Andrei Mikhailovich takes down Alex Hanan in one of the most bitter bouts seen in Australia for years

Born in a Russian orphanage, and taking up boxing after tortured with a cigarette, Andrei Mikhailovich emerged victorious from one of the most bitter battles seen in Aussie boxing for a long time.

Pictured are boxers Andrei Mikhailovich and Alex Hanan during their under card fight ahead of the Australian Heavyweight Title fight between Paul Gallen and Justis Huni at the ICC in Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Rising Kiwi prospect Andrei Mikhailovich declared he knocked out rival Alex Hanan because he’d made a hand motion shooting a gun at the weigh-in.

Mikhailovich stopped Hanan in the second round after dropping him with a blistering counter left hook.

Hanan rose but was dropped again by another heavy left. Once again he got to his feet but after being rocked by follow-up bombs referee John Cauchi called off the fight.

Andrei Mikhailovich edestroyed Alex Hanan in an often brutal bout.

The lead-up to the middleweight bout had been a bitter affair, with the pair’s nasty verbal exchange at the initial press conference going viral, and Hanan angering Mikhailovic’s support crew by gesturing firing a gun with his hand towards them at the weigh-in.

“You can mock me anything boxing related, but as soon as you start pulling guns and s—t like that, you take it out of the realm of boxing,” Mikhailovich said.

“When you do that, it’s offensive. So I took that to heart.

“You point a gun at my coach, and my other coach, you’re dealing with family there, so that’s why the left hook from hell came tonight.”

Born in a Russian orphanage, and taking up boxing after tortured with a cigarette by a New Zealand school bully, Mikhailovich extended his undefeated record to 16-0 (9KO) while handing Hanan (13-1, 7KO) his first loss.

“No matter what, that fight was always going to be a firefight,” Mikhailovich said.

Alex Hanan went down twice in the second round.

“The whole plan was for him to walk onto me, and that’s why you saw me go, boom, that left hook, so I’m very happy with my performance.

“I’m a puncher, I’m a big puncher, my record probably doesn’t say it.

“I’ve only really learned how to punch properly in the last year or so, to really sit down on my punches.

“There’s no more bad blood, there’s no point, because I won. What’s the point, that’s like rubbing salt into his wounds.

“And good luck to him, I hope he doesn’t get in too much trouble, I hope he goes OK in his life.”

Mikhailovich called out Australian Issac Hardman after his victory.

Mikhailovich was highly impressive in his win over Hanan.

“Why not, there’s too many reasons; one, that is a winnable fight, two, he’s an MMA fighter, three, I’m The Russian,” Mikhailovich said.

“I am the star coming up, honestly I’m a pay-per-view star, wait until I’m headlining pay-per-views.”

Promoter Dean Lonergan said of a possible Mikhailovich-Hanrdman fight: “This is the first time Andrei has fought in Australia, on a big card, if we were to do it we’d have them call each other out for 12 months, we could multiple fights where they fight on each others’ undercards and really build it up.”