Haidary oozes class in knockout victory
Shabir Haidary…boxer with grace and explosive power
THERE is, I truly believe, a special talent that has to date slipped under the radar. Shabir Haidary. Remember the name.
In the glitzy setting of Scott Murray’s Excelsior Sporting Club, Cannock, Haidary, quick as a cobra, peeled off his 10th straight win by doing what not many have managed to do before – poleaxing dangerous, hard-hitting Jahfieus Faure.
The Birmingham boxer who has put his share of prospects to the sword was scythed down in the third by an absolute peach of a pile-driving left hook to the short rib.
It took everything out of Faure, a recent winner over unbeaten prospect Brandon Bethell. He remained, sucking in air, on his haunches for referee Chris Dean’s full count at two minutes two seconds.
It was a perfect, one shot KO.
Gloucestershire is not regarded as a hotbed of fighting talent. In recent times, Tewkesbury’s Adam Harper, a former English light-middle champ, is probably regarded as the county’s best.
Haidary may take his top spot. He hits hard, moves gracefully, has trip-wire reflexes and a sprinter’s speed.
He has yet to face real iron, he’s yet to be in a bout where odds are stacked against him. Harper ticked both boxers, Haidary hasn’t.
But he blitzed Faure clinically. He dominated from start to finish.
His fashion sense isn’t great, however. Haidary (9st 8lbs) entered the ring in a shaggy, tangled woollen coat befitting Huggy Bear from 1970s cop series Starsky and Hutch. It was Don King on a bad day.
“It is a traditional coat,” he said afterwards, “from the mountains. We are hunters.”
The garment suggested his people hunt yeti.
And Thursday’s emphatic victory also raised the question of who Haidary’s people are. He has been billed as a fighter from Afghanistan, but at the Excelsior, with a contingent of high powered Kazakhstan businessman present to celebrate a ground-breaking boxing deal with the night’s promoter Scott Murray, he was from Kazakhstan.
Evidently, boxing doesn’t just have the ability to change lives. It can also change geographical boundaries.
The fact Haidary can fight is beyond question.
Faure (9st 6lbs) is no slouch and came to fight, which proved his downfall. Haidary, relaxed and hands low, caught him to head and body with looping hooks.
My notes for the third round state only: “Faure bravely fighting back.” That only left him open to the finisher. Haidary unleashed a volley of heavy punches, before detonating the last sickening hook.
“This is only the start,” Haidary said afterwards. “I just need an opportunity on the big stage, I’m ready for the top boys, I just need an opportunity.”
That opportunity will surely come. The “big boys” have been served notice.