KO King Abubaker makes a statement

Another one bites the dust…Abubaker with his team

AMIR Abubaker, the menacing, Kurdish middle with KO power, can add another demolition job to his CV.

On manager Anthony Manning’s five star show at the Birmingham’s Eastside Rooms on Saturday, Abubaker unleashed a wrecking ball right uppercut to separate Bahadur Karami from his senses.

The dazed Iranian somehow managed to rise on disobedient legs, but referee Chris Dean rightly waved off the slaughter at just 36 seconds of the fourth.

Karami, fighting out of Manchester, had been softened and tenderised like a steak before Abubaker landed the final thudding blows with his mallet fists. Karami was cut over the right eye and had endured clumping blows.

The win is a significant statement by 24-year-old Abubaker, who runs barbers shops in his home city of Coventry.

Karami came with a losing record of just four wins in 19 bouts (three draws), but had never failed to hear the final bell before running into Abubaker’s thunderous power.

Amir, now unbeaten in five, is beating a violent path to a title shot. And, with a day before weigh-in, he’s adamant he’ll make light-middle (11st) comfortably.

He is a man not short on confidence and rarely lost for words. To date, his performances have more than matched his ego.

“I wasn’t even trying,” he said. “From the first bell, I was seeing how he was, what he’d got. The uppercut (that finished it) wasn’t even a hard shot. He walked onto it and I hit him clean. He’d been hurt by a hook before that.”

For Abubaker it was a case of another one biting the dust and he warned fans have yet to see 50 per cent of what he’s capable of.

“No one has seen anything yet,” he said. “I only had two spars for this one, none for the one before. Therefore, my timing was a bit better for this one, but you still haven’t seen Amir after a full camp.

“I want a world title. I’m doing this for everything – the clout, the money…We are in this too deep to call it quits halfway through. Whenever the phone rings, I’m ready. Money talks and if the money’s right I’ll fight next week. Even if it’s Canelo, I’ll take it.

“I want an English title next. I’m already the best in the Midlands, anyone with half a brain can see that.”

That comment will raise a smile from Nuneaton’s light-middleweight Midlands titleholder Ashlee Eales.

Abubaker speaks his mind, no matter how many feathers he ruffles. He’s not in the business to make life-long friendships.

The man’s, at times, turbulent relationships with Coventry’s boxing crowd shows that. He has, on a number of occasions, openly criticised the lack of support in his home city. Yet in Dubai, a city he regularly visits, Abubaker has a major following.

“This last fight, I could count on the fingers of one hand how many people from Coventry came along. Yet they’ll stop me in the street and want to talk to me. I think people don’t like seeing someone from their own city making huge improvements.”

Abubaker is clearly dangerous. He carries concussive power, without a doubt.

How he fares against a hungry opponent with the technique to take his shots and hit back in later, championship rounds is yet to be discovered.

Amir has no doubt he’ll pass that test with flying colours, too. Amir has no doubt a world title awaits.