Are we about to enter a golden age of Albanian heavyweight boxing?

Rumours are circulating that Fury's next opponent will be No.1 ranked Albanian heavyweight Nelson Hysa. Joshua is already scheduled to face Albania's No.2 heavyweight Kristian Prenga.

It's strange that these obscure compatriots have got possibly the two biggest money fights in HW boxing right at the same moment.

If Fury-Joshua is indeed scheduled for late 2026, it makes sense that they pick low risk opponents; those who are unlikely to injure, hurt or cut the A-side, let alone win. Also, it makes sense to pick warm-up opponents who have relatively similar dimensions if not styles to the later opponent, so Hysa would fit the bill more than many.

Hysa is low level, I'd rate him around Pianeta and Schwarz. He is also a guy Fury has sparred extensively, so it's a terrible fight on paper. Hysa has one of the most bizarre records I have ever seen.

 

The majority of Hysa's amateur fights were against guys who were on their boxing debut. Guys with names like "Paluca" and "Shyti". A sick joke perhaps.

The majority of Hysa's amateur fights were against opponents who have only fought and lost to Hysa himself. Hysa fought one of them (Fatjon Sorra) a total of 8 times from 2003-2012. Sorra's sole job in boxing was to be Nelson Hysa's punching bag. Who put Sorra up to this? What was there to gain?

51 of 54 the amateur opponents he beat had 0 wins when he fought them. The other three only had 1 win when he beat them, and he "beat" one of those by SD in Albania

Hysa has never dropped a win in Albania, where the overwhelming majority of his 54 amateur wins materialised. He has 7 losses, all outside Albania, 4 of which were to no-name opponents with records of 5-4, 9-14, 4-6 and 3-7. He was stopped in 2-3 rounds by Price and Pulev.

He has one seemingly notable amateur win: a 2nd round ref stoppage of future AJ-conqueror Mihai Nistor. However, Nistor was on his boxing debut, had just turned 18 and the fight was in Albania, so we do not even know if the stoppage was legit.

This artificial creation is now 41 going on 42, though his first listed bout was at age 15. This makes me sceptical that many of these amateur bouts even happened. Hysa has the most obviously manufactured record I have ever encountered, I've never seen anything quite like it. Why is he the 18th best heavyweight in the world according to Boxrec? And more importantly, why is he ranked in the top 15 by the WBA and the WBO, including as high as 3rd this year by the WBA?

As a pro, Hysa has stopped 22 out of his 24 opponents, with most of those fights being in Albania, especially in the early days. But Hysa somehow didn't stop 40 year old Pavel Sour and 49 year old Danny Williams in 6 rounders; fighters with almost no durability or defence. Either experienced big lump Hysa has no offensive ability to speak of despite his 92% stoppage ratio (which raises more questions), or there was something illicit going on. Pick your poison.

 

Just found these articles:

https://www.hashtag.al/en/index.php...pjese-e-grupit-bajri-arrestohet-ish-boksieri/

https://www.balkanweb.com/en/injured-two-years-ago--young-man-and-his-2-brothers-arrested/

This probably explains his long periods of inactivity between late 2015 and late 2021.

Coincidentally, "Hysa" is also the name of a suspected Albanian crime family with links to the Mexican cartel.

 

Prenga might actually beat him. He has a stoppage win over Dawejko, even though the latter was faded and it was a weird quitjob. Prenga is much younger and has fought outside Albania in all or nearly all fights, which suggests a more organic career. Hysa's record is the fakest I have ever seen, even more obviously questionable than Christopher Lovejoy, even though he is surely better than Lovejoy.

 

Cameron had already lost to that Nigerian journeyman and he doesnt have 8 fights against the same nobody who never fought anyone else. Cameron's was padded, but a real record. Hysa is in a different, much shadier category.

 

Apparently Hysa posted "The Fury of Hysa is coming" on social media.

If this isn't some kind of weird misdirection, it suggests Fury-Hysa is on and will he announced shortly.

 

Even his Boxrec follower count is strange. It's similar to the likes of Jennings and Martin: long time name HW's with some accomplishments, and over 4x higher than Prenga's (probably a good bit more than 4x before he was named as AJ's opponent). So the astroturfing seems to have successfully cultivated a decent following for Hysa among Albanians. I have also heard anecdotally that he is a significant ticket seller with Albanian boxing fans.

At the same time that Joshua and Fury both seem to be fighting Albanians, there are some very important political developments going on in Albania, involving the American president's son in law and massive riots against the Albanian government.

All very odd.