Last chance for Culcay
Germany’s unfinished boxing star is reaching for the crown
By Martin Armbruster
April 6, 2024, 10:28 a.m
It wasn’t an easy road: On the home stretch of his career, boxing professional Jack Culcay got another world championship opportunity after years of waiting. On Saturday the old champion will fight in Falkensee near Berlin against the Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev for the IBF light middleweight title.
There are those days that change a whole life. Jack Culcay was twelve years old when that day came in 1997 – and was actually an enthusiastic footballer. Until he and his father pick up his brother, who is four years older than him, from boxing training at TG 1875 Darmstadt. “I went into the hall and saw how they were training: push-ups, jumping rope. I was blown away,” says the now 38-year-old in an interview with the specialist magazine “BOXING”.
Culcay smells the scent of the gym and makes a decision that same evening. “I came home and took all the football stuff in my room, the posters and everything, off the wall. From then on it was just boxing, the next day I went straight to training.” Since then, Jack Culcay has lived a boxer’s life. A successful one. Even as an amateur, Culcay delivered exceptional performances. In 2007 he came fifth at the World Championships in Chicago and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where he narrowly failed in the preliminary round to eventual bronze medalist Kim Jung-joo from South Korea.
The setback doesn’t throw Culcay off track. That same year he won silver at the European Championships in Liverpool. The crowning moment came in 2009: Culcay became amateur world champion in Milan – “Golden Jack” was born. The logical step follows to the prizefighters, first at Universum, later at Sauerland, at the time the top dog among the German promoters. Culcay fought his way up the light middleweight division step by step and won the European Championship crown in the 69.5 kilogram limit in 2014.
Culcay felt embarrassed by the World Cup loss
A year later, the golden boy reached the first stage goal: a clear points victory over Maurice Weber made Culcay the “interim” world champion at the WBA. A World Cup title that doesn’t mean the world to the German. “I couldn’t show my emotions like that in the ring because I wasn’t happy. That wasn’t enough: I became interim world champion, but not real world champion. That wasn’t the moment where I could celebrate,” Culcay looks back .
It was only two years later that the world association promoted him to “regular” champion because the officials simultaneously named the Cuban Erislandy Lara WBA “super champion”. Culcay’s WBA reign was over in March 2017. In Ludwigshafen he lost against the highly promoted American Demetrius Andrade after twelve rounds with a 1:2 judge’s vote. He was bitterly disappointed – and sensed injustice. “He was floored. I thought, because I’m world champion and have home advantage, I’ll win this thing. I’ve seen a lot of fights at Sauerland where others would have won. Then I thought: What’s that?! That’s not possible. There is something wrong.”
Strong performances in the USA
However, Culcay is not discouraged and dares to move to the USA just seven months after the controversial defeat. But even at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, the judges are not on his side. Although he dominated a good part of the WBC elimination fight against Maciej Sulecki and even gave the undefeated Pole a big shout in round seven, he lost out again after ten rounds. After that it’s over for Sauerland.
“They terminated the contract after the second defeat, but immediately offered me a new one,” says Culcay. “But I didn’t want to be at Sauerland anymore because I didn’t feel comfortable there anymore.” “Golden Jack” finds a new home in the Agon stable of the boxing-crazy entrepreneur Ingo Volckmann. Culcay tries his luck in the middleweight division, but after a narrow point defeat against the strong Ukrainian Sergiy Derevyanchenko in Minneapolis in 2019, the 1.74 meter athlete is relegated back to the semi-middleweight class, which is more “natural” for him. A world championship fight comes within reach in 2020 when he narrowly defeated his German rival Abass Baraou on points in a high-class IBF world championship eliminator over twelve rounds in Charlottenburg.
However, the hoped-for title fight does not materialize. On the one hand, the corona pandemic is slowing down Culcay. On the other hand, the world associations are giving the American boxing star Jermell Charlo the green light to unify the recognized world championship belts in the light middleweight division. Culcay – like other challengers – is looking into the tube and is keeping fit with several “stay-busy fights”. He never thinks about quitting in these dry times. “If I had stayed with Sauerland, I would probably have quit long ago. But Ingo Volckmann is very independent, organized fights in his hall, developed a Corona concept. I was able to fight, train, helped as a trainer. It helped me “It was fun to give tips to the younger boxers. Being part of Agon makes me proud,” says the “player-coach” about his double job.
At the end of 2023, Culcay’s patience will be rewarded. Charlo resigned his IBF light middleweight belt after a defeat against super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez, and the association then ordered a world championship fight between Culcay and Bakhram Murtazaliev. The Russian has also been waiting for his chance for a few years. In the “Purse Bid” bidding process, Agon will outdo Murtazaliev’s promoter “Main Events” at the beginning of 2024 and will bring the duel to Germany.
“This world championship fight is still missing from my mind”
On Saturday (from 10.40 p.m. on rbb, preliminary fights from 7.40 p.m. on box-sport.de) In Falkensee near Berlin, Culcay has the chance to crown and round off his professional career – to finally have the feeling of having won a full world title in the ring. “This world championship fight is still missing from my mind,” admits the veteran. If “everything had gone well” against Andrade back then, his career would have looked “completely different,” Culcay points out. “I would have defended the title and fought against I don’t know who else. But since I lost the thing even though I actually won it – that’s still my feeling – the whole thing isn’t over yet.”
So in the home stretch of his career, Culcay wants to make up for what he feels he has missed. “I want to win the fight and then defend the title as many times as possible,” he says. The Agon man already has the big US fish in the light middleweight division in mind. But first Culcay has to defeat the unbeaten Bakhram Murtazaliev. Not an easy task: The Russian, who lives in California, has won 15 of his 21 fights by knockout and is ten centimeters taller than the German. Accordingly, Culcay emphasizes that he prepared conscientiously for the fight in Berlin. “He will definitely weigh ten kilos more than me on the evening of the fight. I assume that he will hit hard, will chase me, and that I will have to move around a lot. I can’t get involved in a fight, but have to do my boxing,” he announces.
By the way, the boxer only understands Spanish during training. Culcay, who was born in Ecuador, says he speaks to Agon head coach Franquis Aldama in his second native language. “I haven’t heard a few words yet, I’m just learning them. Now I can do it perfectly.” Jack Culcay came to Germany with his family in 1990 at the age of five. Seven years later, he walked into a boxing gym. The rest is history. Until now. April 6, 2024 could be another day that changes a boxer’s life.