“A lot of fighters want to be rich like Floyd [Mayweather], but I want to make a difference like Muhammad Ali did.”
Vlad Panin shares a similar mentality to that of sparring partner Ryan Garcia, who is determined to leave a legacy behind far beyond his achievements inside the ring.
The unbeaten Welterweight is rising up the ranks and bounced back from the one blemish on his record to claim a majority decision victory over Benjamin Whitaker inside the Top Rank Bubble at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas in June.
The pair went viral after landing simultaneous uppercuts in the first round and ‘Super Bad’ admits he is consistently reminded of the unprecedented moment.
“I really don’t even remember it, but the internet won’t let me forget it,” Panin recalled to proboxing-fans.com.
“I mean, he was backing up, he was on the ropes and then I just threw a combination and he countered and we both landed uppercuts at the same time.
“I didn’t even know what happened, I was just so in it, I’ve got to chase this guy down.
“But, I didn’t even realise we landed at the same time, because both of our heads went back.”
Panin (8-1, 4 KOs) moved to Las Vegas from his native Bulgaria at seven-years-old and originally started his journey in Karate.
However, after being disqualified from an event for knocking out an opponent, Vlad sort to shift his passion to Boxing.
“I started in Karate and I just wanted to spar,” Panin added.
“I used to be like ‘coach when are we going to spar?’ I just wanted to gear up and get in there.
“I did my first tournament when I was probably 12 or something and I had a match and I hit the guy in the face and I jabbed him and they warned me and they were like, ‘you can’t hit the face mask.’
“The headgear we were wearing, it covered the face so if you hit the face you didn’t even hit him and I kept scoring points and they kept warning me, they were about to disqualify me.
24 hours later, we’re still wrapping our minds around that crazy double uppercut from last night’s show. 😮 pic.twitter.com/FD0VEBu3jQ
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) June 27, 2020