Mehdi Bouadla

Bouadla made his professional debut on 15 October 2003, scoring a second-round corner retirement over Rachid Mokhtari. Fighting mainly in France for the next eight years, Bouadla won the France super-middleweight title and defended it twice, as well as winning various WBA, IBF and WBO regional titles. On 4 June 2011, he faced veteran former world champion Mikkel Kessler for the European super-middleweight title, but was stopped in six rounds.^[2]

The following year, on 15 December, Bouadla fought for his first world title against WBO super-middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, who won via eighth-round stoppage.^[3] 2013 and early 2014 saw Bouadla pick up four straight wins, each a six-round points decision. Another chance at a world championship—this time the WBA interim middleweight title—came on 9 August 2014, against undefeated prospect Dmitry Chudinov. Once again Bouadla was unsuccessful, as he was stopped in three rounds.^[4]