21 Facts About Ibrahim Balla

Ibrahim Balla was born in Werribee to an Albanian family that immigrated from Albania to Australia prior to his birth.

Ibrahim Balla's father Nuri was a Victorian amateur champion while his uncle Mitat Balla was an Australian amateur champion.

Older brother Qamil Balla is a professional boxer with a stellar amateur record.

Ibrahim Balla won his first Australian junior title in 2001 when he was just 11 years old.

Ibrahim Balla won multiple Victorian and Australian titles and represented Australia internationally.

Ibrahim Balla joined the AIS as part of their Boxing program, this program gave scholarship holders access to world class Olympic-standard training facilities as well as internationally renowned sports science and sports medicine practitioners.

Ibrahim Balla was selected to represent Australia at the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

Ibrahim Balla made his professional debut on 21 February 2013, defeating Jasper Buhat via first-round knockout.

Ibrahim Balla is trained by former Australian super middleweight champion Lim Jeka of Jeka Boxing Academy and his strength and conditioning coach is Dirk Lamb.

Ibrahim Balla won his first professional title on 25 June 2014 against Akrapong Nakthaem of Thailand at The Melbourne Pavilion Flemington.

Nakthaem went down in rounds 1 and 2 with Ibrahim Balla being declared the winner by TKO in round 2.

Ibrahim Balla won his second professional title in his first 10-round bout on 7 August 2015 against experienced Filipino boxer Roberto Lerio.

On 18 March 2016 Ibrahim Balla went up a weight class to face fellow Australian Emanuel Micallef.

On 11 June 2016 Ibrahim Balla experienced his first professional defeat at the hands of Filipino boxer Neil John Tabanao at Bendigo Stadium, Bendigo.

Ibrahim Balla had a disrupted training camp and weighed in over the featherweight limit of 126 pounds.

The referee took a long hard look at Ibrahim Balla and waved off the contest to save him from further punishment.

On 19 August 2017 Ibrahim Balla took on former WBC world title challenger Silvester Lopez, who recently took Tasmanian featherweight contender Luke Jackson the distance.

Ibrahim Balla's jab was sharp and accurate, his body shots were on-point and he moved fluidly around the ring.

Ibrahim Balla fought for a world title so he had a lot of ability and experience to him.

Ibrahim Balla won the fight by unanimous points decision over 10 solid rounds.

Ibrahim Balla had to overcome a number of cuts caused by head clashes throughout the bout that left him needing 15 stitches.