Ryad Merhy

Ryad Merhy (born 28 November 1992) is an Ivorian-born Belgian professional boxer who held the WBA (Regular) cruiserweight title from 2021 to 2022.

Born to an Lebanese father and a Ivorian mother, Merhy made his professional debut against Hrvoje Bozinovic on 29 June 2013.

He won the fight by a second-round knockout.

Merhy amassed a 17-0 record during the next two years, with 14 of those victories coming by way of stoppage, before he was fighting for his first professional title.

Merhy faced Sylvera Louis for the vacant WBC Silver International cruiserweight title on 19 December 2015, at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.

He won the fight by a sixth-round knockout.

Merhy challenged Williams Ocando for the WBA Inter-Continental cruiserweight title on 21 May 2016.

The twelve-round title bout was scheduled as the main event of an RTL broadcast card that took place at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.

Merhy won the fight by a sixth-round technical knockout.

He first staggered Ocando with a left hook, before unloading with a flurry of punches which forced referee Jan Christensen to wave the fight off.

After successfully clinching his second professional title, Merhy fought in two non-title bouts.

Merhy faced Giorgi Tevdorashvili on 15 October 2016.

He beat the over-matched Tevdorashvili by a sixth-round technical knockout.

Two weeks later, on 1 November, Merhy beat Tamas Bajzath by a third-round technical knockout.

Merhy made his first WBA Inter-Continental title defense against Max Alexander on 17 December 2016.

The fight was once again scheduled as the main event of an RTL broadcast card that took place at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.

He won the fight by an eleventh-round knockout.

Merhy made his second title defense against Mitch Williams on 20 May 2017, at the same venue and location as his previous two title fights.

He won the fight by unanimous decision, with scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110.

Merhy made his third title defense against Nick Kisner on 16 December 2017, and was once again broadcast by RTL from the RTL Spiroudome.

He won the fight by a fourth-round knockout.

Merhy faced the undefeated #1 ranked WBA cruiserweight contender Arsen Goulamirian for the vacant WBA interim cruiserweight title on 24 March 2018.

The title fight was scheduled as the main event of a Canal+ broadcast card, and took place at the Palais des Sports in Marseille, France.

oulamirian won the fight by a technical knockout, stopping Merhy with a combination of unanswered strikes in the eleventh round, after dominating the fight from the very first round.

Merhy was scheduled to face Soso Abuladze on 29 June 2018.

He successfully bounced back from his first professional loss with a sixth-round knockout victory.

Merhy next faced Demetrius Banks on 20 October 2018.

He won the fight by unanimous decision, with scores of 79-74, 80-73 and 80-73.

Merhy faced the 21-4 Samuel Clarkson for the vacant WBA International cruiserweight title on 15 December 2018.

The bout was scheduled as the event headliner, and took place at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.

He won the fight by a fourth-round knockout.

Merhy next faced Cesar David Crenz on 4 May 2019.

He won the fight by a third-round knockout.

Merhy was scheduled to fight Imre Szellő for the vacant WBA interim cruiserweight title on 19 October 2019.

The title bout took place at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, just as almost all of his previous title bouts, excepting his fight with Goulamirian.

Merhy captured the interim title with a seventh-round knockout of Szellő.

The fight was stopped at the 2:10 minute mark of the round, after Merhy had knocked Szellő down twice in the seventh and once in the sixth round.

On January 19, 2021, the WBA withdrew its recognition of the incumbent WBA (Regular) cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov, following 30 months of inactivity from him.

Accordingly, interim titleholder Ryad Merhy was then promoted to world status, while the current world champion Arsen Goulamirian was promoted to "Super" champion status.

As such, Merhy became Belgium’s first boxing champion.