On 27.05.2023, Ilias Kallouch fought Patrik Balaz at Super Lightweight (up to 63.5 kg) in front of 2,600 spectators at the boxing gala organised by Fides Sports GmbH (Burim Sylejmani) and Rainer Gottwald – The Brain. The fight was scheduled for 8 rounds, which were to be a tough one.
For Ilias Kallouch (10 wins, 2 losses, 0 draws) the fight was a determination of where the journey will take him. After his defeat in October 2022 against Hugo Micallef at Monza (Italy), he made a comeback fight at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart and knocked out Journeyman Giorgi Gachechiladze in the 1st round! The fight against Patrik Balaz was the next logical step to attack the top rankings again.
For Patrik Balaz (9 wins, 4 losses, 0 draws), on the other hand, the fight against Ilias Kallouch was his first experience abroad as a professional boxer, having fought all of his professional fights in the Czech Republic before. After his loss in December 2022 against Vladimir Lengal, he completed three more fights, all of which he won. He also gained enough experience in 220 amateur fights before turning professional. He was to be the real touchstone for Ilias Kallouch this evening.
Ilias Kallouch entered the ring to the sounds of Ashafar – Mocro Sh*t, accompanied by his trainer Maurice Weber, his manager Ömer Özkan, co-trainer Muhammet Barut and the cut-woman, Pia Mazelanik. At 18:20h the gong sounded for the first round and a showed a duel on a high and equal level.
Ilias Kallouch started with a wait-and-see approach and Patrik Balaz fired more punches which also left marks on Ilias Kallouch’s face. He was already bleeding from the nose at the beginning of the fight. However, Pia Mazelanik managed the bleeding and never let this become an issue for Ilias Kallouch.
After the first two rounds went to Patrik Balaz, Ilias Kallouch slowly but surely took over the reins from round 3. There were spectacular exchanges of punches that left no boxing fan sitting still in front of the TV. As time went by, Ilias Kallouch’s superiority grew and the punches became clearer. This led to Patrik Balaz being knocked down in round 6 after a hard right hand from Ilias Kallouch. The referee from Italy, Rosario Triolo subsequently gave Patrik Balaz an eightcount and then let the fight contie. A very strong 10:8 round for Ilias Kallouch, who subsequently failed to convert his dominance into a knockout.
After 8 action-packed rounds and the fight of the evening, the score was announced by ring announcer Ingo Rohrbach. Rustam Rahimov scored 79:72, Egidio Piseddu scored 77:74 and Goran Filipovic also scored 77:74, unanimously for the winner, Ilias Kallouch, who thus climbs further up the rankings and has impressively shown his capabilities to a wide audience.
The team around BODO MGMT is very proud of Ilias Kallouch and looks forward to the future challenges that await him out there.
