
“I called out BJ Saunders a million times, Danny Jacobs, same amount. David Lemieux. Called out Demetrius Andrade, ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. When I say I will fight anyone, I will,” said Korobov to RingTV.com.
Korobov wants to fight the best, but without him being rated at No.1 by any of the sanctioning bodies, he’s not going to get a world title. Korobov’s management needs to be setting him up with fights against quality opposition, because he’s not going to get rated high enough for a title shot unless he’s active and beating the best contenders available.
There’s no point in Korobov calling out the top guys if he’s not fighting the top contenders, and if he’s not staying active. Korobov is ranked #5 by the World Boxing Council, but he could be ranked much higher if he’d kept himself busy in 2017 instead of staying outside of the ring for the entire year. The guys that Korobov did fight were poor opponents. Korobov fought guys that you would think would be fine for someone in his first year or two of his career, not someone that has been a pro for 8 years. Korobov’s last 3 fights were against Scott Sigmon, Brian Vera and Josue Obando.
In 2014, Korobov was knocked out in the 6th round by Andy Lee in a failed attempt to win the vacant WBO middleweight title. Korobov was ahead on all 3 of the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. The judges had Korobov ahead by the scores 50-45, 48-47 and 50-45. Korobov was dominating Lee at the time he got caught by one of his big right hooks.
The last time Korobov fought 3 times in a year was in 2014. He beat Jose Uzcategui and Emil Gonzalez. However, Korobov was knocked out by Andy Lee in December 2014.
“Minimum three fights this year,” said Korobov.
Korobov might want to try looking up the 33-year-old Andy Lee to see if he wants to fight. Lee has fought only 1 time in the past 2 years. Korobov vs. Lee 2 would be an excellent fight between 2 inactive middleweights.