As details continue to emerge from the Boston Marathon bombings last Monday, we’re now beginning to learn more about 26-year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev who is believed to be one of the suspects in the bombings that was killed in a gun battle with the police early Friday morning.
Currently what is known about him is mostly derived from a photo gallery on Photoshelter.com. This includes Tamerlan Tsarnaey being a competitive boxer at a club named Team Lowell. He also reportedly won the Rocky Marciano Trophy for being New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 2010 while taking time off from Bunker Hill Community College where he was studying to become an engineer. His uncle also told WBZ in Boston that the arrived in the United States in either 2000 or 2001 under refugee status and that he started boxing in 2004.
The Lowell Sun (via Deadspin) wrote this about his bout at the Golden Gloves nationals in 2009:
In Team New England’s last bout of the night, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dropped a controversial decision to Lamar Fenner of Chicago in the 201-pound devision.
After flooring Fenner with a huge punch that required an eight count, it seemed that Tsarnaev was in control of the whole fight.
Yet somehow the judges saw it differently and awarded Fenner the decision, a decision that drew boos from the crowd.
Team New England finished the first day of action with two wins and two losses.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev also had a YouTube profile with video’s dedicated to terrorism.
Other captions in the photo gallery include:
Tamerlan demonstrates a way of walking to strengthen the ankle muscles at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center. A native of Chechnya, Tamerlan says: “In Russia, we used to train like this. Here nobody does it, I don’t know why!”
Tamerlan says he doesn’t drink or smoke anymore: “God said no alcohol.” A muslim, he says: “There are no values anymore,” and worries that “people can’t control themselves.”
Tamerlan says he doesn’t usually take his shirt off so girls don’t get bad ideas: “I’m very religious.”
Tamerlan says he loves the movie “Borat,” even though some of the jokes are a bit too much.
If he wins enough fights there, Tamerlan says he could be selected for the US Olympic team and be naturalized American. Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia.
h/t: Deadspin, Lowell Sun, WBZ Boston
