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SEOUL: Pakistan’s only professional boxer Mohammad Waseem made history on Sunday, capturing the World Boxing Council (WBC) silver flyweight title after defeating favourite Jether Oliva of the Philippines.
Waseem was stretched to the distance in the bout, before being declared the winner unanimously by the judges in the 12-round fight.
The official judges scores were 120-112 twice and 119-113.
“It is a big honour for me to hold this title,” Waseem said after the victory stretched his winning streak to four, with his previous three bouts all ending in knockout wins for the Quetta-born boxer. “This is for Pakistan.”
It was a fight billed as the most “important of his career” by his promoter Andy Kim and Waseem — who dropped to a career low weight of 112 pounds for the match — did not disappoint.
The 28-year-old Waseem began his professional career in South Korea last year and won the Korean Bantamweight title on debut, stopping Min Wook Lee in 1:37 of the ninth round at the Sunhak Gym in Incheon, South Korea.
He then knocked out Suparyanto Doglo in the third round at the Royal Square in Bangkok, Thailand in December before pummeling to submission Indonesian John Bajawa in 2:10 of the sixth round at the Myoung Boxing World here in May.
Sunday’s fight was originally a 10-round clash for the WBC Asia flyweight title to be held in Sing-apore before being later upgraded for the Silver flyweight title which was vacated after a controversial fight between Randy Petalcorin and Omari Kimweri in Australia in April.
Waseem now is set to to be ranked in the top four by the WBC and can look for a world title fight in the near future.
A world title fight in just his fifth bout will make Waseem potentially the the fourth quickest world champion, tying him with Japan’s Kosei Tanaka.
“Huge win today for Waseem,” his promoter Kim said. “I am very proud and happy for him. We are a step closer to our goal of making him a world champion.”
It was recently announced that WBC flyweight champion Ramon Gonzalez is moving up to challenge WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras in September.
“We definitely want to be in that world title mix should Gonzalez vacate,” Kim added.
Waseem’s victory saw him being congratulated back home by President Mamnoon Hussain, Balochistan chief minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, Punjab governor Mohammad Rafique Rajwana and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.
In his message, the President said Waseem “has made the whole nation proud”.
Balochistan sports minister Mir Mujeeb-ur-Rehman announced a Rs0.5 million prize for the boxer.
Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2016
