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Boxing
I'm now a trainer who once beat Golovkin and Usyk but I was not good enough against British Olympic star
Fury vs. Hall: Only on DAZN PPV - June 13
Gennadiy Golvkin and Oleksandr Usyk are two of the best fighters of the modern era, but one fighter can take credit for beating both men in the amateur code before they became world champions in the professional code.
Mohamed Hikal is now 47 years old, and despite never turning pro, he was always a handful when representing Egypt in multiple international tournaments.
Hikal went to four Olympic Games and one of his most notable fights came in 2008 when he was eliminated in the early stages by Britain’s James DeGale who went on to win the gold medal later that summer.
Three years before those games, Hikal enjoyed his best finish at the highest level when he collected a bronze at the 2005 World Championships that took place in China, the same location as the 2008 Olympics.
On his way to bronze, Hikal came up against Golovkin in the third round, and he caused a small upset against the heavy-handed Kazakh as he got past him on points. Golovkin would turn professional the following year.
In 2006, Hikal would beat Usyk on two occasions as victory in Turkey would be followed shortly by another success in Azerbaijan.
Several years later, Usyk was arguably the finest amateur in boxing as he won gold at the 2012 Olympics, but he had no answer to get past Hikal.
Active on social media, it appears that Hikal is now a trainer in his homeland, but will he be able to guide any of his young fighters to the lofty platforms he performed on?
Watch Fury vs. Hall exclusively on DAZN
'The Beauty' Tommy Fury fights 'The Beast' Eddie Hall on a great Misfit's fight night on Saturday, June 13, exclusively live on DAZN. Buy as a one-off PPV or included, along with Zayas vs. Ennis (June 27), Joshua vs. Prenga (July 25) and Canelo vs. M'billi (Sept 12) PPVs, with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription.
