Deejay Kriel (born June 20, 1995) is a South African professional boxer who held the

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

mini-flyweight title in 2019.

Professional career

Early career

Kriel made his professional debut against Colin Tloubatla on April 10, 2014. He lost the fight on points. Kriel rebounded from this loss by amassing a 11-1-1 record, before fighting Dexter Alimento for the vacant WBC International mini-flyweight title on July 23, 2017. He won the fight by unanimous decision. He fought twice more before he challenged for a world title, with one of this fights being a WBC International title defense.

IBF mini flyweight champion

Kriel was scheduled to challenge the reigning IBF mini-flyweight champion Carlos Licona on February 16, 2019 at the

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, United States. It was his first fight outside of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He came into the fight as an underdog. Despite this, Kriel won the fight by a late twelfth-round knockout. Coming into the last round, Kriel was down on two of the judges scorecards who had Licona up 108-101, while the third judge had Kriel at 105-104. Kriel managed to knock his opponent out with a left hook, with just 44 seconds left in the bout. During the post-fight interview, Kriel stated his desire to fight the WBC strawweight champion

Wanheng Menayothin Chayaphon Moonsri ( th, ชยพล มูลศรี; formerly: ''Saengsuree Moonsri''; แสงสุรีย์ มูลศรี; born 27 October 1985), known as Wanheng Menayothin (วันเฮง มีนะโยธิน) or Wanh ...

in a title unification fight. Kriel was scheduled to face Jesus Fernando Aguirre in a non-title bout on November 30, 2019. He made quick work of his opponent, knocking Aguirre out in the first round. Kriel was afterwards ordered by the IBF to defend his title for a purse of $16 250. Unsatisfied with this, he opted to vacate the IBF title and move up to junior flyweight.

Move to light flyweight

Kriel was scheduled to challenge the reigning IBF junior-flyweight champion

Felix Alvarado Felix Pedro Alvarado Sanchez (born 15 February 1989) is a Nicaraguan professional boxer who held the IBF light flyweight title from 2018 to 2022. He previously challenged for the IBF flyweight title in 2022, the WBA (Regular) light flyweight ...

, in the latter's second title defense, on January 2, 2021 at the

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Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. Alvardo knocked Kriel down in both the second and fourth rounds, before finishing him by technical knockout in the tenth round. Kriel faced Thembelani Nxoshe on 9 December 2022, following a 23-month long absence from the sport. He won the fight by majority decision, with scores of 78–74, 77–75 and 76–76.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kriel, Deejay 1995 births Living people Boxers from Johannesburg South African male boxers Mini-flyweight boxers World mini-flyweight boxing champions International Boxing Federation champions