Ahmed returns after two year ring break

Ijaz Ahmed…fights on Saturday night. Picture: Manjit Narotra/BCB

NO fighter has come closer to claiming a Lonsdale Belt, without having it strapped around their waist, than Ijaz Ahmed.

And the Bordesley Green fighter still fumes over that fact.

On three occasions, Ijaz has been held to a draw in fights for the British super-flyweight title: that’s a record sorely unwanted by the 32-year-old.

A fourth bid ended in stoppage defeat at the hands of Marcel Braithwaite. Ahmed, a complex character, believes that loss came courtesy of fouls.

Many thought “Jazzy”, a former WBO and IBF European champ, would walk away following that loss.

But on Saturday he returns at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport, after a two year break. Now part of the McCracken gym, Ijaz eases back with a four rounder against Bradford journeyman Jake Pollard.

The last 24 months have been spent waiting for another title fight to happen, he said.

“I’ve just been working, staying busy,” he explained. “Because I’ve been at a higher level for a long time now and all the horribleness that happened to me, having a four rounder was out of the question for me at the time.

“I was waiting for another title fight. When it didn’t come we had to take a four rounder, get a win, get back on the ladder and be eligible to fight for a title.”

Ahmed, deeply religious, still burns with anger over the fact he did not collect the British title. That won’t go away.

“All the hard work and effort I put into all those fights,” he said. “Everyone of those fights I won – the last one I lost because the guy hit me on the back of the head.

“I felt very hard-done-by in every one of those fights. I accept what is written for me will happen and that was what was written to happen. It is what it is, I have to accept it, but I’m only human, it does hurt. You ask, why me? What have I done to be so hard-done-by?

“The sacrifices I have had to make and for what? The things I’ve missed out on because I’m a boxer. In the back of your head you think why put my life on hold, why work so hard if they’re not going to give me what I deserve? I just want fairness.”

Naturally heavier, Pollard shouldn’t pose Ahmed too many problems, although I expect him to last the distance.

Ahmed added: “I can still make the weight (super-fly), I don’t want to go higher or even lower, I can still make the weight comfortably.

“We’ll see what’s written in my destiny. Now I’ve moved over to the McCrackens and they’ve watched what I’ve been doing and tried to rectify a few things. Hopefully, on Saturday you’ll see what they want to see from me.”