Adam Azim had a record setting night on Saturday.
The 21-year-old produced an excellent display to stop Franck Petitjean and become the European super lightweight champion.
By becoming a European champion in just his tenth fight, Azim became the fastest British fighter to ever win the title. He also became the first British-Pakistani fighter to claim the prestigious belt.
Azim (10-0, 7 KO’s) outclassed Petitjean, stopping him in the tenth round and flooring him twice along the way. It was a dominant and impressive performance by Azim but his trainer, Shane McGuigan, believes that Azim is still only scratching the surface of his potential
“It’s a great night for us. It’s only a stepping stone for Adam. He’s a European champion in ten fights but is only gonna get bigger and better fights,” McGuigan told Boxing King Media. “It’s a great learning fight for him. I feel like he could have done a lot of things better but this is just part of it.”
“What I see in the gym is that he’s got that level of calm and he just needs to be able to transfer that into the fights. He rushes his work a little bit but he’s 21 years of age. He won every single round of that contest, dropped him twice and hurt him badly and that’s a European champion. It just shows how talented he is and he just needs to get a bit more subtle when he finishes people.”
Azim’s first defense will come against former champion, Enock Poulsen. The Dane was part of the Sky Sports broadcast and jumped into the ring after the fight to face off with the new champion. Unbeaten Paulsen (14-0, 5 KO’s) won the belt by beating Petitjean last year but vacated it in May when illness left him unable to defend his title in a mandated rematch against the Frenchman. McGuigan feels the fight is the ideal opponent at this stage of Azim’s career.
“He beat Petitjean and got stripped because he couldn’t defend it. It’s definitely a step up and it’s another great learning fight,” McGuigan said. ‘Take the European title and Poulsen is a great fight for Adam Azim. He’s someone tough and durable and he’ll have to be selective with his shots. I think he’ll be braver than Petitjean. Once Petitjean felt the power early he was quite defensive and trying to survive.”