Malik Zinad is a 22-year-old Libyan man trying to follow his dreams, much like any ordinary 20-something. On meeting Zinad, one can appreciate his almost shy demeanour, albeit feeling like something was different about the man. Sure he is tall and clearly in shape, but what really sets him apart from the rest is the fire in his eyes when anything remotely related to boxing is mentioned.
Although he speaks gently and somewhat quietly for the most part, let there be no mistake about it, this man is a sheer force to be reckoned with in the ring. With a professional record of five wins and no losses, Zinad is well on the way to taking the international boxing world by storm. His amateur record, although not officially recorded due to lack of proper sanctioning in Libya at the time, is around 25 fights, eight of which in Malta, with the vast majority of them ending in his favour.
It was a tough time for boxing in Tripoli during the time of Colonel Gaddafi; in fact it was Zinad’s father who encouraged him to follow his dreams in Malta. “All I wanted to do was box, and I just couldn’t do it in Libya any more. So I came to Malta and started kickboxing, but I still just wanted to box,” the boxer told The Malta Independent on Sunday. He also said with great pride that he has never received anything but acceptance, support and help from the Maltese community.
It has now got to a point where he just can’t be contained in this island any more, as his manager, the former WBC Light Heavyweight Champion, Donny ‘Golden Boy’ Lalonde put it. The issue is with local promoters focusing more on one-off events on the island with instant revenue than properly investing in promoting a single boxer with the hope of a big pay-off in the future.
Mr Lalonde has always spoken passionately about Zinad every time this newsroom spoke to him. He said that he has never seen someone with so much world champion material right off the bat as Malik. It got to a point where Lalonde made it his mission to do anything in his power to ensure that Zinad gets all he deserves in the world of boxing. The two officially signed their contract on 16 March of this year and the amount of work which followed can only be described as relentless.
As his veteran manager explained to The Malta Independent on Sunday, there are pros and cons of Malik signing up with a promoter or alternatively remain ‘independent’, as Lalonde did himself. One has to choose between the more difficult uphill struggle to achieve success without direct representation only to perhaps make big money in the future, or else taking the safer route and having promoters handle the dirty work before the boxer becomes a champion. And of course, the boxer will then have to share a lot more with them when he starts making a mint.
There are currently major promoters from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China and a number of associates of Lalonde’s in the US who are all ready to meet Zinad and possibly help him find his feet. Meanwhile, the boxer has no intention of leaving Malta completely. In fact, the duo has plans to “bring boxing to Malta on a world class level”.
The young boxer’s schedule is rather packed, with trips all over the world as his manager detailed, with Zinad’s next fight on “24 September in Slovenia with the proposed opponent being Attila Palko who has 22 wins and 24 losses and ranks 225 in boxrec (which is the database of boxing records or current and former bouts). This is essential for the WBF International Light Heavyweight Championship as it will help in his overall rating. He will be seen by many industry people here as it is being held during the World Boxing Federation’s annual convention.”
On 23 October, Malik will be heading to Chong Qing, China for a boxing match with Kai Huang who had a long career as an amateur and has a professional record of two wins and no losses. “This promotional group is interested in doing more after this fight,” his manager said. “Melbourne Australia has also offered a date on 29 October” and Zinad will also be going to Canada in November. “There are a couple of different promoters I am in talks with. The one that ends up being chosen will be determined by the better deal of course.”
A chance to witness Zinad in action is in December. “I would like Malik to fight here more than he is right now. The local promoters, like I said, have a different business model than most of the rest of the world so it may take some doing to set up a promotional company just for Malik where we bring boxing to Malta on a world class level, which would be good for the whole industry here and everyone in it,” Lalonde said.
After looking at the last couple of fights Zinad has had in Hungary and France, it is easy to understand why his manager is ready to invest everything in the boxer. His last fight in Hungary ended in a Technical Knock Out (TKO) after just 1:50 of the first round. What’s more impressive about this is that his opponent had 71 fights under his belt and, although he had more losses than wins, he was “renowned for his durability” in the ring, being very rarely knocked out but never nearly as fast as the Libyan newcomer.
Despite his success, Malik still remains humble despite his fight persona, which he originally modelled after the late great Muhammad Ali, Zinad’s all-time idol. Both the boxer and his manager filled in the blanks in each other’s’ story about one of Zinad’s previous fights in France. According to their mix and match account, he knew he had him; he knew he was going to win, but he wanted to give him a chance to get up.
The short story behind the fight is that Malik knew from the start that he had won and had hurt his opponent rather badly. However, while Lalonde was “nearly having a heart attack”, the conscientious boxer decided to keep back and let the opponent have a fighting chance at the next round. Granted, he still won in the end but as Lalonde was undoubtedly exasperated by Zinad’s apparent hesitation, all the young boxer could say was, “I just wanted to give him a chance.”
When asked what his appeal to his fans and followers both now and in the future is, Zinad had some trouble formulating his thoughts as he is still learning English as he goes along. He had to call his wife and then his friend to help but we finally managed to get the message through:
“I would like to thank all my fans, friends and family and I will do everything to keep going up. I promise to get a higher position and to keep training hard to be the best.”
