The champion met Viktor Milevskiy in May this year in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) during the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. After Michael Buffer announced the result of the historic megafight, I was surprised to notice that Milevsky congratulated Usyk on his victory already in the ring. During our short conversation Victor told about his ambitious plans to develop domestic professional boxing and to create his own promoter company Global Ukrainian Promotion. 4 months have passed since that meeting. We asked Milevsky whether his ardor has not died down, what he has achieved in boxing during this time and what projects he plans to realize in the near future.
How much money is needed for the tournament
- Viktor, in August in Kyiv Palace of Sports there was a boxing evening. Its organizer Igor Faniyan announced in the media that the budget of the event was about 330 thousand dollars. Did you participate in the financing of this tournament?
- Yes, it was the second event at the Palace of Sports, where I, so to speak, gave the organizers my shoulder. The first charity boxing show was held on January 20 this year. I gave 2 million hryvnias for its organization. And in the event itself I took part in a charity auction, the purpose of which was to collect 5 million hryvnias. 2.5 million hryvnias were collected to rebuild the school in Nikolaev, which was bombed by Russian barbarians. Another 2.5 million - to help the Ukrainian army: the purchase of drones, ammunition, as well as other necessary things for the patrol police of Ukraine. The organizers put up 4 or 5 lots, including boxing gloves signed by Vladimir Zelensky. I felt that the auction was going a bit sluggish and there would be few chances to raise such necessary funds for children and the AFU. So I turned to the initiator and said that I was ready to buy all the lots at once. And he was ready to pay 5 million hryvnias for them - just the amount that needed to be raised. Of course, it was not about the lots at all, but about the fact that the funds were needed for clear and correct purposes.
- So, your expenditure amounted to 7 million hryvnias?
- A little more. I also paid the fees of some boxers, who entered the ring of the Palace of Sports. Although I had nothing to do with them. I did it because I understand the labor of boxers. I myself have been involved in sports since early childhood. I respect this hard work. My expenses for the January event amounted to almost 8 million hryvnias.
- In the August event the help was also tangible?
- Let me remember... I paid 7 million to close the issue of renting the Palace of Sports and to pay a lot of other organizational expenses for the show. And another 4 million hryvnias went to pay the fees to all boxers who boxed that night - both to my new brainchild Global Ukrainian Promotion and to the boxers of Fanian SpartaBox. This amount also included the expenses for the training camp before the fights. And due to the fact that the boxing evening was again a charity event, an auction was traditionally held during the event. I bought more than a million dollars worth of items. That is, my expenditure this time amounted to about 12 million hryvnias. In fact, I paid more than 80% of the total budget of the tournament. If I am not mistaken, one more company provided financial assistance in the amount of about 1 million hryvnias.
Global Ukrainian Promotion
- When did the idea to open a promoter company Global Ukrainian Promotion arise?
- The idea appeared at the beginning of this year. I myself am interested and engaged in boxing. I know how many talented guys there are in Ukraine. Our boxing school is one of the strongest in the world. This is a fact recognized by all sports experts in the world. However, the opportunity to grow professionally, to improve, to perform on international sports arenas, unfortunately, only a few get. The reasons are banal - lack of funding and lack of companies that will invest in boxing with ideology. Not only for the purpose of future commercial success, but with a clear desire to make their athletes world champions or even absolute champions. I am convinced that with the right support of a professional team - Ukrainians are capable of winning world titles. As it was done by brothers Klitschko, Usyk and other our outstanding athletes. After all, we are a country of real, resilient and brave warriors. Not a single person in the world now has no doubts about it, because we prove it on the battlefield every day.
- Who came up with the name of the company?
- I have friends who are engaged in this business with enthusiasm and professional vision. For example, the president of WBC Ukraine Mykola Kovalchuk, who introduced me to the world of pro boxing from the inside. Mykola told me a lot about how this sport is organized. He introduced me to many boxing functionaries, leading boxers of the 20th century, heads of world boxing organizations, including the president of the most authoritative of them - Mauricio Suleiman. Probably Kolya is to blame for infecting me with this virus called "boxing" (laughs). When we saw, greeted, talked to Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, Sempson Lewkowicz and many other world famous promoters, when they brought their boxers to the ring, mostly from their countries - I thought: "We can do it too, more - we can do it even better than them!".
And that sparked something in me, awakened a certain sporting and entrepreneurial excitement and interest. That's how I got the idea to create a promoter company, which would promote Ukrainian boxers to the world arenas, where they would win the highest titles - world champions. As a businessman with considerable experience I like to build large companies, business systems and structures that are successful and maximally effective. And, importantly, scalable. I look at such things globally. Only on a global scale. Not limited to the local or national level. This is my own philosophy - a broad, large-scale worldview. That's why I called the company Global (because it is world level) Ukrainian (because it is ours - Ukrainian) Promotion.
