Most attention in the sport of boxing is paid to higher-level and more well-known fighters. But as any knowledgeable fight fan is aware, those more recognizable boxers endured numerous hardships and sacrificed much to get to the point where they have a recognizable name.
What about those who haven't reached the championship or contender levels of the sport? Those fighters, sometimes known as journeymen or (depending on their experience and skill level) gatekeepers, are often hidden from view of the casual boxing fan. They grind and toil, spending most of their time in the gym or getting the occasional (often non-televised) fight for little money, in the hopes that they can land something bigger and better.
Samuel "The Russian Concussion" Horowitz (6-2-1, 5 KOs) is such a fighter. Hailing from Chicago originally, the light heavyweight Horowitz started out as an amateur mixed martial artist before moving to boxing, and appeared on the 2015 BKB ("Big Knockout Boxing") event. In recent years, he's become a TV and movie stuntman in addition to his career in professional combat. (The latest project he worked on, a television police drama called APB, debuts February 6 on Fox.)
"When I was a kid I did martial arts, I did karate, I did some jujitsu as a kid," said Horowitz about how he got started in combat sports and MMA. "I even wrestled when I was younger. Some friends of mine told me about an MMA gym outside of Chicago where I was living. So I started training in mixed martial arts for a while. I was doing wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, kickboxing
and then a friend of mine, he was a Chicago Golden Gloves champion in amateur boxing--he took me to his boxing gym when I was still doing MMA. And I started working boxing into my MMA regimen.
"The more wins I was getting in MMA, I was only 3-2, but after my third win I started fighting really, really good wrestlers. And in my last MMA fight I realized my wrestling wasn't on the level of the guys I'm gonna be facing if I was gonna move on to something like the UFC. And I didn't really enjoy rolling around on the ground. I wanted to box. I'd had a couple amateur boxing fights by that time, so I just decided to give it up and put all of my energy into boxing.
"One of the biggest things that made me leave MMA is I fought a guy that I found out was on steroids afterwards. It was a big fight, I was 3-1, this guy was 5-3. I had seen him fight before and he didn't look that impressive. I really thought I was gonna beat him. And then when I saw him at the weigh-in, this guy looked completely different. I mean, he was huge. And then when we fought-I've never really felt out-powered by a guy my size, I've always felt like I'm pretty much stronger physically than most guys I'm in there with. And this guy, I just felt like [his power] was just ridiculous. And I'd seen him fight guys that weren't even half as strong as me before and get tossed around, and all the sudden this guy was-I felt like I couldn't get up. Afterwards a lot of his buddies came forward and told me, 'Hey, just so you know, this guy is on HGH,' and all these stories. And I was like, screw this, I don't want to fight cheaters. I don't want to be dealing with this stuff. I'm just gonna do boxing. So that's what I've been doing. I 100% prefer boxing over MMA. I basically had to unlearn everything from MMA to become a better boxer."
When asked to expand upon that last statement, Horowitz explained, "My stance had to change, because in MMA you're a lot more squared off and in boxing you can't do that. In MMA you have to be ready to defend a takedown, ready to sprawl, check kicks...in boxing you have to close your stance off, you can't be open like that. So everything had to change."
For inspiration, Samuel looks to a groundbreaking old school fighter, and his favorite active boxer is a modern fan favorite. "My favorite fighter alive right now is Gennady ["GGG"] Golovkin. I've been liking him since even before he was 'on the map.' I genuinely love seeing him fight. I went out to New York to watch him fight when he fought [David] Lemieux at Madison Square Garden. I bought my dad tickets to the fight and I took him.
"I had the chance to work out with him about two years ago when he was training for Marco Antonio Rubio. He was in training camp for that fight. My friend Donovan George (25-7, 22 KOs)--he's like my brother, we train together and go to each other's fights-he's sparred GGG numerous times, and he's friends with GGG's trainer Abel Sanchez. So he called Abel and asked about letting me come up and spar, so I went up there to Big Bear in California. And GGG ended up not sparring that day, so I ended up sparring Sullivan Barrera (18-1, 13 KOs) who used to train up there. So I went some good rounds with Sullivan Barrera, and GGG was overseeing the sparring with Abel which was cool. He [GGG] told me good luck in my fight, and we were talking-he's just a nice guy."
