“Absolutely,” he admitted. “Every three times after the three robbery decisions [he is referring to a narrow loss to Mairis Briedis in 2018 and a split decision to Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in 2017]. Also last time with that fight, I was talking with my family and asking, ‘why do you do this?’ You put so much effort and then you don’t get like the praise and it’s always something; some excuse. And it’s always something there’s always, ‘Oh, this is a close fight, this is that, this is that, here’s some sort of excuses.’ I had it many times, many times. Oh, uh, should I stop and do something else? But you know, if I had that before I wouldn’t be a world champion right now. So I’m glad that I didn’t stop after the first, second times I got robbed. And I won’t stop after the last time too, because I will serve justice on December 13th. So who cares?”
Noel Mikaelian and the politics that threatened to steel his determination