- How many boxers are under contract now? What are your plans for the current and next year?
- We have just started and now we have three, I think, very serious boxers under contract. One of them is experienced and underestimated, because he has never had a promoter, a manager or a real professional training and team - this is Sergey Radchenko. And two young and very talented prospects: Yaroslav Mikhalushko and Maxim Molodan. Sergiy was once a sparring partner (by the way, together with Anthony Joshua) of Wladimir Klitschko and Oleksandr Usyk. During the short time of our cooperation he has already won the WBC Silver world title in Bridgewright. Note that this is the second most important WBC title after the world title. The next step is a world title fight. And, with the help of the Almighty, we will hold it soon.
Mikhalushko became the champion of Ukraine, won the WBC Ukraine title and will fight for the WBC Youth title this Saturday in Lviv. This is the title of world champion among youth (under 25 years old) according to the World Boxing Council. Max Molodan gets serious opponents and is smoothly reborn from an amateur boxer to a professional. After all, we must clearly realize that Olympic boxing and pro boxing are different sports. With different tasks, goals, different training process, loads and psychology. In short - we are going for world titles! And yes, we watch the other boxers we choose very carefully, looking at their boxing talents, which will need to be maximized.
- Top 5 boxers you would dream of working with.
- My dream is that when this question is asked to any leading boxing promoter in the world - Bob Arum, Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn or Turki Al Al-Sheikh, all of them would name only Ukrainian names. I am a Ukrainian promoter, so I will deal with Ukrainian boxers. The minimum task is to bring them to the world title. The task-maximum - to unify all belts in their weight categories. That is to win the title of absolute world champion, because the real champion can be only one. That's why these top 5 will be definitely from Ukraine, top 3 of which are already under contract (smiling).
- What can you say about the Ukrainian boxing market during the full-scale war? Is it a victory that boxing events are held?
- First of all, I would not like to call it a market, because we deal with live people. With families, dreams, their life situations are often difficult. Let's call it Ukrainian boxing business environment. Despite the hard times, I am trying to make it clear by my example that domestic business is ready to invest in Ukraine right now, even in sports! I am sure that I am not alone in my views and aspirations. I will constantly communicate with my business partners, like-minded people, so that they also join this, I believe, right and, if you want, noble cause. There should be more of us. We should unite around the idea of building and creating everything modern. So that we can have better than in other countries. It is time to become the first! And this applies not only to sports, but to all spheres of economy and life of Ukrainians. Of course, I will help the AFU and invest in the development of our country. Returning to sports, - I have been supporting children's sports in general at the regional level for a long time, such as soccer, boxing and hockey. Everything starts with children. They are our future. And now it largely depends on us what this future will be like, what we will do for future generations.
- What did you learn from Usyk's megafight with Tyson Fury in Riyadh from the position of a promoter?
- I was really inspired! I was sincerely happy to congratulate Alexander with the victory right after the judges' notes were announced. I dream to organize an even brighter event in the near future, but at our place, in Ukraine.
- Your group of companies "ONK" is a supplier of electricity and natural gas for domestic enterprises. So lastly, a question that concerns many Ukrainians: what are your forecasts for the winter season? What will happen to electricity and gas in Ukraine in winter?
- The situation with gas is more predictable. It remains in sufficient quantity in the subway. We also have a fairly high level of production. And in case of force majeure there is a possibility to import gas from other partner countries. We are not considering the situation when Russian barbarians "hit" the pipe, because this risk is minimal. Because with this decision they will simply destroy all the "bridges" with Europe.
As for electricity, the enemy has long been mistakenly believing that strikes on critical infrastructure will sow chaos among Ukrainians. That is why they are hitting power plants and substations. The leadership of our country has made a good step by providing an opportunity to receive loans on favorable terms for the purchase of equipment for alternative energy. Now solar panels, gas plants, wind farms - so-called "windmills", accumulators that accumulate electricity and generators - are imported to Ukraine on an industrial scale. This makes it possible to significantly reduce the risks of "blackouts".
Another positive trend is that over the past year we have significantly reduced the time it takes to restore infrastructure and power supply after missile strikes. The enemy continues to hit critical infrastructure, but we are restoring our energy system quite quickly. That is, the Ukrainian energy system is recovering quickly, and these strikes do not cause panic among Ukrainians. Ukrainians are a strong people and we are gifted by the Almighty to quickly adapt and adjust to any challenges. And missile strikes on critical infrastructure have no impact on the military theater of operations. When these vandals realize that there is no point in wasting expensive missiles on strikes that do not reach any of their strategic or even tactical targets, they will stop launching them. It won't make any sense at all.