Ali Bagodinoviç Akhmedov - remember the name.

True, he probably never was blessed with quite the natural athleticism of a Maravilla, let alone the once-in-a-lifetime RJJ.

 

The crazy thing is, even at that point (AFTER he was exposed by Kerry Hope, bear in mind) it still wasn't hard to find people making the case for laying a bet on Proksa as the "live dog" with that unorthodox style a potential hurdle for GGG, allegedly. Wow, any poor saps that bought that line and sunk more than like $15 into that misguided notion... probably swore off gambling thereafter.

 

Yup. Remember how many years it took for them to begrudgingly admit that Adamek was shot and/or wouldn't fulfill his supposed destiny to become a major force @ HW?

 

The only footage I could find of Eynullayev is of his two losses:

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

Scratch that, found a win:

This content is protected

 

Akhmedov is going to decapitate this Azerbaijani kid.

 

Well, it wasn't quite technically a decapitation, as he focused mostly on body punching, but he did quite easily dispatch a very chubby Eynullayev (would've destroyed him even without the spare tire, but the bulging gut just made for a target too tempting for Ali to pass up, so he opted to take the opportunity to show off his downstairs game)

Akhmedov vs. Eynullayev:

This content is protected

 

Akhmedov finishes off 2017 with a 6-0 (4) mark before tearing up the calendar. His overall record now stands at 11-0 with eight inside the distance, although of course we know that ought to read 13-0 (10).

 

Oh wow, he beat one Frenchman and one Hungarian, with over a dozen combined stoppage losses? Yeah, okay, screw Akhmedov then, your guy's better.

I'll grant having not seen him myself but he must have not just passed the eye test, and not just aced it, but scored absolutely off the charts for you to say he is already better than Akhmedov with only two appearances in the ring, facing tomato cans.