Ukraine's Serhii Bohachuk, a promising prospect, got an up-close view of the horrors of war
When Serhii Bohachuk, a promising super welterweight prospect, left the United States where he trains for his boxing career, to return to his native Ukraine to renew his work visa, never did he expect the twists and turns his life would take.
When he arrived in Ukraine, he made a March appointment to visit the U.S. embassy to renew his visa, so he could return to the U.S. and resume his career. He's 20-1 with 20 knockouts and on Nov. 3, he'll fight Aaron Coley on a 360 Promotions card in Montebello, California, in a fight streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
But on Feb. 24, the Russian military invaded Ukraine and the war began. The attention of the world turned to Ukraine, and the country's sole focus became defending itself. While there was a max exodus of people fleeing the country and a line of cars stretched nearly 100 miles leaving the country for safe harbor in Poland, men between the ages of 18 and 60 were required to remain in case they were needed to serve in the military as part of the country's defense.
Though the U.S. had begun public warnings from its intelligence sources that Russia was planning to invade, it caught Bohachuk completely by surprise.
"I was angry and I was stuck there, but I couldn't believe this happened," Bohachuk said. "I just couldn't believe it. I thought at this time and in this day and age, it was impossible. I was in shock. I was very upset and very angry. On the day it happened, I woke up and my mother told me, 'We are at war. They started a war.' I was shocked. I couldn't believe it."
Bohachuk lived in Vinnytsia, a city in west central Ukraine about 170 miles from Kyiv. It is home to Gorky Park, a theme park that was the setting for a 1983 movie of the same name that starred William Hurt, Lee Marvin and Brian Dennehy.
Bohachuk found himself in the worst possible circumstance. His trip to Ukraine was essentially a business trip that could allow him to resume his boxing career, but he was thrust into the middle of a war.
Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions, who guided Gennadiy Golovkin's rise to prominence at middleweight, believes Bohachuk is a potential world champion. His only loss came in Puerto Rico on March 4, 2021, to Brandon Adams. Bohachuk was leading on all cards and was walking Adams down when Adams hit him with a counter left that hurt him. Adams later finished him late in the eighth with a left hook.
It was a fight he could have won, and would have been the biggest of his career, but a mistake cost him.
"It's boxing," Bohachuk said. "I got caught with a good [punch]. I was doing my job and moving in and I made a mistake and he took advantage. It happens in boxing."
Still, Loeffler believes Bohachuk has a lot of potential and every one of his fights has ended inside the distance.
He's not a one-punch knockout artist, like Golovkin or former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, but he's a pressure fighter who wears his opponent down and gets to them later in the fight.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Bohachuk's life, like all of his countrymen, turned to chaos.
"I'm a sportsman, not a soldier," Bohachuk said. "I wanted to fight to defend [the country], but everyone was telling me, 'Serhii, you are not a soldier. You are a sportsman. You need to [box]. We will fight for you.'"
His friends and family couldn't make that decision, though. But when the sports ministry in Ukraine released heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk so he could fight Anthony Joshua and then Vasiliy Lomachenko, it at least opened the likelihood for Bohachuk to be released.
Bohachuk said Usyk's win over Joshua in their rematch in Saudi Arabia made a huge difference in the country's morale.
"Usyk is such a great guy," Bohachuk said. "What he did was amazing. He fought for the title under those circumstances and he did a great job. He inspired everyone in this country. He showed us what a hero really is."
The sports ministry ultimately granted him his release, but he had to go to Poland first, and then to the U.S. embassy there to get his work visa to return to the U.S.
It was a harrowing trip to Poland, and when he arrived, there were tens of thousands of refugees. People could only stay in hotels for three days so he had to keep checking out of one hotel and into another. He also had a language barrier, since he doesn't speak Polish. He said Polish was close enough to Ukrainian so that he could communicate, but it wasn't ideal.
Two days after he left Vinnytsia, the Russians bombed it and it caused untold damage in an entirely civilian area. Twenty-six civilians died in the cruise missile strike, and more than 200 were injured. Cars were destroyed and a medical center was burned down.
"It was horrible and it was needless," Bohachuk said. "People were just living their lives and there was no military [actions] going on there. Just normal people. Why do this?"
Bohachuk finally got the visa and returned to the U.S. in July. When he returns to the ring on Nov. 3 in a card headlined by Callum Walsh, he's going to fight with a renewed vigor.
"I know what this will mean to [the Ukrainian] people," he said. "There is so much going on and sport is a way to have a [distraction] from the war."
