Omar Hikal of Cairo, Egypt has successfully made his professional boxing debut. He was one of the hometown boxers who competed at “Glory in Giza” at the Pyramids of Giza in Giza, Egypt on May 23, 2026.
Omar Hikal vs Michael Kalyalya
There were 10 professional boxing bouts on the “Glory in Giza” card. The first match featured Hikal and Michael Kalyalya, 36, of Tanzania in the welterweight division.
Tiran Thakshala Don served as the referee while Nawaf Almohaimeed, Diana Drews Milani and Danrex Tapdasan were the judges. The referee stopped the contest after 55 seconds in the third round when Hikal knocked out Kalyalya.
The loss brought Kalyalya’s professional boxing record to 3 wins, 6 losses, and 2 draws. Conversely, Hikal now has 1 win and 0 loss.
Kalyalya made his professional boxing debut on February 26, 2017. Before his bout with Hikal, the Tanzanian boxer had defeated Alfred Masinda, George Ignas Mhagama and Bartholomeo January Mathias but had lost to Waziri Rosta, Kulwa Bushiri and Sulaiman Abbar.
“Glory in Giza”
Commissioned by the Egyptian Professional Boxing Association, “Glory in Giza” was promoted by Spencer Brown, Eddie Hearn and Sergey Lapin. The matchmaker was Tom Dallas.
Thomas Trieber was the ring announcer while Todd Grisham, Adam Smith, Darren Barker and Barry Jones were the television announcers. Jamie Ward conducted the post-fight interviews.
In the main event, Rico Verhoeven, 37, of the Netherlands challenged World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, 39, of Ukraine. The challenger lost to the defending champion via technical knockout after 2 minutes and 59 seconds in the 11th round.
Including Egypt, the Netherlands, Tanzania and Ukraine, a total of 15 countries were represented. The others were Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, England, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, the United States and Uzbekistan.
Tanzania was solely represented by Kalyalya. Aside from Hikal, three more boxers represented the host country namely Mohamed Mabrouk, Basem Mamdouh and Mai Soliman.
CONAN Daily 