Amir: my strength is my raw aggression!

Amir Abubaker….made an explosive pro debut

AMIR Abubaker – Coventry barber by day, marauding light-middle by night – has encountered the first hurdle on his exciting pro journey.

The exciting 23-year-old was to have taken part in his second paid outing in Manchester a couple of weeks ago, but the contest fell through.

Amir, managed by Anthony Manning, has taken the setback in his stride. “It’s all part of God’s plan,” he told me.

“I don’t really care the fight was cancelled – there are bigger things to come.”

He will be out again in September, but is keeping precise details under wraps.

Oozing power, Abubaker looks set for an exciting career.

His debut, on Manning’s Nxt Gen show in June, gave a taster of what is to come. A vicious body shot in the second took everything out of Liam Griffiths and the slaughter was stopped seconds later.

“I was a bit disappointed,” said Amir, “because I didn’t get chance to show myself. It got stopped too early. When an opponent takes me into deep waters, that’s when you’ll see what I’m about.”

Amir is a man who believes he’s destined for very big things. For starters, he wants to become the first Kurdish world champ. That’s just for starters.

He arrived here from war-torn Iraq as a four-year-old and says of those early years: “My family were fighters – not boxers, but freedom fighters. They’ve told me stories, but I was too young (to remember).”

A product of Coventry’s Christ The King amateur club, Amir lost a handful of 33 contests, the list including a battle with top international George Liddard.

“The power I have is a bit of a bonus,” he said. “The raw aggression I bring into the ring is my real strength. I believe you do something 100 per cent or not at all. That’s why I’m in boxing.

“Every gym session I’m getting better in terms of strength and skill. I want to be as good as I can possibly be.”

Abubaker, the fighting barber, looks set to cut a swathe through the domestic division.

And if he’s looking for a ring nickname, his business interest in hair-dressing may provide one. How about The Perminator?