Kid Diamond

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Almazbek Raiymkulov, better known as Kid Diamond (born February 18, 1977 in Kyrgyzstan) is a boxer in the Lightweight division.

[edit] Amateur career

Raiymkulov represented his country Kyrgyzstan in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games as a Lightweight. His results were:

Defeated Tumentsetseg Uitumen (Mongolia) 15-4
Defeated Jose Cruz Lasso (Colombia) 12-2
Lost to Cristian Bejarano (Mexico) 12-14

[edit] Professional career

Raiymkulov turned professional in 2001 and won his first 20 bouts, setting up a bout with cagey veteran Joel Casamayor in 2005 in a WBC Lightweight Title Eliminator. The bout was a back and forth battle and ended in a draw. It put Raiymkulov in title contention though, and set up a bout with the once promising prospect Nate Campbell. In a shocking upset, Campbell dominated the bout and won via TKO in the 10th. Since the loss, Raiymkulov has stepped his level of competition down in hopes of regaining his ranking. In his second-to-latest bout, Raiymkulov defeated ring veteran Emanuel Augustus. Then, on June 14, 2007, he fought Miguel Angel Huerta in what everyone thought would be a completely one-sided match in favor of Raiymkulov. Despite the judges giving Raiymkulov the split decision win, ringside observers said that Huerta dominated the match and should have won by a score of 116-111. Huerta knocked Raiymkulov down in the 11th round to ostensibly seal a night of domination. In the twelfth round, Huerta continued to land hooks and straights on Raiymkulov's battered face. Even though one of the judges scored the bout 116-111 in favor of Huerta, the other two inexplicably gave it to Raiymkulov by scores of 114-113. The audience booed vociferously as Michael Buffer announced the decision. In the post-fight interview, Raiymkulov tried to make excuses by saying that he didn't find out that he was fighting Huerta until three days before the match. Raiymkulov's excuse seemed disingenuous given the fact that boxing sites had reported the matchup over two weeks before the fight date, and Huerta said that he knew he was fighting Raiymkulov for the past month.