The Georgian Gangster: Avtandil Khurtsidze
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By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
Standing at 5ft6” you’d never think that Khurtsidze was a middleweight, let alone a middleweight that almost captured the World middleweight title.
However, when you look at the muscularity of the man and observe his brutish attitude, you soon realize that he’s essentially a little Mike Tyson.
Despite having been so close to capturing the Middleweight crown – providing he somehow beat Billy Joe Saunders – the opportunity to do so was snatched away from the Georgian fighter shortly before it was due to take place.
It was snatched away for good reason though, as it was revealed that he was in trouble with the FBI for more than a few offences…
Reading through the Boxing News magazine this week, they had an entire article devoted to Khurtsidze and they referred to him as “The Outlaw”.
Until reading it however, I had no idea quite how deeply he was involved with the Russian Mafia.
The Georgian fighter was an enforcer for “Vor” Razhden Shulaia, which meant that he was involved in numerous criminal activities including:
• Physical Violence (and battery by the sounds of it!)
• Extortion
• Theft
• Trafficking of stolen goods
• Fraud
• Racketeering
As well as being accused of committing the crimes listed above, Khurtsidze also worked with his “thief-in-law” to scam multiple casinos by somehow altering their machines and playing around with the algorithm.
This was a huge success for the pair and the men ended up making some serious money from this sly hack.
Khurtsidze was supposedly sentenced to 40 years imprisonment, however, he believes that he will serve no more than 5; 2 years if he is well behaved…
It would appear that Khurtsidze has earned the respect of his fellow inmates, as he claims to have been teaching boxing classes on a daily basis to his fellow inmates and is said to be fighting most days within the prison.
By the report in the Boxing News, it certainly seems that Khurtsidze is actually enjoying his “punishment” as he is being treated like a bit of a king!
Alongside his work as an enforcer, Khurtsidze managed to bloody the faces of many men inside the ring (as well as outside of it) and he obviously worked his way through the ranks to earn an interim WBO world title and he very almost challenged for the full strap.
By taking one look at Khurtsidze, you can appreciate the fact that he’s a pretty scary looking man.
Short, but stocky with a hard and chiseled face, the Georgian warrior certainly looks as if he packs and punch and his record would back that up.
This is the main factor that made Khurtsidze so exciting to watch in my opinion, you knew that when he got in the ring he wasn’t looking to box, he was looking to hurt his opponent and his harsh brutality was exciting to see, although it must’ve been almost horrifying for those unfortunate souls who came up against him.
A man who abides by his own rules can be a dangerous man, both in and outside of the ring.
That’s certainly the case for Avtandil Khurtsidze.
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