Safwan makes his case

British-born Bangladeshi boxer Al Safwan Uddin clinched the title of the 60kg weight category, beating his final opponent Mohammad Rakib Sheikh by points, on the concluding day of the 29th National Senior Men's and 4th Senior Women's Boxing Championships at the Muhammad Ali Boxing Stadium yesterday.

The 18-year-old boxer, who knocked out Kamruzzaman Jonny in the first round before overcoming Faisal Mollah in the semifinal, won the final bout in points count as three of the five judges voted in his favour. It was a difficult bout for the youngster, but he eventually lived up to the hype of being a better-trained pugilist coming from the UK to compete against senior opponents.

The youngster, who idolises Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba and Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine, was happy with his success, but wants himself to be more dominant in order to be successful at the international arena.

“I didn't want it to be a close fight,” he said after winning the title. “I want to show them that I want to dominate. For that to happen, I need much more training and experience.”

Having leaned his game from coaches in England, which is not one of the boxing superpowers, Safwan knows he needs to learn a lot more from coaches and players of other countries to grow. Hence he is 'looking forward to going to Cuba or the USA to learn better techniques.'

The youngster, who came here a week ago with his father just for these championships, also had some words of advice for the Bangladeshi boxers.

“There is still a lot that the Bangladeshi boxers need to add to their skill-set. They think being aggressive gives you points, but it's not like that. They don't need to fight to knock out, they need to fight to win,” Safwan said.

Meanwhile, being impressed by the talent and promise of this youngster, the Bangladesh Amateur Boxing Federation are hopeful that he can compete well in the South Asian Games in 2019, and even want him to be part of the Asian Games contingent this year.

“He is better technically and physically than the local boxers. We realized he has prepared mentally as well. He can be a boxer to compete with boxers from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. If he can continue the way he is currently, he can do well at the SA Games,” boxing coach Syed Mohiuddin Ahmed opined about the young boxer.

“Although the Asian Games is a much more difficult stage, we can expect something good from him there. We have asked the BOA officials to include him and they have responded positively,” Mohiuddin added.

Meanwhile, the three-day championships came to an end yesterday, with Bangladesh Army emerging champions with six gold medals. They won all six gold medals in men's events. Bangladesh Ansar & VDP emerged runners-up with two gold medals in men's events and three gold medals in women's events.