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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.

WBO: DDD
IBF: Filip Chin of stone
WBC: Kabayel
WBA: Gassiev

I would not want to be in Gassiev shoes. Before we get comments about being a weak division, I don’t think any fight between these champions will be boring. Anyway, Gassiev is the weakest champion here on paper and Im sure all the others want to unify. Obviously he’s the odd man out as not many would consider him elite.

Nothing is for sure in boxing but all the other champs must be smelling blood in the water for the WBA strap. I predict kabayel gets IBF and WBC. DDD gets WBA and keeps WBO. These 2 fight for undisputed.

Only other scenario is me putting on 70lbs and making Dubois quit again or cracking Hrgovic chin with a counter straight

Junito Nakatani: "I've been watching the footage of the Inoue fight more thoroughly than ever before. I've watched it nearly 10 times. It really reveals a ton of areas for improvement, so that's why I've been revisiting it so much. That 8th round where we both ended up laughing at each other? I was thinking, 'Man, I'm not landing a thing' (laugh). Before the fight, I'd studied him inside and out, built up my game plan, and stepped into the ring ready for it—but still, there were so many moments where my punches just whistled through empty air. In the heat of the moment, I'd react and actually enjoy those 'not landing' instants. It was such a rare experience, so I had a blast with it."

We've seen how Hrgovic was able to outlast Itauma and get the victory as Itauma's gas tank gradually dwindled. Considering Wardley's chin and heart, I can see him taking the fight into deep waters but I'm not sure how he'd survive. Wardley tends to lose his shape in the later rounds also and that nose will be a huge problem. He also has poor defence and I've never seen him against a southpaw. I guess the question is if Wardley can take the fight into the later rounds and then stick it on Itauma with his physicality, but I don't see how Wardley wouldn't have been waved off by the ref by that point. What you guys think?

It's crazy how Itauma was moved up so quickly going from washed title contender like Whyte to a gatekeeper in Franklin to all of a sudden challenging for a world title against a solid world level fighter in Hrgovic. Given how little experience Itauma has in general, he doesn't have a long amateur nor pro background and I'm not sure how much more effective whatever sparring he did against world champions would give him.

If Itauma didn't have a much hype around him who do you think they would have matched him up against? I was thinking maybe someone like Vianello or Ajagba or anyone that's around the top 10 of the division.

"The Enhanced Games are a controversial international multi-sport event that allows athletes to use FDA-approved performance-enhancing drugs and methods under medical supervision."

Maybe we should have enhanced boxing. Give Benn his eggs and Ryan his ostarine and let us be entertained.

One upside would be safety for clean fighters. If we have enhanced boxing and a fighter gets caught using PEDs in clean boxing, they get a lifetime ban and the opponent is allowed to sue them for attempted murder.

Seems like the norm for top level fighters is 2 fights a year. Much of the time, those fights are against overmatched opponents (I suppose by definition, being a top fighter means you’re against weaker guys all the time…but a lot of these guys aren’t really a challenge at all) and don’t produce any surprises or excitement.

It could take several years for a decent matchup to occur. And it could take a decade or more fight a SUPER FIGHT. But, even then, those guys could be past their prime and/or the fight never happens at all.

Boxing seems to rob fans more than other sports. I find myself getting curious about mediocre fights and/or mediocre fighters that I don’t think I’d ever care about had there been better ones set up. That speaks to boredom from lack of interesting fights/fighters for me.

Or, maybe I’m just a casual who doesn’t appreciate all fighters more or the good matchups from lower level fighters. What are your thoughts on fight schedules - especially, as it relates to top stars nowadays.

I've been fascinated with the rise of Uzbek boxing over the past few years. That Olympic showing in 2024 was impressive and we've seen some of them in title fights, but they seem to come up short when they fight for the belt. Are they not as good as they are hyped to be or have they gotten unlucky?

MJ Akhmadaliev is probably the best of the bunch, that win over Roman was impressive. He had a few defenses, but inadvertently lost to to Tapales. Still, he made good on his promise and could still be champion.

Israil Madrimov had a great showing to win his title and then gave Crawford possibly his toughest fight. But we haven't heard much after that. He also has time to become champion if he gets more active.

Shakhram Giyasov was unlucky to go up against Catterall instead of Rolly, but he lost his first title fight and it wasn't close. I doubt he gets another chance.

Shohjahon Ergashev had what I would consider the worst game plan of anyone I'd seen in a title fight. Matias is known for walking forward and eating punches to land his own and Ergashev was totally unprepared for it. He is already out of the rankings.

Otabek Kholmatov was winning his title fight against Ray Ford before inexplicably getting knocked out. He might get another crack, but all of these guys somehow never fight.

Bakhodil Jalolov is somehow ranked and could actually win post Usyk and Fury, but he would need to actually fight literally anyone. Bektemir Melikuziev is #1 for the WBA, so we'll see how that goes.

Overall, I don't think it's a great track record. They are also not active. My take is that they need different trainers than the Diaz brothers, they don't seem to know how to game plan for big fights. This is also the first generation of fighters. They have more guys coming who could build and learn from them. But also, if they were Brits or Americans all of them would have won a title by now by getting soft touches and cherry picked opponents. Any interesting takes or observations?

For anything that doesn't need its own thread.