Hamzah: fighter with a massive fan-base

Hamzah Ahmed overcomes the highly unorthodox Gurjant Singh

A STELLAR amateur career could not have prepared lightweight Hamzah Ahmed for the eccentricities debut opponent Gurjant Singh brought to the ring last night (Friday).

On Anthony Manning’s sell-out show “Nxt Gen” at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, Hamzah ignored the weird antics – and they were decidedly weird, acid trip weird  – to hammer out a whitewash, 40-36 decision from referee Peter McCormack.

One thing about Walsall’s Ahmed was firmly established last night. He has a huge fan base, truly huge. They crowded around the ring, they chanted, they sang, they celebrated as if the 23-year-old had captured the Lonsdale Belt.

And the fighter treated supporters to an entrance worthy of a world title ring-walk. Fireworks ignited, a rapper, belting out urban rhymes, led Ahmed to the ring…it was heady, surreal, stuff.

Then Singh, brought over from India and having his first UK bout, took surreality to another level.

There is showboating, there is clowning and then there is Singh’s repertoire. Respected Birmingham trainer Shaun Cogan, working the visitor’s corner, must’ve felt he was caught in some tormented dream.

I know I did. At one point, I cast a “what the hell?” glance to Shaun.

Singh, aged 30, laughed, stuck his tongue out, shimmied, swivelled his hips in a baffling dance, constantly beckoned Ahmed in and spread his arms whenever tagged. He kept that up for the contest’s entirety.

Some believed Singh was trying to lure his opponent on to counters. Frankly, I thought he was on another planet, a very distant planet at that.

He came to the Second City with a half-decent record of three wins in eight and had taken the decision in his previous two, although the calibre of opposition in India is questionable.

And, when knuckling down to business, Singh can fight. In the opening round, he sent a shockwave of concern around the room by staggering Ahmed (9st 10lb 1oz) with a right hand.

There were fears the unknown quantity was an unknown danger, but Ahmed re-grouped, began doubling the jab and hurt Singh with a right hand of his own..

By the third, Ahmed – ignoring the theatricals before him – began to make class tell. He kept the jab pumping and landed a lovely lead uppercut on the bell to end the third.

Singh responded, as he had throughout, by opening his arms in a show of content. Ahmed capped a professional performance by landing a peach of a left hook at the end. Singh grinned in response.

They loudly booed Gurjant Singh at the finish. I was simply baffled.

Ahmed fought the best as an amateur. He won 50 of 60, claimed 10 Midland titles, a British Universities title, national title and boxed for England. He also beat such vaunted amateur fighters as Lewis Coley and Macauley Owen, both now making waves as pros.

I’ll bet he’s never fought anyone like Gurjant Singh.