Rising star Giorgio Isaila all set for pro debut at the York Hall
22-year-old prospect Giorgio Isaila is all set for his professional boxing debut on November 25 at the iconic London venue, the York Hall.
The likeable Romanian, from Leyton in London, will face 140-fight veteran Jordan Grannum (9-125-5) over four three-minute rounds at super-welterweight on the Goodwin Boxing show headlined by the Southern Area middleweight title fight between Gideon Onyenani and Bilal Fawaz.
A national amateur champion, Giorgio Isaila only stepped into a boxing gym for the first time in January 2021 and raced to 17 wins from 20 in the amateur scene, winning a Senior ABA Championships.
Trained by Anton Pattenden and Matt Marsh at the Honour & Glory Boxing Club in Kidbrooke, the debutant spoke exclusively to BBN just days before his pro bow, “I had a proper six weeks [training camp]. I’ve been training before anyway, I haven’t had any breaks, but I had six weeks training properly with the program.”
A fan of Roberto Duran and Gervonta Davis, he described his boxing style simply as “Dangerous!” He expanded a little further, “Big puncher, I’ve got the workrate, I try to stick on people, but yeah, I’d just say I’m dangerous.”
Giorgio has sold over 90 tickets already, and most boxers know painfully too well that there’s always people who only purchase their tickets at the last minute on fight week, so the Eastern European looks destined to sell even more and looks likely to be well supported on fight night.
“My family are coming over for this fight,” he stated. “I don’t really have a big community yet but there is some Romanians coming over to watch me. I’d love to build a big community behind me, obviously.”
His debut opponent may only have won 6% of his bouts, but he managed to win his last fight against an unbeaten prospect last month in Leeds. In his eight-year pro career, he has clocked up over 600 rounds of experience and has only ever been stopped three times.
Known as ‘The Brown Eagle’, Grannum has fought at the York Hall 33 times before, but for youngster Isaila, it’s his first time appearing at ‘The Home of Boxing’, something he is looking forward to, “I’ve never boxed there before, but it’s just the history behind it.”
Without looking past this fight, Giorgio shared his immediate plans for the future, “I want to be as active as I can, but it’s the end of the year so not many more shows, but I’m looking to get back out in March on a Boxmania show.
“They’re good shows because there’s big fights, 50-50s, so I want to fight on there. Then, from March onwards, I just try to be as active as I can.”
He then laid out his long-term plans for his career, “First, I just want to build my record and just want to look good as a boxer, build up a name.
“But I’m hoping for the next couple of years to get a Southern Area title, then move on to English, then British, and doing it the domestic, traditional way.
“But I’m really hoping in two years to actually get the Southern Area [title].”
Giorgi will fight at super-welterweight, which is at 154lbs, but aims to campaign for championships down a division at welterweight. The young athlete enjoys a clean lifestyle and is confident he can drop down in weight with little to no trouble.
Away from the ring, the pro boxer can only ever be found within the four walls of his South London boxing club, “I do personal training and I’m volunteering at my gym doing amateur classes for the kids. I get in there for 7am in the morning and I’m not leaving ‘til 9pm, I’m literally living there! For me, it’s an obsession, I just like it, like the lifestyle.”
He is joined in his gym by stablemates Ibz Mercan, a 4-0 light-heavyweight from Lewisham; and unbeaten lightweight Tyler Chambers from Sidcup.
It was only a little over two years ago when Isaila stepped into a boxing gym for the first time in his life, “I started boxing about three years ago,” he explained. “So, I’ve been an amateur for one year and had 20 fights. I won 17, including National Novices Championships, Senior ABA Championships, a couple of Box Cups, and I’ve been a finalist in an international tournament in Spain.”
Isaila explained why he moved to England from Romania, just five years ago, “I just moved to start a new life; once here I thought that I had to do something. Because I was addicted to alcohol and drugs, like a very bad lifestyle from back home and I started doing the same stuff here as well, I just wanted to do something to get myself out of this, you know.
“So when I started [boxing], I just fell in love with it and I said to myself, ‘you know what, I might actually try to go pro, I could achieve something with this’.”
Remarkably, Giorgio will step into the professional boxing ring just 34 months on from entering through the doors of a boxing gym for the first time in his life, with 20 amateur bouts and multiple national titles behind him, collected in an extraordinary short space of time.
A reformed addict, the young athlete has left that old destructive lifestyle behind, turned negative to positive, and now enters the pro ranks as a multiple amateur champion with a passion for clean-living. The future looks bright for this fast-rising, go-getting dynamo.
For tickets to his fight, please visit https://giorgioboxing.co.uk/
You can follow Giorgio on Instagram @giorgioboxing
Article sponsored by HÖRFA