Zak Chelli

Bio

Zak Chelli is the British-Italian super-middleweight from Battersea who has rebuilt a career most fighters would have walked away from. Three losses on his record by 2022 and the conventional wisdom said he was a domestic-level limitee who'd hit his ceiling. Five straight wins later, including the British super-middleweight title in 2024, and the conventional wisdom looks foolish.

Chelli's strengths are the ones you can't coach. He's got a genuinely granite chin, a high-pressure work rate, and the kind of professional toughness that makes him hell to fight even when his opponent is technically superior. He's never been stopped, even in his three defeats, and he's the kind of fighter who is at his best in the late rounds when his cardio and willingness to take a shot to land one start to swing the maths.

The May 9 catchweight bout against unbeaten Cuban southpaw David Morrell on the Wardley vs Dubois undercard is the biggest opportunity of Chelli's career. Stepping up in weight to 173lbs and into the kind of world-class opposition he hasn't fought before, this is either a career-defining upset or a heroic stoppage loss. Either way, Chelli walks out of Manchester with his stock raised.