Albert Batyrgaziev is now an Olympic gold medalist as the fighter representing the Russian Olympic Committee beat Duke Ragan in the finals for the honor.

Batyrgaziev is a 23-year-old representing Babayurt, Dagestan, Russia, who is currently pro, with three fights to his ledger. As a pro, all of his bouts have been ten-round bouts, as he has stopped all three of his opponents.

Batyrgaziev’s path to gold was as follows. Batyrgaziev received a first-round bye which was followed by a one-sided win over Alexy de la Cruz. Batyrgaziev has a lot of things in his favor being a southpaw, fighting in a manner in which he throws a ton of punches, and a good boxing IQ to know when to accelerate in a fight and pick up the pace.

Batyrgaziev had a shaky following two rounds as he beat Erdenebatyn Tsendbaatar of Mongolia, but just barely. Batyrgaziev is a fighter when he looks great he looks like a generational talent, and when he struggles, he looks like an average fighter. The bout with Tsendbaatar offered some insight as to what troubles the Russian fighter as this fight was far from easy.

The defining win of the tournament was when Batyrgaziev defeated three-time Cuban Olympic medalist, Lázaro Álvarez, an Olympic legend in the semi-final by way of a narrow margin of 3-to-2. Batyrgaziev legitimately beat the heavily favored legend, and like I tried to explain priror, Batyrgaziev is an amazing fighter when he is on, and mortal when he is off. Against the legend, Batyrgaziev’s strengths showed.

Batyrgaziev fought Duke Ragan in the finals for gold, and somewhat took the energy out of the fight early. Ragan like a tactical natured fight that is fought in spurts and more of a chess match, Batyrgaziev made it physical with high volume. In short, he fought a more fundamentally sound fight than Samuel Kistohurry of France did to Ragan in round one, which saw Ragan struggle. Batyrgaziev exploits the weakness in opponents with lower output as output is one of his biggest strengths along with angles.

Notable facts, he was a highly regarded national champion kickboxer as a teenager before he began his boxing career. In kickboxing, he has won gold medals at the U18 level at the world championships and European championships. Batyrgaziev was born in Dagestan, and is trained by his father. Manny Pacquiao, the great Filipino southpaw is his inspiration as a fighter.

Batyrgaziev is a technical, high motor boxer with a lot of volume, someone who it makes sense that Manny Pacquiao is his favorite fighter.

I hope a major promoter signs him to a pro contract, as I would like to see him in three-to-four-years fight all the great featherweights currently, such as Rashiem Jefferson, Marc Castro, Duke Ragan, David Navarro, Ceiber Ávila and more.