(Picture courtesy of Sky Sports)
Saturday night saw 20-year-old exciting talent, Adam Azim overcome his toughest challenge yet in Nicaraguan (then undefeated) Santos Reyes at the OVO Arena in Wembley. Despite predicting a knockout, Azim ended up completing the 10 full scheduled rounds for the first time in his career and won via unanimous decision. Many would say that the outcome was pretty surprising given Adam’s record of 6 knockouts in 7 fights prior to this bout, especially how so many, including Azim had foreseen another knockout but despite the fans expecting a spectacular finish, they were treated to a potentially better fight. This was 10 rounds of composed, mature and skilful boxing by Azim, picking apart his opponent and winning every single round whilst also knocking his opponent down in round 2. This was only the 3rd time in his professional career that he had gone further than 3 rounds, stopping Jordan Ellison inside 3 and winning on points on his debut against Ed Harrison in a 6-round contest.
Usually, after a knockout, we would see Azim become excited and look for the finish, throwing a combination of left and right hooks but instead against Reyes, he stayed focused and aware of his opponent and stuck to his boxing, not getting too complacent. I use the word mature when talking about this performance because despite this being the first time Adam went 10 rounds, he made sure he didn’t ‘gas out’ and also kept a consistent pace throughout the whole fight – something that may not be seen with a young boxer heavily associated with knockouts. It was almost as though he had been in that position before and understood what he had to do from experience.
There have been criticisms about Azim not stopping his opponent again like he had done many times in his career already but everyone has to give credit to Santos Reyes for taking, what looked like, everything that Adam could give and continued standing. Nicknamed “Cleto Reyes” (after the boxing glove brand) by George Groves in an interview with IFL TV on YouTube, Reyes was applauded by pundits and ex-boxers for simply not giving up although he never looked to be on top at any part of the fight. This was a much-needed opponent for Azim because it reminds him that not everyone that gets hit by him will drop and that he must have other areas of his game. Speaking to Sky Sports Boxing straight after the fight, Azim revealed that he didn’t expect to go the full 10 rounds.
“Do you know what? After that first shot I landed on him and he dropped, I thought he was gone because I landed that right on the button.
“But I knew that area of the country [South America] they are very tough so I knew he was very durable.”
Not everyone was impressed however, with the 20 year old and some even mentioned that he wasn’t as good as what people were saying. Josh Taylor, the undefeated former undisputed light-welterweight champion of the World, shortly afterwards posted a statement on Twitter, saying “Superstar my arse! #Hype”. But despite some negative comments, there is very much still a feeling that Azim is very talented for his age and looks likely to reach the summit of the sport in the future. Whether he will or not is too soon to judge but the evidence fight by fight looks increasingly promising. Adam picked up a hand injury in the 2nd round during that knockdown that looks to keep him out of action until after Ramadan (end of April) so although it may be a longer wait than he and his fans anticipated, there is still that growing excitement and eagerness to see him step into the ring again soon.
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