Ryad Merhy is a Belgian fighter, he is 29 years old, 31 fights, 30 wins of which 25 by knockout and one loss, the fight should take place on December 10 or 17.
Merhy's opposition was not quite top-notch and he was a CW until his last fight. Arsen Goulamirian (who, admittedly, is an excellent fighter) dominated Merhy and then stopped him. Babic is really a "pure brawler" and he's prone to getting caught - but I don't see Merhy landing a big bomb on him.
Merhy is a guy that lacks confidence. He was going to be bridger...then he was going back to cruiser...now he's a heavy....I've not seen the guy fight to judge him, but these kinds of guys are usually guys who don't have faith in themselves. Then again, Babic is pure hypejob, which is kind of forgivable because he is a fun barroom toughguy type, but they always get derailed. I don't know but it is a bit interesting.
The same applies to Adam Balski who nearly KO'd Babic twice, and he doesn't punch nearly as hard as Merhy, and isn't quite as durable. Balski should have a TKO stoppage loss on his record to Masternak, but that sadist of a ref blew like two knockdown calls and ignored him being battered from pillar to post, because it was the last round.
The Merhy - Goulamirian fight was a good one actually, in the end Goulamirian took over and Merhy had no answers, but the early rounds were close. He doesn't have the power to land a fight-changing big bomb as you say, but he's got decent skills and _might_ simply manage to consistently beat Babic to the punch and outbox him. Interesting fight to be honest.
Merhy schools, outclasses, annihilates Babic. Doubt it hapoens after what almost happened against Adam Balski.
Because Rivas is a natural Heavyweight who could take flush left hooks from Dillian Whyte and survive without going down, who fights literally nothing like Merhy, who has far better inside game than Merhy, and would be better at seeing openings and capitalizing on Babic's very porous defense and numerous egregious mistakes.
