Sergey Lipinets, the former IBF welterweight title holder, is coming off a win in July over Jayar Inson on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman. The TKO victory earned him the WBO Inter-Continental Welterweight title. In this interview, we talk with Sergey Lipinets about his start in boxing, the sole blemish in his record and his take on Ruiz-Joshua 2.

In the beginning, it wasn’t boxing that got Sergey Lipinets hooked, it was kickboxing. At the age of 9 he started in the sport. He medaled in the 2012 W.A.K.O. European Championships and the 2013 World Combat Games.

“I grew up in the family with the bunch of siblings and everyone fought each other,” says Lipinets. He continues, “Then when I was 12 I was by the local kickboxing coach and he took me in. Ever since then I was fighting both kickboxing and boxing.” He would them go on to become 35-5 as an amateur and turned pro in 2014.

Sergey Lipinets vs. Jayar Inson Breakdown

In the first round, Lipinets came out with his wide stance and his hands high. He ate a couple shots, including one to the body from Inson before throwing his own punches that Inson missed with relative ease. Then Lipinets started to apply the pressure. He moved forward and kept his hands high, selectively picking his shots, just getting a reading on Jayar Inson. Sergey Lipinets went in for a big shot and Inson clinched. Lipinets threw a big shot over the top before the two boxers were split up. The pressure still came from Lipinets as he marched forward with his hands high. Inson threw a big shot and Lipinets slipped it and countered with a snappy body hook. Sergey Lipinets then marched Inson across the ring, ready to unload. Inson sensed the pressure a little late and clinched to get back across the ring. It didn’t matter, Lipinets marched forward with more pressure, making Inson uncomfortable. In the last thirty seconds or so in the match, Lipinets started to get off more shots. He threw big shots at his opponent’s dome, looking for the finish. While he didn’t go crazy, he was throwing shots too fast for Inson to keep up with and disrupted the rhythm Inson thought he had earlier in the first.

Lipinets knockout of Inson in the second round.

In the second round, both fighters were determined to be offensive. This played right into Lipinets game plan. Very shortly into the second round, Lipinets landed a huge shot that echoed with an audible crack! While Jayar Inson got back to his feet, the referee had seen enough, and called the fight off.

Happy with his performance?

Not much to complain about in a second round finish. However, it was not all smooth sailing for Lipinets. A late change in opponent presented some challenges for Sergey Lipinets and his camp.

“My last performance was very spontaneous. We were getting ready to fight John Molina who was more or less the tough guy with hard right hand and not with to many movements. All of sudden I got a lefty that moves and quite frankly can punch a little bit with both hands. Then my old experience fighting leftys in the amateurs kicked in and I got him out.” Sergey Lipinets took his time, as the world saw, and managed to get the finish with a quick night of work.

Sergey Lipinets’ Next Fight?

Lipinets is looking to fight before the end of the year, but there is no specific opponent in mind yet. “My next fight hopefully will be in December, as far as who I’m not sure but definitely I want to fight all the top guys.” The former IBF title holder thinks he still has the juice to fight with the best in the world. “I believe that my style of fighting would allow me prevail whoever I’ll fight. With my team, I do feel unstoppable.”

Learning from the Mikey Garcia fight

Sergey Lipinets and Mikey Garcia

The lone blemish on Sergey Lipinets resume is the loss to Mikey Garcia. Lipinets dropped dropped a unanimous decision loss to Garcia, who added another belt to his collection. The scorecards read 116-111, 117-110, and 117-110. Going the distance with a future hall of famer in Mikey Garcia did not defeat Sergey Lipinets mentally, it boosted him.

“Fighting Mikey I’ve learned about myself as fighter. First, I realized that I belonged in that level of boxing. Watching again and again me and my team, we knew that adjustments needed to be made. The main one was changing the trainer, so we did. Having Joe Goosen in my corner tremendously changed my whole approach, got my defense tightened up and made me more efficient in my offense.” Since changing trainers to Goosen, Lipinets has won fights against Erick Bone, Lamont Peterson, and now Jayar Inson, two of which were by technical knockout.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see Sergey Lipinets continue to evolve and improve his game.

All eyes on Ruiz-Joshua 2

The entire boxing world is enthralled by the rematch between current heavyweight champion, Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua. Ruiz pulled off the biggest upset since Buster Douglas defeated Mike Tyson and captured the WBO, IBF, WBA, and IBO heavyweight belts. Now, the two are set to rematch. On December 7th, the two heavyweights will fight in Saudi Arabia.

Lipinets thoughts on the fight: “I think that the second fight between Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua would be more of the same. Andy is on the roll and has confidence in himself and his corner. It will be only matter of him getting close enough to touch Joshua up and that will be it.”

Thanks for reading our interview with Sergey Lipinets. Be sure to follow Sergey on Twitter to stay up to date with all his latest fight news.