News of Artur Beterbiev’s injury has left boxing fans gutted, delaying what was set to be one of the fights of the year and the historic crowning of a first undisputed four-belt light-heavyweight champion.
Yet, that misfortune has presented an unlikely candidate with the opportunity of a lifetime, as Libya’s Malik Zinad (22-0) steps up to the plate in place of Beterbiev and aims to score an upset win over Dmitry Bivol (22-0).
Boxing is in the blood of Zinad, whose father also fought professionally, but the ability to overcome the odds is more importantly coursing through his veins, quite simply displayed by the achievement of even becoming a professional boxer from Libya – where the sport was banned by Muammar Gaddafi, restricting Zinad and his father to train in their basement.
Aged 20-years-old, shortly after Gaddafi’s death, Zinad fled Libya due to the political unrest and found himself in Malta where he dreamt of pursuing his boxing career and just two years later ‘The Trigger’ would debut and score a stoppage win.
In just fourteen months, Zinad fought seven times across five countries winning all but one contest by knockout and in 2017 he would travel to the United Kingdom to fight on Channel 5 alongside the likes of Andrew Selby and Chantelle Cameron.
It was there where Zinad truly announced himself to the British public – a shock first-round knockout win over Jermaine Asare (7-1) on away soil in Cardiff silencing the crowd, before partnering up with a new trainer in Shane McGuigan and scoring another stoppage win in Scotland the following year.
Zinad unusually remained at a similar level whilst maintaining his undefeated record in bouts dotted around Europe in an active but safe spell until 2021 where the competition was upped and he travelled to Belgium to stop Timur Nikarkhoev (22-3), before remaining there outpointing Ezequiel Maderna (27-8) and Mickael Diallo (20-0-2) in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
That success in Belgium saw the 30-year-old rise in the IBF rankings and positioned him for a shot at Jerome Pampellone (18-0) in an IBF final eliminator Australia last month where once again Zinad was able to upset the odds, becoming the IBF light-heavyweight mandatory challenger with a majority-decision win.
Zinad ate heavy shots and walked through the fire to land short combinations of his own, rightfully getting the decision regardless of the harsh 114-114 scorecard in what turned out to be a gruelling, bloodied war, but one that Zinad will look back on with no regret following the Beterbiev news.
Rather than postpone the whole card, the Matchroom versus Queensberry bill will still go ahead on June 1st – now topped by Bivol-Zinad in a clash for the WBA world title.
Nine straight unanimous-decision wins for Bivol will undoubtedly encourage Zinad to walk forward, with his granite chin unlikely be cracked by the crafty technician but whether he will be able to land sufficient damage to upset the hard-to-hit champion remains to be seen.
Plenty will write Zinad off in the build-up and understandably so considering the leap up in levels, but that will certainly not be an unfamiliar feeling for the gritty Malta-based contender, who aims to add to his record of underdog wins and stun the world of boxing.
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