MINNEAPOLIS – Fiodor Czerkaszyn has even more on his mind than the biggest boxing match of his career.
His father, Sergey, and mother, Inna, remain in his hometown of Kharkiv, Ukraine, where war has taken an emotional toll on their entire family. Czerkaszyn hasn’t seen his mother since January, when she visited him in Poland.
Czerkaszyn (20-0, 13 KOs) hopes his parents can watch his fight versus veteran Nathaniel Gallimore (22-5-1, 17 KOs), a 10-round middleweight match Showtime will televise as its opener of a tripleheader from The Armory (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT). Their bout will start in the wee hours of the morning in Kharkiv, where electricity is no certainty from day to day.
“It’s hard for me mentally, but my parents support me,” Czerkaszyn told krikya360.com. “They say, ‘It’s your goal to be someone in this world.’ I help them, of course, but this war, it’s a really bad situation because Russia [attacks] every day. Every day people are without electricity and it’s a very strange situation in the 21st century. I can’t believe it. But after this fight, we will go back to Poland and I will meet with my mom because she can go out of Ukraine.”
In accordance with martial law, Czerkaszyn’s father cannot leave Ukraine during its war with Russia because he is an adult male under the age 60.
“We keep in touch every day,” Czerkaszyn said. “It’s good I can see them because we do FaceTime. We just pray that it ends soon.”
The 26-year-old Czerkaszyn envisions his fight against Gallimore marking the beginning of his emergence in the United States. He moved to Fort Lauderdale to train in April and stopped Gilbert Venegas Jr. (11-2, 7 KOs) in the fourth round of his U.S. debut August 20 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Gallimore, however, is a much more experienced, proven pro who has stopped former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champ Jeison Rosario and lost a majority decision to Julian Williams, whom Rosario upset to win those titles in January 2020. The 34-year-old Gallimore, of Des Plaines, Illinois also has lost to unbeaten WBC interim 154-pound champ Sebastian Fundora, Erickson Lubin and former WBO junior middleweight champ Patrick Teixeira.
“He’s very experienced,” said Czerkaszyn, who was a successful muay thai fighter before he shifted his attention to boxing eight years ago. “I think he’s a power puncher. I decided to fight with him because I had a proposition from Showtime, from PBC. And it was my dream. It’s a big opportunity. It’s a TV fight and I am ready. I feel like I can’t sit around and wait for these big fights. You understand? For me, it’s a chance and I’m without pressure, to be honest, because I know he’s a good fighter.
“But if I win this fight, it can open the door to big fights with Showtime and PBC. I want to show people that I can do this. A lot of my friends, boxers from Ukraine and Poland, we dream about fighting here. American TV, American boxing, American journalists, everything like this, because it’s the top of boxing.”
Gallimore will end a 16-month layoff when he encounters Czerkaszyn. He out-pointed previously unbeaten Leon Lawson III (then 14-0) in his most recent fight, a 10-round bout he won by majority decision in June 2021 at The Armory.
“Maybe he will feel rust, I hope, but maybe no,” Czerkaszyn said. “I have prepared for the best version of him.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.