YEREVAN/MINSK — Zhora Akopyan, a 23-year-old from Minsk, is a Thai boxing and kickboxing world champion among professionals. He was born in the city of Akhalkalaki (Georgia). When he was 5 years old, the family moved to the Belarusian city of Polotsk. He has been was fond of martial arts since childhood and his uncle took him to the Polotsk kickboxing and Thai boxing hall to the coach Anatoly Seledevsky.
In 2013, four years after starting sports, Zhora won the first championship of the Republic of Belarus among juniors in Thai boxing. In 2014, he repeated this success and flew to the world championship in Malaysia, where he also became the champion. Three months later, he went to the European Championship in Poland and again became the winner. In recent years, he has given preference to a professional career. Zhora spent his first professional fights in the city of Molodechno against Belarusian athletes. In 2019 in Odessa in the FEA WORLD GP tournament Zhora won the title of world champion among professionals in weight up to 70 kg. In Minsk, Zhora plays in the world famous Gridin Gym team, as well as with the Multi Fight Club organization, which brings together all good Armenian fighters from all over the world.
Zhora, after the match, how is the pain?
It hurts for a fighter, especially after a fight, when the adrenaline goes down, you feel every muscle in your body, namely after a hard fight. From the outside it may not look so painful, but believe me, when you miss a tight blow, it takes a few seconds for the stars from appearing in front of your eyes.
You have been involved in sports since childhood – what was your strongest motivation?
The strongest motivation for me was and remains so now: it is to be better and stronger than someone else, I was taught from childhood that I should win and nothing more, and I try to stick to it!
