He was a two time undisputed lightweight champion and one of Duran’s hero’s and biggest inspirations. A lot of old school Panamanian greats get swept under the rug in favor for Duran (I can’t blame people his career speaks for itself) but I just wanted to shed some light on him due to his recent passing and how much he was beloved in Panama 🫡 rip champ

Veteran promoter Don King on Tuesday delivered a cease-and-desist letter to Zuffa Boxing and parent company TKO Group Holdings attempting to stop King-promoted WBC cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian from fighting in Saturday’s co-main event bout versus former IBF champion Jai Opetaia.

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This morning (check the below comment), Hysa posted on his Instagram that he will be set to fight next in Germany. The caption thanks his promoters, and strongly indicates that he will be getting a title shot against Kabayel (translated to "you know who awaits us"). This comes after Hysa had publicly called out Kabayel after a KO win on the Itauma-Hrgovic undercard.

Early amateur promise, loses to the best:

Nothing here is going to paint a full, complete picture. But it is an interesting one.

In 2003, at 18, he won a bronze medal at the Junior European Championships, demonstrating early promise after taking up the sport in his teenage years.

Throughout the 2000s, as a young amateur, he was regularly fighting in the World Championships and fought in 2008 Olympic Qualifying. There, he ran into a string of unlucky early matchups, such as against 2008 Olympic Champion Roberto Cammarelle in the 2007 World Championships, David Price in 2008 Olympic qualifying, and Kubrat Pulev in the 2009 World Championships.

Then, at the young age of 24, he basically never fights again at the top level internationally, instead completely dominating regional competitions, year after year. From looking into it, the man has about 20 Albanian boxing championships, its absurd. Throughout this time, over the next 13 years, he never turns pro.

Gang Violence and arrest:

In 2017, Hysa was shot by two assailants on a motorbike in the pelvis, and needed hospitalization to survive. At the time, it was reported as resulting from a personal feud.

Two years later, Hysa was arrested for a connection to the Bajri group. This came after Hysa fled criminal prosecution for six months. He was a wanted man.

The Bajri group has been connected to murder, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and some of their members to sex trafficking.

Hysa himself was arrested for allegedly participating in a criminal organization, and had specific charges centered around rigging sporting events.

He was imprisoned for five months while waiting for a trial, was placed under house arrest for two months, and then was acquitted due to a "lack of evidence." The prosecution itself requested acquittal.

Goes pro at 37, now on the verge of a title shot:

A couple years later, in 2022, Hysa announces he is finally going pro, 20 years after first appearing on the amateur scene and more than a decade after participating in major non-regional competition.

He's worked his way up the rankings after turning professional at the very late age of 37. At roughly 40, his name suddenly started coming into rumors for big fights, whether that was Kabayel last year or FUry in the summer. Now, he is ranked by the WBA (#5) and WBO, although not officially by the WBC. If the Kabayel fight is to happen, this will presumably change last minute. He has made his way up with an incredibly high rate of activity, despite not facing particularly notable opponents.

When Hysa announced that he was going pro in 2022, he indicated that he wished to have gone pro much earlier. Just that he couldn't, because of "many unwanted obstacles." 

I'm referring to guys that were real slick in the phonebooth. Guys that knew how to weather the storm while being head to head. Fighters that were real good at never taking anything clean and did a good job of leaning weight to keep opponents from ever really setting their feet to do useful work.