Amir oozes power in Midlands title victory

Abubaker and Manning with the Midlands belt. Picture: Inga Zulyte

FOR Kurdish KO King Amir Abubaker – a man who considered himself a champ in waiting – the wait is over.

On Sunday night, the Coventry light-middle bludgeoned Callum Hill in five pulsating rounds to claim the vacant Midlands belt.

Abubaker – a barber by day – cut down his Biddulph, Staffordshire, opponent with clubbing hooks to the body. And in doing so, he gave manager Anthony Manning, who staged the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, show, his first champion.

The fight was systematically punched out of Hill, unbeaten in four before the scheduled 10 rounder.

Some believed making 11 stone for the first time would take the edge off 24-year-old Abubaker’s ferocious power. Unfortunately for Hill, 28, the man still hit with numbing force.

Hill slumped to the canvas after soaking up a succession of uppercuts, rose at eight clutching his shoulder and wincing, then, after the contest was waved off, lay on the canvas as a medic inspected the injury.

This, however, was no inconclusive injury stoppage. Hill, by the end, had the spirit punched out of him.

Yet he’d played his part in a scintillating scrap worthy of late inclusion on the Midlands Boxing Awards “fight of the year” shortlist.

I gave Hill the first  two rounds as, with loud support inside the small hall, he jabbed, moved and speared his menacing, prowling opponent with right hands. He simply couldn’t keep it up, had to engage with Abubaker and trading shots with such a heavy-handed individual is a game of Russian roulette. You know there’s one bullet in the chamber that will spell the end.

Menacing Abubaker didn’t emerge from the battle unscathed. A stream of blood from a scalp wound flowed down the centre of his face in the second, although his corner expertly stemmed the flow at the end of the session.

There was also a smudge of blood under his nose at the finish.

Abubker, now unbeaten in seven, remains a work in progress. He loads-up with pretty much every punch, but hits with lights-out venom. He is a human wrecking ball.

He merits a major arena appearance because he is guaranteed to provide TV viewers with excitement.

But Hill (10st 13lbs 7oz) briefly showed Abubaker can be outboxed. Outboxing him for 10 or 12 rounds is another matter.

Hill worked well behind the jab in the first and landed a long right to the body. He kept it long in the second, but took two thumping hooks downstairs and a meaty left to the head.

By the third, he was forced to fight fire with fire. Abubaker (10st 13lbs) buried those spiteful lefts to Hill’s ribs, then targeted the head.

The tide was turning.

The fourth was to be Amir’s first truly dominant session. He worked Hill’s body relentlessly, like a lumberjack hacking away at a mighty oak, and for the first time Callum began to unravel.

Four uppercuts spelt the end, with Hill dropping to the deck. He made it to his feet, but had nothing left. Referee Chris Dean rightly called it off at 43 seconds of the fifth.

For Abubaker, the future looks very bright. The paying public love to watch blast outs and he possesses more explosives than most.