Adam Azim: “My focus is this fight, and then we will see what comes next. I would like to grab the European title if I can.”

Adam Azim: “My focus is this fight, and then we will see what comes next. I would like to grab the European title if I can.”

By Matt Elliott

Adam Azim will return to action next month after Boxxer announced this past week that his rearranged fight with Ukrainian Aram Fanyan will land on the undercard of the Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr rematch at the AO Arena in Manchester.

Azim, who turned professional in 2020 after an exceptional spell as an amateur, has made a blistering start to life as a pro, with eight victories, six of which have come by knockout. As a result of his in-ring style and his British-Pakistani background, comparisons have naturally been drawn with Amir Khan, a fighter who was an inspiration to Azim growing up and someone he can now call a friend. Khan, like many people from across the boxing world, has publicly stated that he believes Azim has all the attributes needed to become a world champion, and his recent performances have certainly done little to extinguish that optimism.

Following the announcement of the Fanyan fight, I caught up with Azim and found a man who was full of confidence, but who had certainly not become carried away by the hype that surrounds him. He came across as a very grounded individual but someone who is determined to succeed in a sport that has dominated his life from an early age. As Azim explains it was at the age of four that he got his first taste of boxing, as his dad sought to find a way to channel his son’s inflated energy levels, a side-effect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which Azim was diagnosed with during his formative years.

“I started boxing at the age of four, and I have had to make a lot of sacrifices along the way. I couldn’t go out and enjoy myself as much as I could have because I was dedicated to boxing, and in the early years I was learning a lot of the basics and things that I needed to get right at a young age. When I was younger, I couldn’t eat sweets because of my ADHD, the Doctor said to stay off sugar, because when I had that as a little kid then I would be jumping up and down and generally messing about quite a lot. My Dad got me into boxing to try and channel that energy, and it has played a huge part right throughout my life. I drained my energy through boxing and turned my ADHD into something good.”

That early education saw Azim become hooked on the sport and the core skills that he perfected as a young child would see him go on to have a glittering amateur career, in which he claimed ten national titles, a junior European gold medal and a youth European silver medal, as well as being ranked as the number one youth amateur in the world in his weight class. These achievements made people within the sport sit up and take notice, and it was perhaps therefore of little surprise that Azim penned a professional contract, which became effective as soon as he turned eighteen in July 2020. Given the success he had as an amateur and with the next Olympic games on the horizon, I questioned how easy it was to turn professional at this stage in his career.

“I think eighteen was the right time to turn professional. As I see it, you learn more by turning professional earlier in your career than you do later on. You get the amateur pedigree and that gives you a good grounding, and I had the chance to stay on and look to go to the Olympics in 2024, but I felt like moving into the pro ranks was better for me. I was and remain very eager to become a world champion at a young age.”

Azim made his professional debut in December 2020, a points victory over Ed Harrison, before a fairly inactive 2021, with just one appearance, a second-round stoppage over Stu Greener. It would be that fight with Greener, though that would mark the start of Azim’s relationship with Ben Shalom and Boxxer. A very active 2022 would follow in what was Azim’s breakthrough year as a professional. He fought five times, each ending with a knockout victory, and only the clash with Jordan Ellison in February made it beyond the second round, a run that saw him claim three first-round stoppages. The nature of Azim’s performances saw him become one of the hottest young properties within boxing and led to Boxxer tying him down to a long-term promotional deal, believed to be four years.

With such performances, at times, you can become a victim of your success, and when Azim faced the previously unbeaten Nicaraguan Santos Reyes in February of this year, many expected another blistering knockout. This was to prove to be a different test for Azim though, as despite landing a second-round knockdown, he had to be patient against a tough opponent and adapt his gameplan after suffering a hand injury early on in the contest. Azim went the full ten rounds and heard the final bell for the first time since his debut, winning 100-89 on all three scorecards. Despite the end of his run of knockouts, Azim acknowledges the importance of fights like this for his development.

“There are points in your career where you have to go rounds and get them under your belt. You learn so much more from fights like that than when you knock your opponent out quickly. I picked up a lot of positives from that fight. I learnt I have a good engine and can go the ten-round distance and also that I keep going and looking for the opportunities. It’s good that I ticked that box off.” 

Boxxer announced in April that Azim would headline a June event scheduled for York Hall, where he would face Fanyan. Unfortunately, a severe hand infection would rule Azim out of that fight, leading it to be rescheduled for next month. With such an active 2022 and now having had six months out of the ring, I wondered how frustrating Azim had found this period and how eager he was to get back to action.

“It’s been a very frustrating period for me, as I just want to fight. I had a hand injury from my last performance, and then I got an infection in training, but as people say everything happens for a reason, and I am grateful that God has gifted me the opportunity to fight on a show like this. I am enthusiastic to get back into the ring and showcase another performance, and to fight on a massive show is great. It’s such a big show, and it’s my second time fighting in Manchester, after appearing on the Brook versus Khan undercard, so I am looking forward to going back there. I can already feel the energy. It’s going to be special.”

The fight with Fanyan marks another step up in class for Azim. The Ukrainian has suffered just one loss in twenty-three fights, that defeat coming in 2018, and he will be eager to cause an upset in a televised bout in front of a big audience. In a fight that Azim will dedicate to his Grandad who sadly passed away recently, what does he expect from his opponent come fight night?

“He’s a good durable opponent, a tough fighter, and I am certainly not looking past him. He is going to come and try to win, and with what’s happening back in Ukraine, that will give him extra encouragement to do well, so he is going to be driven to succeed. If he comes out to win and starts on the front foot, I like that as it can make it easier for me to find my shots. As I say, though, he is a decent boxer with the right fundamentals and has a good boxing IQ, but I feel like this is my time to shine.” 

Under the guidance of Shane McGuigan, Azim is in good hands as he continues his development and looks to achieve his ambition of becoming a world champion. The McGuigan gym has produced two new champions in recent months, as Chris Billam-Smith claimed the WBO cruiserweight title and Ellie Scotney secured the IBF super-bantamweight belt. Working within the gym and seeing stablemates lift titles, does that drive Azim even more to achieve his goals?

“Yes of course. I see Ellie and Chris winning their titles and being in the gym with them, seeing them spar and train and the mindset they have. I need to have the same mindset as them. I see them training so hard and being so focused on their goals. To be part of that gym and amongst champions like them is a big thing for me.”

If Azim is successful in September, I wondered if he had allowed himself to consider what comes next and what short-term goals he had set for himself.

“My focus is this fight, and then we will see what comes next. I would like to grab the European title if I can; perhaps later this year or early in 2024, I could fight for that. If the British one is there as well, it would be nice to grab that. I want to get a few more titles and build up a collection, but my main focus is this fight, and after that, we will see what is available.”

With everything that Azim achieved as an amateur, coupled with his impressive start as a professional, it is sometimes easy to forget that he is only twenty-one. The consensus seems to be that in terms of ability, the sky’s the limit for him, and with that, there naturally comes pressure. I concluded our chat by asking Azim how he deals with such expectations.

“It’s a big pressure. I just want to perform. I want to perform in every fight and showcase my skills, and I feel like this is my time. You know, these critics coming out, you do get the haters, but I don’t look at that, I don’t pay attention to that, I just focus on myself and achieving what I’ve got to achieve.”