Ryad Merhy (born 28 November 1992) is an Ivorian-born Belgian professional boxer who held the WBA (Regular) cruiserweight title from 2021 to 2022.
[1] Born to a Lebanese father and an Ivorian mother, Merhy made his professional debut against Hrvoje Bozinovic on 29 June 2013.
Merhy faced Sylvera Louis for the vacant WBC Silver International cruiserweight title on 19 December 2015, at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.
He first staggered Ocando with a left hook, before unloading with a flurry of punches which forced referee Jan Christensen to wave the fight off.
The title fight was scheduled as the main event of a Canal+ broadcast card, and took place at the Palais des Sports in Marseille, France.
[23] After promoting him to world status, the WBA ordered Merhy to make his first title defense against former champion Yuniel Dorticos.
However, as Dorticos failed to respond to an offer to fight in Belgium, the WBA allowed Merhy to make a voluntary title defense against the IBO cruiserweight champion Kevin Lerena.
[27] On February 3, 2022, it was announced that Merhy would make his second WBA world title defense against the 2016 Olympics gold medalist Evgeny Tishchenko.
[29] Merhy was instead booked to face the WBC champion Ilunga Makabu in a title unification bout on September 30, 2022, at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa, Congo.
[30] On July 19, 2022, Merhy was ordered by the WBA to face their "Super" cruiserweight champion Arsen Goulamirian in a title consolidation bout.
[31] On August 8, Merhy revealed he might eschew both of those fights and move up to bridgerweight, as he felt he could no longer comfortably make the cruiserweight limit.