By Gav Duthie: By the end of February the world wants to know who the best heavyweight on the planet is. Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder share the ring again and will hopefully not chance another draw in proving their heavyweight supremacy. Anthony Joshua is still in the debate despite his solitary defeat in the pro ranks.
Despite the 3 fighters in question stellar records they are not unbeatable. They have all lost before and perhaps some of their former foes will look again to topple them when they get to the top. Tyson Fury refers to himself as the lineal champion in his book ‘Behind the Mask’, the man who beat the man. Here are what some of these boxers who have defeated heavyweights big 3 are currently up to.
Mihai Nistor 1-0 (1)
The 29-year-old Romanian southpaw boasts a technical knockout victory over Anthony Joshua. He achieved this feat at the 2011 European Championships just 1 year before AJ won Olympic Gold. Nistor is not a big heavyweight at 6’0 but has a strong overhand left that he used to counter Joshua to great affect in their bout.
Nistor only turned professional last month in December 2019 stopping Christian Mariscal in a couple of rounds. He is looking to stay busy because he is also fighting tomorrow. If his promoters keep him active he could get into double figures of wins before the end of 2020.
Nistor finished his amateur career with an impressive 138-19 record but the pro game will suit his style and power. If he goes well in the next year or so a fight with Joshua would be on the cards as it is an easy sell.
Maksim Babanin (Amateur Boxer)
Tyson Fury finished his amateur career with a record of 31-4 (26). One of his defeats fell at the hands of Russian Maksim Babanin. Fury and Babanin locked horns on July 14 2007 and Babanin ran out a comfortable victor by 24-11 in the old amateur scoring system.
Back then, Babanin was seen as the number 1 Junior Heavyweight in the world with Tyson Fury at #3. In all honesty Babanin hasn’t fully progressed or reached his potential. He is now 31 years old and his best accomplishment is a bronze medal at the World Championships in 2019 losing out to exciting prospect Bakhodir Jalolov who is now 6-0 (6) in the pro game.
Babanin’s amateur record is reported as 48-18 (4) and their is little indication that he will turn professional at this time. Babanin also holds a win over Joe Joyce and the UK’s best current heavyweight amateur Frazer Clarke. We may see Anthony Joshua face Mihai Nistor at some point but I highly doubt we will ever see Fury V Babanin.
Evgeny Romanov 14-0 (10)
This Russian is a very interesting case. He stopped Deontay Wilder over 10 years ago in an amateur bout, Knocking him down and battering him with right hands until the referee stopped the fight. It is a reasonable assumption to suggest that Romanov turned professional directly as a result of the continued success of the American.
This is because Romanov did not box for 6 years prior to turning professional. The 6ft battle hardened veteran won the Gold medal at the Russian boxing championships in 2009 and felt fulfilled enough to end his amateur career in the aftermath in 2010. He turned professional in 2016 with no recored fights in between.
Wilder won his WBC title in 2015 so its interesting that Romanov got back involved so soon after. The 34-year-old has built up a solid 14-0 (10) record against fairly irrelevant opposition. 2020 should be a year he either breaks out with some good wins over ranked fighters or he may fade away into obscurity.