He and Congolese-Cypriot heavyweight prospect Louison "The Commando" Loizou (a 38 year old crossover from kickboxing and veteran of the European semipro "Bigger Is Better" knockout tourney series, who also has a background in jiu-jitsu, is a friend and former sparring partner of Lolenga Mock, and runs his own gym training kids in boxing and MMA) both made their respective professional debuts against each other last November. Judging by their physiques, you might have assumed it would last under a minute. However...books, covers, all that. This content is protected Doubtless, he got owned every second of the match, with Loizou barely even breaking a sweat (and seeming to even go easy on him with a pitying grin at times) - but tbh Gribakovičs did far better than I had guessed from my first impressions of him during the ring introductions, with his belly resplendently stacked with rolls enough to make the Pillsbury Doughboy drool and a back thatch to make George "The Animal" Steele blush. He was game as hell, and considering how many vicious combos Loizou rattled off downstairs it was actually damn impressive how deep into the 1st round he made it before succumbing to a KD. He very nearly scored a moral victory in losing it "merely" 10-9. He took an even worse beating in the second but still fancied himself in the fight until the bitter end. True, he rode the count until about seven or eight, but I don't think he quite had made up his mind whether or not to continue at that point, and was still mulling it over when the ref did him a kindness and made the decision for him. Loizou has since racked up a 5-0 (5) record and is probably extending that as we speak in his first scheduled 8-rounder in yet another visit to Latvia. Gribakovičs, however, is now on the shelf for seven months & counting. I wonder if he will ever grace the ring again. Surely despite his girth and his wee stature for a HW (standing 5′ 9½″) there are still more than a few European jobbers he could actually defeat en route to another meager payday/shot at glory with another untested prospect. He did actually show a bit of skill in there, and quite a bit of perseverance. Also this was legit maybe the most exciting southpaw versus southpaw match-up I have ever seen.
Aleksejs seems to not have any online footprint whatsoever...shame he isn't on social media, because it'd be great to send him some words of support & encouragement, the way cult fandom has grown in the past around the likes of indefatigable journeymen like Zack Page and Simmie Black.
