Arnold Gjergjaj

Gjergjaj began as a wrestler from a young age and later moved to kickboxing before taking up boxing. A three-time Swiss amateur champion,[3] he turned professional at the age of 25 and made his debut in 2009. For the majority of his career he has fought low level opposition in Switzerland, building up an undefeated record of 29-0 with 21 knockouts.

Gjergjaj is trained by Angelo Gallina, who is also his manager.[3] He has trained with world champions such as Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury and other top fighters as a sparring partner. He also learned in training sessions under the now deceased legendary German boxing coach Fritz Sdunek. He cites British former undisputed heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis as his boxing idol. Gjergjaj won the EBU-EE European heavyweight title in October 2014, beating Adnan Redzovic by a knockout in the 9th round.[4] He defended his title against Denis Bakhtov in June 2015, winning on points despite suffering a broken hand and burst eardrum, and being knocked down in the fifth round for the first time in his career.[5]

On 30 March 2016, it was announced that Gjergjaj would be the second opponent of former champion David Haye since Haye made his return to boxing after a three-year layoff. The fight, which was the biggest of Gjergjaj career to date, took place at The O2 Arena in London on 21 May 2016.[6] Haye received criticism from some fans for picking a second relatively unknown and moderately ranked opponent.[7] However, Gjergjaj was ranked 24th in the world on the independent platform Boxrec before the match with Haye, and at no. 8 in Europe by the EBU.[8] Haye stopped Gjergjaj in the second round via TKO, after having put him on the canvas three times before the referee stopped the fight.[9][10]

Gjergjaj was born in Gjakova, Kosovo and he moved to Pratteln, Basel in Switzerland with his family when he was 14 years old.[11] After graduating from school he trained as a heating engineer.[11] Gjergjaj married his wife Marta in August 2014 in Pratteln.[12] He has been involved in fields such as developmental aid organization Terre des Hommes Switzerland and has shown commitment to helping the youth in his hometown, where he opened his own boxing club "Arnold Boxfit" on 23 January 2016.[13][14]