And as far as retired fighters? "Joe Louis is a fighter I really love. He's stylistically who I try to emulate. He's got more talent in one thumb than I have, but I like that style--it suits me. I've been working very hard to do some things with Joe Louis' style.
"I'm like a boxing nerd, I sit there and watch old YouTube videos of old fights. Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Barney Ross, Louie Lomeli--I love his style of boxing. He was a brawler. Don's dad, Peter George, is my trainer-he works with me on tweaking what I have, and adding some things to it, and we've been working on a lot of stuff that Joe Louis did, things like that. I'm not a super fast, athletic boxer. I'm just not. I'm a hard puncher and regardless of what happened in my last fight [vs. Charles Foster] I know I have a good chin. And I love to fight. But I don't have that huge amateur pedigree that some of these guys these days have, and they have that really quick head movement and these different slick tricks. A lot of the old-time fighters, I can really relate to how they fight. I love the Rocky Marcianos and the Joe Louises and those types of styles."
When asked what goes through his mind in the moments before a fight, Horowitz said, "I used to get really nervous when I first started, but now I don't. I just want to win.
"It's so weird, because in my job as a stuntman, which is what I do-I mean, I'm not making my living boxing-my number one priority is safety, and I want to make sure everything is safe, I'm safe, things are safe for the actors and everyone around me. And in boxing, I just don't care. I just wanna go in there and I wanna beat this guy. And I'll take whatever punishment I have to, and I'm just gonna dole out whatever punishment I have to. And I'm just gonna do whatever I've gotta do.
"I don't get so much nervous. I do get anxious-I just want to get in there, and I want to win. That's what's on my mind. I get [anxious] about having a bad performance, having a bad showing, letting people down. Talking a big game and not living up to it. Those are the types of things that go through my mind."
Regarding his toughest fight, Samuel said, "My last fight [a TKO loss to Charles Foster]-it was a horrible fight for me, stylistically and also I went into the fight concussed.
"I was sparring my buddy, a heavyweight, a week before the fight and I ran into a huge straight left-I was sparring southpaws because I was fighting a southpaw. So I got a concussion-it was seven days before the fight, so I thought it was fine. I felt fine going into the fight. But then as soon as this guy touched me-he wasn't a hard puncher, so it was so perplexing. I've been hit by some big shots before but I'd never been dropped, never went down. Sure I got rocked, but I never went down. And this guy-truthfully, I didn't think he could hit very hard. I felt very confident after he started hitting me-I thought to myself, 'This guy can't punch.' And then all of a sudden he hit me, and it wasn't a hard punch, but I was just out of it. And afterwards they told me I was concussed. That's no excuse-Charles Foster was a very good fighter, and I was not the better fighter that night regardless of if I was at 100%.
"I got rocked in the first loss I had, against Simon Buettner, with a huge right hand. I was hurt, but I was recovering and I was trying to fight back when they stopped the fight. To this day I believe that was an early stoppage. It is what it is and we're actually friends now. But I believe if they'd let the fight continue I'd have been able to recover. And then in my BKB fight when I ran into that big right hand from Chris Spang--I remember what was going through my head, I realized, Oh shit, I'm hurt. And I just kind of had a flashback to when they stopped the fight with Simon, and I said, Nope, not today. Not happening. And I just got up and started throwing punches.
"The difference between those two and this one [vs. Foster] was that this was just debilitating. And then afterwards, feeling the shame of taking a loss like that, and my family and friends had flown out to watch the fight.
"I was confident I was gonna win. I don't take a fight for a paycheck just thinking I'm gonna lose. I take a fight because I'm gonna win. I thought, I'm gonna go to this guy's hometown, and he's 11-0, and guess what, he's gonna be 11-1 after I get done with him. But it's boxing, it doesn't work like that all the time."
A few years ago, a production called Big Knockout Boxing (BKB) had a few events-one of which was in 2015 in which Samuel competed. The idea behind BKB was that it was boxing (though not official-the results were not tracked on the fighters' professional boxing records), with the same basic rules, but instead of fighting in a squared ring with ropes, the fighters faced off in "the pit"-a circular area with a raised outer border intended to force toe-to-toe action. It featured experienced and well-respected boxing officials and commentators, but the production intended to capture the interest of more MMA fans.
