Abubaker takes first step on the title trail

Amir Abubaker and Anthony Manning….title fight on Sunday

THE human wrecking ball that is Amir Abubaker – a man who will never be accused of modesty – has predicting a title-laden, world conquering career since poleaxing his first paid opponent.

On Sunday, the menacing, Iraq born boxer bids for his first belt. The Kurdish KO artist faces Callum Hill on manager Anthony Manning’s “Nxt Gen” afternoon show at Birmingham’s Eastside Rooms, with the vacant Midlands light-middleweight title on the line.

As ever with Manning, it will be a showbiz style event, featuring a “live artist performance”.

We know undefeated Abubaker, by day a Coventry barber, carries raw power: four of his six wins have come early.

What we don’t know is whether the 24-year-old will be the same irrepressible force of nature at light-middle. He’s never made 11stone as a professional, he’s never really come close to making it.

Amir is a powerful looking man, a bull-like middleweight, a bundle of fury. I’d imagine weight-making has been no picnic.

And Hill, from Biddulph, Staffordshire, is the first boxer with a winning record to face Abubaker. He’s won four – one of them inside distance – but has yet to go beyond four rounds.

Can the 28-year-old survive Abubaker’s ferocious early onslaught and capitalise as the bout progresses? Neither man has been 10 rounds before.

We know for certain Abubaker is a controversial, colourful character who speaks his mind and to hell with diplomacy.

He’s boxing Marmite. You either love the outlandish remarks or scowl. I find the lack of PR entertaining and, frankly, refreshing.

Anthony Manning stressed Abubaker has not been strength sapped by a struggle with the scales.

“Amir is looking good,” he said. “He’s made the check weight and is looking forward to the day-before weigh-in.

“He was walking around at 71.5 kilos (11st 3lbs) the other day. That’s his weight. Before, he hadn’t really had it in his head to make a weight, he hadn’t been training to make the weight.”

Manning and Abubaker have not underestimated Hill.

“His is an undefeated, confident fighter,” Manning said. “His team believe in him, he believes in himself. We are expecting the best version of Callum Hill.

“I expect a comfortable, solid performance from Amir. I’m confident he will get the job done. I believe Amir is a throwback fighter, he ticks a lot of the boxes. As soon as he establishes himself, the world is his oyster.”

The world is there for the taking. Shortly before making his debut, Amir told me: “If I didn’t believe I could win a world title, I wouldn’t waste time doing this. I’ve invested a lot of time in this.”

He aims to begin cashing-in on that investment this weekend.