He may be relatively unknown in the world of boxing, but Andrei Mikhailovich is confident everyone will know his name come Saturday. He will fight undefeated Janibek Alimkhanuly in Las Vegas for the unified middleweight championship, but the heavy underdog tag he carries (Alimkhanuly is -1600 per ESPN BET) is nothing compared to what Mikhailovich has dealt with in his past.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Mikhailovich and his twin brother, Nikolai, were adopted by New Zealand parents at a young age. He still calls the country home.
“Where I come from is a real cold, tough world where I don’t know my [biological] parents or who my parents are,” Mikhailovich told ESPN. “I have videos of the first time me and Nikolai meeting Mum and Dad. So once a year around June, we get sit down and watch that together, which is always kind of emotional.
“But it’s a really weird thing seeing yourself meet your parents for the first time. It’s weird in a sense that I was delivered in a way that humans shouldn’t be delivered. I always had a sense of difference among my peers. I always felt like, I don’t know if I’m meant to be in this part of the world.”
The boys were taken in by loving parents Paula and Marcel, but Andrei struggled with drugs and alcohol from the age of 12 as he dealt with being adopted and finding his place in the world.
“I just started drinking like a motherf—er, bro,” Mikhailovich said. “Like, I used to get lost. I was 12 and I was just yeah, [getting] hammered for no reason whatsoever. Just wasted, just to feel good.
“I got into so many fights at school and I was drinking all the time. I went to counseling for alcohol and drugs at 12 years old. Could you believe that?”
It’s a tale as old as the sport of boxing itself. A kid on the wrong path gets taken in by a coach and thrown a pair of gloves. Fortunately for Mikhailovich, that coach was Isaac Peach, who has helped him to a world title fight. A tough, no-nonsense trainer, Peach brings fighters into the gym he built at his home in West Auckland, where he ruthlessly puts them through their paces.
The pair started working together, but Mikhailovich admits he wasn’t fully committed in the beginning until Peach told him to pull his socks up. Since then, they haven’t looked back. “I didn’t talk to him for a week or so, and he text me and he was like, ‘What’s happening?’ And I was like ‘Oh man, I’m not really too sure,'” Mikhailovich said. “He just texted me back: ‘Bring your gloves on Monday.'”
That was a turning point in Mikhailovich’s life. The drinking stopped and he started working as an engineering apprentice to support his young family. Soon, boxing became an obsession.
“I just went on a random run of fighting and we went to [21-0]. Now I’m fighting for the world title. It’s so crazy,” Mikhailovich said. “Oh, and then I got my apprenticeship done, I got married and I had two kids and all that stuff too, which is pretty cool. But yeah, it was pretty wild.”
As the biggest fight of his life looms, Mikhailovich, so confident in his ability, is typically nonchalant about the occasion. When asked if his family will be there to watch him take to the ring in one of the biggest moments of this life, he offers a blunt, cold response. “F— no. It’s my job,” Mikhailovich said.
“I told my dad recently: ‘I feel like I came into this world alone and I need to reach this summit alone,'” Mikhailovich said. “He said, ‘I really want to come to Vegas and watch.’ And I said no.”
The 26-year-old, who has endured two years of various delays to get a title fight, is respectful of Alimkhanuly, but won’t be taking a backwards step in or out of the ring.
“When he f—- up I’ll pounce,” Mikhailovich said. “What can [people] expect? They can expect me to win and win in a way that shocks a lot of people. I think Janibek is gonna be in for the surprise of his life If I’m being completely honest. This is my destiny. I have a lot of respect for him, but I believe he’s gonna lose.”
While he’s dialed in on fulfilling that destiny, Mikhailovich has taken a moment to appreciate how far he’s come not as a fighter, but a person.
“I think about my life and I think about how crazy it’s been and the journey I’ve been on it is pretty emotional because I came from nothing, Mikhailovich said. “If you want to think about the coldest, hardest place in the world, that’s the end of the Soviet [Union] from ’94 to like 2003. It was a tough cold place. And that’s where I come from, you know, so for me to be here as a man, as a father, as a fighter bro, that’s already the impossible journey.”