Horowitz had a lot of positive things to say about his BKB experience, when he faced local (Las Vegas) favorite Chris Spang, whose pro boxing record was 2-0 at the time. "I literally loved every single bit of that. There wasn't one part of that experience that I'd change except not getting my hand raised at the end--and I thought I should've won that fight. But they did everything right. The people that ran it were awesome. They were kind, they treated me with respect, the accommodations were great, the way they treated the fighters was great. The matchmaker was a really nice guy-he gave me a chance. One thing is, I don't think that pit was as effective as they intended at making you fight. Because if you're a really good boxer, you'll still be able to out-maneuver guys in that pit. That was kind of unfortunate because I was wanting to have a lot more face-to-face brawling rather than having somebody holding me the whole fight, which is what I thought my opponent did. I thought it was gonna force us to be toe-to-toe the whole time. But I loved it--I had a big adrenaline rush going in there. God willing I can fight in Vegas again."
Being a boxer of Jewish decent, much more rare today than it was in the early 20th century, Sam recently felt moved to do some research regarding the history of Jewish boxers. He got more than he bargained for when he uncovered a big surprise from his family tree, and it's served as even more inspiration for him as a fighter. "What amazes me about Jewish fighters is how integral boxing was in Judaism 100 years ago. Now not too many Jews box anymore. I'm an anomaly. I know a few Jews around the world who are boxers too, but you don't hear about it much. I think there were something like 27 world champions that were Jewish between like 1895-1940 or somewhere around there. Jewish fighters, they were a dime a dozen 100 years ago. You had to fight to eat and that's what's different now-Jewish people have moved on, but in those times it was very limited what you could do, so a lot of people fought.
"And best of all, I found out my grandfather was a pro boxer! I didn't even know that until a few years ago. My mom told me maybe 3 years ago, she just mentioned, 'Your grandfather boxed.' She didn't know anything else about it because it was before she was born. Sure enough, I found him on BoxRec-his name was Harley Washburn, from Cincinnati. He didn't have the greatest record but he fought some tough guys.
"I guess the apple never falls too far from the tree. I never knew any of that, and then come to find out after I'd already chosen boxing, I found out it was in my blood."
Being a journeyman in the sport doesn't pay very well, but Horowitz has found another calling-that of a stuntman in TV and film. He's appeared in such television hits as "Empire" and "Chicago P.D." With his martial arts background, he seems like a natural fit; but like many specialized fields, it wasn't necessarily easy to break into that world. "I got started in stunt work through boxing. My promoter Bobby Hitz, who's also an actor, he was consulting on a television show at the time and they were doing a boxing episode. They needed a guy who actually boxed to play a principle role in this show to be the bad guy. I got called to audition, and they liked me and put me on hold for the role. But they ended up saying I looked a little too similar to the star of the show at the time. They said they wanted to keep me on but use me as this guy's double, and to practice some of the boxing choreography and stuff like that.
"After that experience I would get work as an extra, and I'd go to the stunt coordinators-they're like the equivalent of a director but they deal exclusively with the action. So I'd go talk to them about doing stunts, and they told me I had to get into a union. So I learned and trained with other stunt guys, and I ended up being used in a show and I got into the union, and that's what I've done ever since. I've been working very hard to just keep getting better."
When asked what he enjoys most about stunt work, Samuel's enthusiasm for the stunt world shined through. "I enjoy everything about it. First of all you get to work with some really awesome people. All the stunt men and women around the globe are pretty incredible. Everybody's got their own strengths-I know people who are phenomenal gymnasts, who do things I can't do, and then there's people who can't do what I do. There are people who are experts at setting themselves on fire, jumping from high distances, doing falls, driving
just amazing things you see on TV and film and you wonder how they do that. They're just incredible people.
