Fight against Barrera ‘the most important’ of career: Waseem

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier professional boxer and former WBC No1 Mohammad Waseem has said that his fight against Rober Barrera of Colombia “is the most important meet” of his career.

“It’s the most important fight and will shape my career,” Waseem told ‘The News’ in an interview from Scotland on Wednesday.

The former two-time WBC flyweight world silver champion is training at Glasgow for his bout against the Colombian which is scheduled to be held in Dubai on November 26.

“I am fully focussed on mastering some new tricks which will help me beat my opponent. I have watched his videos to know how I can beat him. He must also have made plans for me, but you will see me unleash some new tricks this time to unsettle him,” Waseem said.

“Rober is a very good fighter, having played two world title fights against very good boxers. He is very good on counter-attacks and I am preparing accordingly,” the Quetta-born former Asian Games bronze medallist said.

This is a title eliminator and a win will place Waseem just one victory behind his first world title. This is of flyweight bout and will be of ten rounds.

Barrera (23-3, 13 KOs) has a strong record and is expected to give some tough time to the Pakistani fighter who played his last fight way back in December 2020 at Lahore. Waseem has so far won 11 bouts during his career with eight knockouts. He lost just one.

Waseem was in Dubai a few days ago but moved to Scotland in order to train with some tough sparring partners. “Here I am able to train with some good sparring partners, the thing which I was missing in Dubai. I will work here until the end of this month and then will move again to Dubai,” Waseem said.

“In Dubai I plan to find three good partners and do sparring with them on November 5, 10 and 15. And after that it will be total rest and focus will be on maintaining weight until the fight,” said Waseem, who won silver in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Waseem was unlucky not to win the world title in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 against South African fighter Moruti Mthalane as the jury decided, controversially, in favour of the latter.

“I was unfortunate that time. It was a sure win and a win could have taken my career to new heights. But I am hopeful I will achieve my goal soon,” Waseem said.

“It does create issues for you when you play after so long. I will play after one year and ring rustiness may be a factor but I am confident that this will not affect my performance,” he said.

Waseem is being trained by Danny Vaughn, under whom he has won all his fights for MTK Global. The Dubai fight is also being organised by MTK, a top boxers management company.