This content is protected We might have to watch out for this kid. He scored a big upset this morning over three-time medalist and rrrreigning, defending, undisputed 69kg men's Olympic boxing champion of the wooooooorld - Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo. The young Jordanian, who just celebrated his 23rd birthday last weekend, met the Cuban amateur legend in the opening Round-of-64 of the AIBA world championships at 71kg. They fought for just 65 seconds, before a headbutt left Iglesias with a cut bad enough for the ringside physician to halt the contest. Now, in the pros, if the bout had not yet gone a certain length of time (varying by local commission) usually the rule is that it goes to a No Contest, and past that minimum threshold you score it. Here, despite only going a third of a single round, the judges were obligated to score that one minute. They returned a verdict of 10-9 across the board for Ishaish - giving him the victory by UTD1 (unanimous technical decision). Now, obviously that is an unsatisfying result, and quite a shame for the man that won Olympic gold just this past summer to bow out under such fluky circumstances - but, a couple of points: Iglesias was getting the absolute DOGSHITE beaten out of him for the minute it did last, and actually caused the headbutt himself when attempting to lean in and clinch as Ishaish was hammering him against the ropes. Iglesias had previously defeated Ishaish at this same tournament in 2017, when they were 29 and 19 years old respectively. There was the potential for them already to have rematched a few months ago in the Olympics, as Ishaish did represent Jordan there in the same weight category, but on the other half of the bracket (so they would have both needed to reach the finals to meet). He won his first-round match but was then yeeted by Merven Clair of Mauritius, who in turn lost to Aidan Walsh of Ireland in the bronze stage. This is easily his biggest W to date, by far, although he already has a few legitimizing ones to his credit (including Yaroslav Samofalov of Ukraine and Bobo-Usmon Shamsutdin Ugli Baturov of Uzbekistan).
He made a very big fan of me during the Olympics, that squat little ******* comes for war! **** I just realised I'm referring to his brother. Gonna give this one a watch now.
Oh and he spars with his brother Hussein (also fought in the Olympics, btw - super heavyweight in 2016, defeating Mihai Nistor but then eliminated by Tony Yoka) on the roof of some ruins in the Baqa'a refugee camp, since their country shut down (and never reopened) gyms as part of pandemic response measures.
You're thinking of Hussein (three years the older brother)? Their styles are pretty much identical. Just.. many weight divisions apart.
Yup he fights the same alright, like damn whirlwinds those guys, hope those two turn pro because they'll make for great viewing. Just so you know, I saw that Imam Khataev has his debut lined up for next week, another guy I was really hoping to see turn pro after that Olympics.
His last two bouts since upsetting Iglesias: This content is protected This content is protected (2:13:00 of the first vid, and 1:09:00 of the second, if the timestamping doesn't embed like it ought to)
His run has been ended. Dropped a MD last night to Alban Beqiri of Albania. This content is protected
