Skender Halili back in the ring

By Boxing News - 01/17/2017 - Comments

Red hot prospect Skender Halili goes for lucky win number 13 on Friday, January 20, when he meets Romon Barber at the Grand Casino in Hinkley, Minnesota. The fight will be carried live on FLOBOXING.TV.

“I am really excited to get back into the ring,” said Halili. “I think 2017 is going to be a big year for me and my team. And it’s very special to be part of the Floboxing.tv live broadcast.”

The nine-bout card is presented by Greg Cohen Promotions in association with David Schuster’s Winner Take All Productions. FloSports, an innovative sports media and events company, based in Austin, Texas, is the authentic source for content and a new world of coverage that true fans have been waiting for.

Ask a trainer what he’d most like to have in a fighter and he will undoubtedly rattle off the things you cannot teach.

That would be toughness. And a chin. Then add punching power to that list.

Put them together and you would be describing Skender Halili.

Halili is a hard-punching, hard-fighting welterweight based in the Bronx, New York. At the age 26, he has a pro record of 12-1 with 12 knockouts. He has won four-straight – all by devastating knockout – since losing his only career bout in April of 2015.

Halili is coming off a third-round knockout of Damien Hill on a card from Iowa that was televised by CBS Sports. Halili ended the fight with a vicious body attack. In his previous appearance on CBS Sports, he knocked out Jason Thompson in a bout that the broadcast team called, “the knockout of 2016.”

Skender ended a 10-month layoff and reconnected with boxing adviser David Schuster, who has been the architect of the fighter’s four-bout winning streak.

“David Schuster is a great guy,” said Skender “He gave me an opportunity when nobody else would. He saw my real talent when he put me on a show of his in 2012. After I had moved back to Texas and suffered my first defeat, things just weren’t going right for me. I wrote to David and he gave me the opportunity to prove myself. David has done everything that he said he would do. Sometimes that’s hard to find in boxing.”

Schuster and his Winner Take All Productions has been producing shows in and around New York since 2012. He has worked with promoters Bob Duffy and Greg Cohen and has helped put on shows at Madison Square Garden’s Theater and The Space in Westbury. Among those who have appeared on Schuster cards are interim-champ Ismael Barroso, contender Joe Smith Jr. and world-title challenger Santander Silgado.

Thus far, six of Halili’s wins have come with Schuster at the helm.

“Skender is an unbelievable talent,” said Schuster. “I could see his desire the first time I watched him in the ring. He’s definitely a throwback fighter. You just don’t see guys with his combination of power and innate toughness.”

Halili trains with Jason Strout at the Church Street Gym in Manhattan and right now, his confidence is skyrocketing.

“I couldn’t ask for a better team than I have now,” said Halili. “I’m getting better defensively and offensively. We are on a roll. I’m back in New York. I feel this is the place for me. I want it more than ever and I have a great team. I believe we will take it all the way.”