Oleksandr Gvozdyk

He then faced off against Isaac Chilemba (24-4-2) on 19 November 2016, on the undercard of Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward.

Gvozdyk started strong after Chilemba suffered an injury to his right hand.

Chilemba started to increase the pace, but decided to retire at the end of the eight round due to his hand injury, giving Gvozdyk the win.

Gvozdyk made his first title defence against three-time world-title challenger Tommy Karpency (26-5-1) on 23 July 2016.

After Karpency dropped Gvozdyk in the first round with an inside shot, Gvozdyk rallied and knocked Karpency out in the sixth round with a hook to the body.

On 1 December 2018, Gvozdyk knocked out Adonis Stevenson (29-2-1, 24 KO) at 2:49 of the 11th round to win the WBC and lineal championship, ending a reign that began in 2013.

Gvozdyk knocked Stevenson down in the third round, but the referee called it as a slip.

Gvozdyk won the WBC interim light-heavyweight title by dominating a 12-round bout on 17 March 2018 against former European light-heavyweight champion Mehdi Amar (34-5-2), and put himself in position to challenge Adonis Stevenson for the full WBC title.

According to CompuBox, Gvozdyk landed 256 of 960 (27%) total punches, including 176 of 492 (36%) of his power shots.

Amar landed 135 of 536 (25%) of his total shots, including 92 of 337 (27%) power shots.

Oleksandr Serhiyovych Gvozdyk (Олександр Сергійович Гвоздик, ; also Hvozdyk; born 15 April 1987) is a Ukrainian professional boxer.

As an amateur, he won gold in the light-heavyweight division at the 2008 World University Boxing Championship.

He was a three-time national Ukrainian amateur champion, winning the title for the first time in 2009, beating Vyacheslav Shabranskyy in the final.

At the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships, Gvozdyk beat two opponents before being edged out by German boxer Rene Krause.

He won the national title again in 2010, against Ivan Senay, and 2011, against Dmitro Buglakov.

He also was eliminated in the third round at the 2010 European Amateur Boxing Championships.

Stevenson hurt Gvozdyk with a few strong shots in the 9th and 10th rounds, particularly a left hand in the 10th which almost dropped Gvozdyk.

Gvozdyk won the EUBC Europe Cup in 2011, by stopping Ainar Karlson of Estonia.

At the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships Gvozdyk beat three fighters before falling to the 2009 world champion Egor Mekhontsev of Russia.

Gvozdyk participated in the World Series of Boxing between 2011 and 2013, winning 9 bouts and losing none.

As an amateur, Gvozdyk won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics and a gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade.

Nicknamed "The Nail" as the Russian translation of Gvozdyk is nail, Gvozdyk's knockout-to-win ratio stands at 77.7%.

He is part of the Ukrainian golden generation of boxing along with Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk.

Gvozdyk began boxing when he was 10, at the encouragement of his friends.

By reaching the quarterfinals, Gvozdyk qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Gvozdyk was a bronze medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He defeated Belarusian Mikhail Dauhaliavets 18–10, Nicaraguan Osmar Bravo 18–6, and Algerian Abdelhafid Benchabla 19–17 before losing very controversially to Kazakh Adilbek Niyazymbetov on countback in the semifinals.

Gvozdyk rounded out his amateur career by winning gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade.

He won by walkover in the final as Dmitry Bivol injured his hand in the semi-final and could not compete.

Gvozdyk's exact amateur record is unknown, but he has said he had around 255 bouts and lost 30 of which, so he finished with a record of about 225–30.

Gvozdyk turned professional in 2014, signing with Top Rank.

He won his debut, defeating Mike Montoya (5-2-1) via first-round KO on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley II on 12 April 2014.

In 2016, Gvozdyk challenged for the NABF light-heavyweight title against former world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi (37-4), on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley III.

Gvozdyk dropped Mohammedi in the second round with a right hook.

Mohammedi fell face first on the canvas and the referee waved the fight immediately, giving Gvozdyk his tenth straight win and his first professional title.

On 8 April 2017, Gvozdyk won a second regional title, claiming the NABO title with a round 3 TKO win over Yunieski Gonzalez (18-2).

Later that year, the WBC ordered a world title eliminator between Gvozdyk and Marcus Browne, but Browne declined the fight.

He held the WBC and lineal light-heavyweight titles from 2018 to 2019.

On 19 August, Gvozdyk defeated Craig Baker (17-1) by a 6th-round knockout on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Baker was coming off a year-long layoff to take the fight with Gvozdyk.