Sovjetunionen. 

Blev mördad kort efter sin sista match 1995. Ryska maffian låg bakom illdådet. 

Den huvudsakliga proffskarriären gick i USA.
Som proffs rysk mästare och en mindre amerikansk dito. 

"Kobozev was murdered by two reputed Russian mobsters, Alexander Nosov and Vasiliy Ermichine.

According to the Associated Press:

"Alexander Nosov and Vasiliy Ermichine were convicted Wednesday December 5, 2001 in Manhattan of racketeering in the death of Sergei Kobozev, 31, who immigrated in 1991 and lived in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors said Nosov and Ermichine were members of a violent Russian organized crime group known as the "Brigade" when they kidnapped and killed Kobozev in 1995.

Kobozev had been a captain in the Russian army and was a chemical engineer in St. Petersburg before he made his name as a cruiserweight on the Soviet national boxing team and later with 16 knockouts in a professional career.

The mob turned against Kobozev because he worked as a part-time security guard at a Brooklyn restaurant from which Nosov was ejected after a fight with a musician, prosecutors said.

Several days after the fight, the defendants and a third member of the gang unexpectedly encountered Kobozev at a car repair shop, where they confronted him about the fight before Nosov shot him, authorities said.

Still alive, Kobozev was put in a jeep and driven to the Livingston, N.J., home of a high-ranking member of the crime group, where his neck was broken by Ermichine after Kobozev asked to be taken to a hospital, prosecutors said.

His body was buried in a shallow grave, where it was found by the FBI in March 1999."

Natan Gozman, a third defendant charged in the murder, remained a fugitive until Feb. 2005, when he was arrested in Poland and extradicted to New York, where he was found guilty of racketeering, weapons and murder charges. Gozman was eligible to be released in 2013. Apparently he was released and in 2021, Gozman again made the news, reportedly helping the feds secure the conviction of a banker accused of fraud. NY Post.

On Feb 17, 2023, Alexander, one of the boxer's murderers was denied "compassionate" release from prison. Nosov claimed he was too obese for jail."