In a tall building in the heart of the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, the Haifa Boxing Association "Sabatan" has been operating for over 20 years. The association participates in national and international competitions and even collects medals and prizes.
"Sabatan" club Haifa was founded in 1998 and operates under the guidance of the senior coach Yevgeny Kobrin, master and has more than 30 years of experience in teaching boxing and sports.
Initially, the association (Club Sabatan) belonged to the Hapoel center and was called Hapoel Haifa. Throughout the years of its activity, the association produced quite a few Israeli champions and first places in tournaments of all ages, including international competitions. The most prominent boxer to come out of the association was Peter Moishenson, who in 2004 won fifth place in the World Youth Championship, held in South Korea, and also brought several medals in international tournaments in Moldova, Latvia, Albania and more...
Last February (2019), the Haifa boxer won Michael Medvedev, In the Israel Championship for youth up to the age of 16, in the semi-heavy weight (up to 80 kg). This month, Medvedev, together with his coach and three other boxers from the "Savatan" association in Haifa, will go to a prestigious international tournament that will be held in Germany. Michael grew up in a house of sports. His father was a boxer in Russia and later a hockey player and his mother was a volleyball player, also in Russia. Before he started training in boxing, he played tennis and even took seventh place in the Northern Championship when he was only 6 years old (in a competition in which 10-year-old children participated).
After 4 years, he saw the boxing club in Haifa and decided he had to join, thus starting his boxing career." After a year of hard training, his coach decided to take him to the Israeli championship, but despite all the hard work, he lost. Lahi Pa, says Michael who said to himself that he could not give up and he had to be the champion of Israel and after a year of hard training, he competed again in the Israeli championship. In the first fight he won a close fight and returned home happy but knew he had another fight to win. The next morning, he drove to Kiryat Gat (the place of the championship) and started warming up for the fight. Michael describes his feelings at that moment: "I can't explain the feeling I had in my heart when my name was called to enter the ring. After 2 rounds, I won the fight before the end of time, the referee stopped the fight and at that moment I became the champion of Israel."
Yevgeny Kobrin, Michael Medvedev's coach, spoke about the boxer and the future he sees for him:
Michael's potential is very high. He is very talented and smart. Although we still have a lot of work to do on stability and especially on the mental part, I believe that he will only continue and progress and will bring us many more achievements.
Other Haifa boxers who train in the association and have won medals are Eric Shumsky, who won twice in second place and this year in third place andKirill Korolkov, who this year won second place among boys.
It is an honor for Haifa that such a boxing club "Sabatan", which produced champions, is located there