Waseem unlikely to fight on March 6 for lack of training

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier professional boxer Mohammad Waseem is not likely to play his scheduled March 6 fight due to lack of required training.

A source close to Waseem told ‘The News’ on Monday that the 2014 Incheon Asian Games bronze medallist had to face some problem in moving to Glasgow from Islamabad for training due to delay in his Spain visa he had applied for.

Waseem got his passport from Spain embassy only the other day. The source said there is hardly one month left in the fight which is scheuled in Dubai, making it impossible for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist to play his March 6 fight.

The source said that seven to eight weeks training was required for a fight. The fighter against whom Waseem was expected to fight is among the top ten in the world. The source said that a fighter stops sparring 15-20 days before the fight. It means that Waseem will have only a couple of weeks for training if he is to fight on March 6 at the Caesars Palace Dubai.

When this correspondent asked Waseem’s trainer Danny Vaughan when Waseem’s opponent would be known and when he would reach Glasgow for training, he replied: “We are waiting for answers still.”

Waseem had opted to apply for Spain visa because he wanted to undergo training in Madrid for the Dubai fight. Waseem is still in Islamabad, the source said. The former two-time flyweight world silver champion defeated highly experienced Ganigan Lopez of Mexico in Dubai on November 22 last year and knocked out Conrado Tenamor of the Philippines on September 13, also in Dubai. Waseem holds IBF World No5 ranking. He has so far played 11 bouts, winning ten and losing only one.