Light Heavyweight Contender: Boxing Saved My Life! | Malik Zinad

Champions Connect Podcast · Apr 11, 2025 · 1h 6m

How does a boy from Libya, where boxing was banned, end up in the ring with Dmitry Bivol?

Malik Zinad is a Libyan professional light heavyweight boxer who built his career in Malta, won an IBF world title eliminator and fought Dmitry Bivol in Saudi Arabia.

Malik Zinad was born in Libya, where Gaddafi had stopped boxing for 40 years. His father, an amateur boxer, taught him in the house from the age of six. When Malik was about eight, he watched his father knock a bodybuilder down with one punch, and never forgot it. With boxing not allowed, he started in kickboxing and only switched when…