"I've been in the union about 4 years, and just the amount of things I've learned, the types of people I've met, and the skills I've added to my toolbox-I never would've believed I could do half the things I've learned. "
And what are some of the things he's learned? "You do a lot of practice fighting--you learn how to take a punch, react to a hit, get body slammed, take a fall. You learn how to get hit by a car and fall down a flight of stairs. How to fall off a building 3 stories tall. How to fall off a building 4 stories tall. You learn how to fall forward and backwards, how to do a flip off a building, how to get thrown off a building, how to get set on fire. You learn the safety of fire and how to prepare that. How to not get hurt doing that. You learn how to be a safety when somebody else is being lit on fire and make sure the situation is safe. I took a driving course not long ago where they teach you how to do reverse 180s, sliding 90s, how to drift, all types of stuff. It's a lot of stuff, a lot of work, and I've just scratched the surface here."
If you visit Samuel's social media accounts, you'll see that he's been calling out a boxer (known among social circles as a wealthy nightclub owner) named Joe Fournier (8-0, 8 KOs). Fournier turned professional in late 2015 at 32 years old. I asked Horowitz how this back-and-forth with Fournier started and what it's about.
"I sparred one of his stablemates a couple years ago, and I met his coach, a really nice guy who's originally from Chicago. I had a good experience-but I would see some stuff about Joe Fournier, saw he's my size, so I looked him up. I saw he was knocking people out. I started looking at his social media and seeing he's posting videos talking about how he deserves to fight top 10 guys, calling out Callum Smith in the UK, offering him big sums of money or whatever to get [Smith] to fight him. Is this guy joking?
"Don't get me wrong, I know boxing is a business. I hate it, but I understand it. But these guys who have fake records where they never fight a guy with a winning record
that's fine, whatever, if you want to do that. But don't be one of those guys who does that and then starts talking like he's ready to fight guys that are at the high levels.
"Look, I'm not a world-class fighter. I've been a club level fighter, and I've had shows outside of the club level, but I will 100% fight a guy at a higher level. And a guy like Fournier, talking that talk-he's got the money to make whatever fight he wants. The crazy thing is, if I was him, I'd fight me in like two seconds. I don't have a big amateur background besides martial arts--I have 18 amateur boxing fights. I'm his age, I don't have a real sharp boxing style like an Andre Ward or anything. It doesn't really get better for a guy like him. So I'm thinking, Why would you not want to take a chance to fight me, especially considering I'm calling you out in your town [London]?
"My friends and friends of friends, and family, in London-I lived there when I was a kid-and people in the entertainment industry have been saying they want to see that fight in London. At first he said, 'If you can't sell tickets, I don't want to fight you.' First of all, I've never seen anybody want an opponent who sells tickets, but OK. So now a bunch of people from London say they want to come out to see me fight. Need me to sell tickets? Boom. Now what's the next excuse?
"He's not even responding on Twitter now. I don't know why he wouldn't want to fight me, unless he really feels that he really can't fight and he's just doing this for show.
"I know Fournier is supposedly fighting March 4 and he does not have an opponent yet. I've seen that he stated [on social media] he's gonna fight on the David Haye-Tony Bellew undercard, that he's signed with David Haye's promotion. I'm really hoping--not for a paycheck, just for the fight-hey, here's a guy with a winning record, that wants to fight me, that's publicly calling me out-OK, sure, let's fight. He's 8-0 with 8 knockouts, I'm 6-2 with 5 knockouts. He gets a lot more credit beating a guy like me than he does fighting guys like he did in his last 3 fights."
According to BoxRec, Fournier was suspended in June 2016 by the NADO (National Anti-Doping Organization) in Belgium until December 5, 2020 after failing a drug test following his fight with Mustapha Stini (11-41). The Belgian Boxing Federation has not responded to a request for confirmation, but this could complicate a potential bout with Fournier.
Meanwhile, Horowitz will continue doing what he loves, boxing and stunt work, and embodying the heart and grit of the old-school fighters he's inspired by.
He summed up his views on the sport best: "It's about testing myself. It's about seeing what my limits are. I know there are guys who are way better than me in boxing-there are levels to this sport. But I'm the type of guy who's willing-I don't just talk about it-to go on the road and take the fights that are challenges to me. That's what boxing is all about."
Follow Samuel Horowitz on Twitter: @theconcussion27 and on Instagram: @therealrussianconcussion
[ Follow Caryn A. Tate on Twitter @carynatate ]