“There were a few fights I didn’t feel 100 percent about but, after the fight, I took it as an experience and learned from it,” he said before elaborating. “The reality is, I lost my grandfather two days before the fight (against Parker), so mentally I wasn’t there but I have an incredible team and they were able to calm me down and say there are eight more rounds ahead.”

Next fight: With nothing else on the table, “Slava” will stay busy in an eight rounder vs. the usually durable Derrick Findley on Friday at the Belasco Theater, Los Angeles, on “LA Fight Club” as chief support to Jesus Soto-Karass-Yoshihiro Kamegai.

Shabranskyy See Me On ring TV from Golden Boy Digital on Vimeo.

The 31-year-old Findley has been a pro for over 10 years, posting a record of 23-18-1 (15 KOs). The Indiana resident usually goes the distance – he’s been stopped just three times in 18 losses – though will be the naturally smaller man.

Findley has gone the six-round distance in losing efforts against a young Andre Ward and more recently Jesse Hart. He’s taken Matt Korobov, Curtis Stevens and Arif Magomedov eight rounds. Over 10 rounds, he’s lasted the course with then unbeaten Fernando Guerrero in an NABF 160-pound title fight, J’Leon Love and Gilberto Ramirez. In total, he has fought 14 undefeated opponents.

Noticeably, Findley has only fought twice above 168 pounds and, on one of those occasions, he retired at the end of the first round against Edwin Rodriguez. This appears to be an opportunity for Shabranskyy to make a statement by getting a stoppage over an opponent who usually lasts the distance.

Why he’s a prospect: He boasts over 200 amateur fights and 200 kickboxing contests. Shabranksyy never made the Ukrainian national team to represent his country at the big tournaments because he was the No. 2 at 91 kilograms (200 pounds) behind the highly-talented Oleksandr Usyk but was on the Olympic Reserve Team for seven years. Usyk beat Shabranskyy the only time they met, though the latter does hold a win over 2008 Olympic Silver medallist Kenny Egan.

Prior to turning professional, he fought in the semi-professional World Series of boxing, going 5-2-1.

Shabranskyy has got some expert sparring in, testing himself against Gilberto Ramirez, Ola Afolabi, Denis Lebedev, Artur Beterbiev, Eleider Alvarez and Bernard Hopkins, among others. Last year, he was one of Jean Pascal’s chief sparring partners ahead of the first Sergey Kovalev fight.

When asked his biggest strengths, he’s rather modest, “I have a lot to learn. Every time I see Manny (Robles), I see there is so much to learn.”

Currently, he’s ranked by the WBC and IBF at Nos. 7 and 12 respectively, he cracked the RING magazine ratings late last year, at No. 10.

Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz, is a big exponent of his company’s fighter.

“Shabranskyy is a very strong and intelligent fighter,” said Diaz. “He is heavy-handed but doesn’t go in destructive. He uses the ring well and has a very strong jab.

“He showed a lot of heart and posture last year after being hurt and dropped in first round for the first time. He quickly recuperated, which speaks of his conditioning and put an end to the fight in the third. He is in a stay-busy fight on April 15^th but ready to face the best in the division as we all saw vs. Yunieski Gonzalez.”

Why he’s a suspect: Shabranskyy is an offensive beast; however, he’s not the hardest guy in the world to find, as illustrated when he met Parker.

He possesses decent speed but isn’t particularly quick of hand and foot.

The big Ukrainian is at a key point in his development; he’ll have grown from his outstanding win over Gonzalez in his last fight. However, he fights in one of boxing strongest divisions. It’ll be interesting to see how Golden Boy – who tends to match its fighters aggressively – move Shabranskyy after this stay-busy fight.

Story lines: He first practiced kickboxing, taking part in over 200 bouts, but made the transition to boxing when he realized there was no money in kickboxing in Ukraine.

On Jan. 30, 2011, he was fighting Egan in Los Angeles in the “WSB.” His biggest fan was in the audience.

“I went to the fight, saw him in the ring and said, ‘That’s my future husband.’ Nobody believed me (laughs),” said Dina. “A couple of weeks later, I was meeting Ivan Redkach, a mutual friend of ours. They were together and I met (Shabranskyy) officially.”

His boxing hero growing up was Mike Tyson but, today, he most admires, Lomachenko.

Shabranskyy’s goal is simply to win the light heavyweight title. He says, “I want to be world champion. It doesn’t matter who (I have to fight). I won’t back down.”

His life away from boxing is simple. He enjoys spending time with his family and likes basketball.

Fight-by-Fight Record

2012
Sept. 20 – Bryan McGlory – KO 1
Dec. 21 – Michael Glenn – KO 2

2013
March 14 – Emmanuel Wright – TKO 4
July 13 – D’Quan Morgan – UD 6
Aug. 9 – Harry Gopaul – KO 2
Nov. 14 – Rafael Valenzuela – KO 2

2014
Feb. 6 – Lamont Williams – KO 7
May 20 – Paul Vasquez – KO 1
June 21 – Michael Gbenga – UD 6
July 25 – Demetrius Walker – KO 1
Nov. 8 – Emil Gonzalez – RTD 2

2015
Jan. 17 – Garrett Wilson – RTD 9
March 12 – Fabiano Pena – RTD 5
June 30 – Paul Parker – TKO 3
Dec. 19 – Yunieski Gonzalez – MD 10