How COVID-19 is impacting young British boxers.

I had a conversation with Hamzah Ahmed, a 20-year-old Boxer, fighting out of Fearless Boxing Academy in Walsall. I wanted to get an idea of what he is doing to stay in shape and cope during this whole lockdown ordeal.

Hamzah Ahmed is a British born Pakistani boxer from Walsall, England. Ahmed started boxing from the age of 12 and has gone from strength to strength ever since, to begin with, boxing was a love his family shared but unfortunately, due to a back problem, Hamzah’s brother could not go on to pursue the career and intensity of boxing they would have liked. Hamzah saw this and took up boxing as a way to live his brother’s dream for him – since this amazing gesture, Ahmed has gone on to Represent England Boxing on an international level, has won a title for BUCS Elite National Championship, is a 6 time Midlands Champion, an International champion, and has been through to National Finals twice. An illustrious record for somebody so early in their career and Hamzah, along with many of us are very excited to see what it to come for this prodigy.

To get an idea for how he is coping through this pandemic and lockdown, I asked Hamzah if he does any exercises in particular to keep fit during this time, he told me:

“all gyms are closed during this pandemic but fighters like me adapt.”

“I train twice a day – my daily exercise out of the house comprises of a 3-5 mile run or a 17-mile bike ride”

“in the evening, I tend to do more free weight exercises such as pull ups, press ups and sit ups,

“I have weights at home so I usually do weights to finish off.”

Hamzah is truly devoted to his trade and has faith in his bags of ability, which nobody can fault him for, dedication like this is hard to achieve for athletes who maybe get paid more or are more experienced. Truly impressive.

This lockdown has also affected Ahmed because he cannot access swimming pools, a sauna, steam room and he also misses the ring and sparring – key factors in building up in-fight abilities and reflexes.

So has this whole lockdown made Hamzah more motivated to get back into the ring? Has it added fuel to an already-raging fire? Hamzah sure thinks so.

“The entire lockdown situation for me has been a blessing in disguise. It’s got me in a tunnelled vision with no distractions, it’s made me hungrier and made me realise I was born to fight.”