KUBRAT PULEV can replace legend Hristo Stoichkov as Bulgaria’s most iconic sportsman with a win over Anthony Joshua.
The Gunslinger played for CSKA Sofia and Barcelona twice, and scored 37 goals in 83 Bulgaria games.
Kubrat Pulev enters the fight with an impressive record of 28-1[/caption]
He won the Golden Boot at the 1994 World Cup, helping his little nation to a shock semi-final appearance.
And he managed his national side between 2004 and 2007 to cement his legacy as the country’s greatest ever athlete.
But Pulev said: “He is my friend, Stoichkov, he is a good man and a very good guy. I know most of the famous people in Bulgaria.
“He is a good friend because we have one restaurant and he lives near it and every time when he is in Bulgaria, he calls me and we sit and eat together, joke together.
“Will I be as big a star as him if I win? Yes. In my country, for sure.”
Joshua snapped up his Andy Ruiz Jr rematch the morning after his shock loss and avenged it comfortably.
But Pulev reckons his potential victory will be so conclusive he will be able to walk into an undisputed decider with Top Rank stablemate Tyson Fury.
He added: “There is a rematch clause. But we will see. When I win now, and win good and clean, then maybe he doesn’t want it.
“I don’t believe he will want a rematch with me because with Ruiz, it was a surprise.
“Everybody was surprised, I was surprised and the whole world was surprised.
“Me winning will not be a surprise for me.”
Pulev grew up in Soviet Union-era Bulgaria, when Communist rule dictated everything people did, including what they read.
So the thousands of books dad Venko kept in their tiny apartment were a huge risk but one he was happy to take to help educate his children.
Pulev said: “My father had two passions, one was boxing and the other was books. He was a maniac about books.
“He said if someone wants money from me, I will pay him, but no one can have my books.
“We lived in one apartment, five children, and all the walls were completely covered in books, from floor to ceiling. We had a carpenter building the bookshelves.
“In those Socialist days, everyone had the same apartment, the same furniture, the same couch.
“But in our house, all the furniture was made specially for books.
“Ten thousand books in one apartment.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
