After spending months entangled in boxing politics with Dalton Smith and then a prolonged period on the treatment table, unable to nail down a date with Harlem Eubank, Adam Azim will instead return to action against Ohara Davies on October 19th.
Azim, 11-0 (8 KOs), will be relieved to finally have a fight over the line.
Back in February, the EBU ordered Azim to defend his European title against Smith, whilst the British Boxing Board of Control made Azim the mandatory challenger for Smith’s British title.
Azim, 22, veered away from the collision course, vacated the European title and, on Easter Sunday, he and Eubank posed in the ring at the O2 Arena to publicize their own hastily arranged fight.
The saga has dragged on since but finally came to an end earlier this month.
Ankle and wrist injuries have kept Azim out of the ring since he beat Enock Poulsen to win the European title in February and, earlier this month, Eubank – who has been out of the ring since beating Timo Schwarzkopf last November – declared that he could no longer afford to wait around.
Instead, Azim will fight the awkward, heavy handed Davies, 25-3 (18 KOs), at the Copperbox Arena on October 19th.
“I agreed to the fight. I was ready for it, October 5th. Obviously I had a few disappointments with injuries and stuff but the fight was obviously [initially] signed on June 15th on that Chris Billam-Smith and Riakporhe fight,” Azim said on Sky Sports.
“What happened was, I had an injury and that had to get postponed. They moved the fight to October 5th. I was meant to fight on his home turf, against him. It didn’t happen.
“Look, he wanted to take a different route. I’ve got a bigger and better fight. I’ve got a tougher fight than Harlem Eubank.”
Davies will see the fight with Azim as the ideal opportunity to make up lost ground. The Londoner has been inactive in recent years but his patience was rewarded in January when he was matched with Ismael Barroso for the interim WBA super lightweight title. Things went badly wrong for Davies as the Venezuelan veteran shockingly stopped him inside a round.
Azim, however, isn’t taking things for granted.
“Harlem Eubank, my time will come with him. It’s going to happen. Regardless, it’s gonna happen. Even with Dalton Smith, it’s going to happen. I know it will. We’ve got nothing much to say about it now because I’m fighting Ohara Davies and I can’t look past that,” he said.
“We both don’t want to lose but I’v known Ohara for a very long time. We both have that respect there. We have so much respect for each other. We’ve never talked bad about each other and aways want each other to do good.
“It’s a bit like Dan Azeez and Joshua Buatsi. They were mates and they made up after the fight. It’s gonna be the same scenario.”
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