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Two years ago, after showing up to a local boxing event because I wanted to stretch my photography muscles during a slow winter of work, I wandered into the basement of the Carnegie Music Hall in Homestead to find a ton of guys getting wrapped and ready for their fights. This was a world I was completely unfamiliar with, but after walking around mostly lost (and unsure of where I was actually allowed to photograph), the man in charge, Mike McSorley of Integrity Fighter Management, introduced me to his two fighters: Oleg Dovhun and Lyubomyr Pinchuk, fresh from Ukraine.
Since then, I’ve watched the two men dominate the region in their respective weight classes and am honored to consider the Conn-Greb boxing team all friends. It had been a while since I had caught up with their crew, and with a night of big fights on the schedule for both guys at Printscape Arena in Canonsburg, I wanted to make sure I was there to document it. Oleg continued his undefeated streak with a third-round TKO and Lyubomyr, who suffered a broken hand in the second round of the fight, went on to win the eight-round battle for the PA state title with only one loss on his overall record.
Boxing has such a rich history in Pittsburgh, and I think you’ll be seeing many big things out of these two in the future. Enjoy my visuals from the night of fights!
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2019.
