Super-lightweight boxer Adam Azim has set his sights on becoming the first British-Pakistani undisputed world champion and wants to use his platform to inspire his community.
Azim, who is gearing up for his September 2 bout with Aram Fanyan, admitted he wants to follow the path of his childhood hero Amir Khan by being a role model to the next generation of athletes from Asian backgrounds.
The 21-year-old Azim, who boasts an 8-0-0 undefeated record, wants to become world champion at a young age like Khan, who did so in 2009 aged 22 when he beat Andriy Kotelnik in Manchester.
“Our relationship is really strong (Azim and Khan), he is like a big brother to me, he was my inspiration growing up,” Azim told the PA news agency.“I’ve told him that ‘I want to be a young world champion just like you’ and that one day I’ll be the only British-Pakistani undisputed world champion, it will be good to become undisputed because that’s my dream, that’s my goal.“He was a massive inspiration for me because he (Khan) was the only British-Pakistani in that era and everyone was massive fans of him because of his great hand speed and he was always in big entertaining fights.
“It’s a big thing for me (to represent British-Pakistanis) – I want to become a role model for the younger generation coming through and for both the Pakistani and British communities as well.”
Azim partnered with the Shazad Yaseen Foundation in 2022 to provide relief to impoverished areas within Tanzania.
And the Slough fighter aims to continue his charity work in less fortunate areas and wants to use his platform to launch his own “big charity organisation” in the future.
“I want to keep working hard in the ring and also help with my charity work as well,” he added.
“After this next fight I will be flying out to Africa to do some charity work, I want to be more passionate about charity work because there are a lot of unfortunate people who need food and money.“We partnered with SYF because I really want to make a big charity organisation myself and it’s important to give back to those people who need it more.”Azim is confident he can lead by example in the ring to inspire more young people from ethnic minority backgrounds to take up the sport.
He said: “I just need to keep fighting so more and more people watch me, I’m on the rise as a British Pakistani and there are others on the rise too so if we keep doing what we’re doing everything will improve (more diversity in the sport).”
