After comparisons to the Klitschkos, boxing twin Nurbek Oralbay eyes more Olympic glory for Kazakhstan
Nurbek Oralbay and twin brother Aibek have been compared to the Klitschkos during their advance through the ranks. Nurbek now carries the family's hopes as he bids for a Paris 2024 Olympic quota spot.
Boxing
Kazakhstan has a rich boxing pedigree with 24 Olympic medals since making its debut at Atlanta 1996 as an independent state.
Vasilii Jirov won light-heavyweight gold in Atlanta before turning professional and becoming IBF world cruiserweight champion in 1999. Gennadiy Golovkin is Kazakhstan's most famous boxing export. ‘GGG’ collected silver at Athens 2004 and dominated the pro ranks at middleweight before facing Mexico's Canelo Alvarez.
Now 23-year-old Nurbek Oralbay is hoping to follow in those illustrious footsteps after some reverse psychology from his mother inspired him to light-heavyweight gold at May’s World Championships in Tashkent.
Having dropped down to middleweight, the young star has the chance to create his own chapter in Kazakhstan’s boxing history at the upcoming Asian Games and potentially Paris 2024.
Nurbek and Aibek Oralbay - the Kazakh Klitschko brothers?
Oralbay and twin brother Aibek, the heavier of the two, enjoyed stellar age-group careers having somewhat stumbled into boxing.
Their father, who had been a freestyle wrestler, wanted his boys to go down the same path when they visited the Alatau Sport Complex in Astana.
"A coach named Askar Yerkebayev came to meet us. He was only 22 at the time. He told my father, 'There's no wrestling class here. I am a boxing trainer. Let me train your twins for free. I have a dream to take twins to the World Championships'," Nurbek Oralbay told reported by TengriSport.kz.
"Because it was free, my father agreed. In reality, my father worked three jobs - he was a security guard. When we moved from Taraz (in the south of Kazakhstan), my mother got a job as a cleaner at a school. In order not to create more problems, Aibek and I earned money ourselves and did not ask for money. That's how we stayed in boxing.”
Equally talented in the sport, there was even one occasion on which Nurbek stepped into the ring pretending to be his brother who was ill at the time.
In 2018, Yerkebayev got closer to achieving his ambition as Nurbek claimed the youth world middleweight title in Budapest with Aibek taking heavyweight silver before winning gold at that year’s Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games.
Despite the continued presence of Olympic medallists Adilbek Niyazymbetov and Vassiliy Levit, the brothers have gone on to take their chances at senior level.
Perhaps unsurprisingly their exploits have drawn parallels with fellow boxing brothers Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko of Ukraine.
In May 2019, the Kazakh pair dominated their respective weight classes at the national ‘Spartakiad’ for amateur boxers with Levit among those allowed to skip the event having just competed at the Asian Championships.
That too prompted comparisons with the Klitschkos although the Ukrainians were born five years rather than five minutes apart like the Oralbays.
Nurbek Oralbay makes Kazakhstan, and his mother, proud
At last November’s Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan, Nurbek took light-heavyweight bronze with Aibek winning the heavyweight crown.
In Tashkent in May, Aibek suffered a surprise early exit at the World Championships with their mother threatening to return home despite Nurbek progessing the same day.
“He won gold at the Asian Championships and I was satisfied with third place, so my parents had more confidence in Aibek," Nurbek Oralbay recalled to egemen.kz.
“When we returned to our apartment, we were all in a bad mood. While drinking tea, my mother said, ‘Let’s go back home now'. I said, ‘What about me, mum? You don’t believe in me?’ She replied, ‘We believe in you, but we can sit at home and watch those fights on television'.
“Of course, my parents didn’t go anywhere. They must have wanted to see me react like this. And my mother’s words gave me a great deal of motivation.”
Stung into action, Nurbek avenged his Asian Championship semi-final defeat to Jordan’s Hussein Iashaish to guarantee himself a medal, and then came through a close semi-final with Olympic bronze medallist Imam Khataev.
In the final, he met Erbieke Tuoheta of the People's Republic of China who had scored narrow points wins over Cuba’s Olympic champion Arlen Lopez and Spain’s Gazi Jalidov.
It was a close bout with Tuoheta, who was born to Kazakh parents and is also known as Toqtarbek Tanatqan, but four of the five judges gave Oralbay the contest.
Oralbay later observed, "After the final, I read many comments on the internet saying they would be happy whoever won as we are both sons of Kazakhs. But if my opponent had won, the Chinese national anthem would have been played. I made the world listen to the Kazakh national anthem.
"I told Toqtarbek the same thing and he said, 'I am also very happy, because the victory of every Kazakh is common to all of us'."
Now Oralbay has the chance to make his national anthem heard again but, this time, on Chinese soil.
Oralbay targets Asian Games success
The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, held from 23 September to 8 October, serve as the Asia boxing qualifier for Paris 2024.
Nurbek carries his family’s hopes after Sagyndyk Togambay was awarded the 92kg berth over Aibek.
But with light-heavyweight no longer an Olympic weight class, Oralbay has had to return to middleweight (80kg) with the Asian Games mirroring the Paris 2024 weight divisions.
Having led the boxing medal table at Incheon 2014 with six gold, two silver and two bronze medals, Kazakhstan experienced a severe downturn in fortunes at Jakarta-Palembang 2018 with just two silver medals, although only lighter weight classes were contested.
With Oralbay as one of the four reigning Kazakh world champions from Tashkent 2023, the nation has a great chance to improve on its last Asian Games showing.
Should Oralbay fail to reach the 80kg final and secure Kazakhstan one of the two Olympic quotas on offer in Hangzhou, China, he potentially has two further opportunities at the World Qualifier 1 in Busto Arsizio, Italy, and the World Qualifier 2 in Bangkok, Thailand early next year.