Amar wants to win titles but also improve lives in Slough

Professional boxer Kayani embarking on exciting career in the ring but he’ll never forget his roots

Slough boxer Amar Kayani has said he wants to change the lives of the children from his neighbourhood as he bids to become one of the best boxers in the world, writes

Ben White.

The young professional has a long way to go on both fronts, but Kayani doesn’t selfishly just want titles and fame, he wants to make a difference for his family and to the area of Slough where he grew up.

Speaking to Ben White, Kayani said: “A lot of people want titles and everything, but for me personally, I just want to make a change. I want to look back on my life one day and see that I’ve changed the lives of some troubled kids in my area and their parents too.

“That will be enough for me. I do want to become a world champion, but I didn’t just start boxing to make money. I want to go all the way and leave my name in the record books.”

Kayani is known as ‘The Kandy Man’ when he steps into the ring and he’s already come through a lot to become a professional fighter. The fight in Kayani comes from his father Sarfraz Kayani, who was also a boxer. He moved to the UK at a very young age with next to nothing, at a time when racism was even more prevalent than it is today, and he had to battle to establish his place in society. Both

Amar and his brothers were introduced to combat sports to develop the same fighting instinct and Amar has never looked back. A Home Counties champion at the age of 21, he followed that by winning the Class B Development National title and he reached the quarter finals of the ABAs in 2019 before a cut above the eye checked his progress. He now has a record of 2-0 in the middleweight pro game and has taken the step up in class in his stride. He looks to have the potential to go far in the sport, but it’s his upbringing that has helped shape him as a man and a boxer.

“Slough is a really rough area where there’s a lot of knife crime and violence,” he said. “It’s very much eat or be eaten. You have to know how to fight to grow up here.

“A lot of parents put their kids into boxing, nurturing them from a young age, wanting to make their kid a champion. For me I was one of the guys people would try to pick on a little bit, so I started boxing from age 14-15 pretty much for survival.

“I wanted to be the tough guy and not the guy who got picked on. So, I learned how to box. If I didn’t, I could have got beaten up by anyone, whether it was those trying to take money off you or the day-today bullies. I never started fights, but I would never back down from fights either. Most of my front teeth are fake because they got knocked out when I was at college and at school I would get bruises and cuts to my face.”

This isn’t to say Amar doesn’t know the rights from wrongs. He’s a university graduate in law so has brains to back up his brawn. He’s not yet a familiar name on the world boxing scene but has started making steps to help people in his community.

He said: “I’ve loved the switch to the pros. The transition has been quite easy for

A boxing demonstration by Amar Kayani in Slough to mark Pakistan Day and, inset, stepping into the ring. Credit: Simon Downing Snr.

me, it suits my style. People say I’m quite quick, I throw my combinations well. But I’m not going to talk about what I’m good at because that’s for the people to see.”

“I’m running this camp to guide the troubled kids in my community. We live in an area with such a high crime rate, I lost one of my close friends to knife crime a year ago.

“Kids are getting stabbed and messing about, I want those kids to one day be in the position I am in. I want them to find boxing or be in the gym, not on the streets.

“Boxing teaches people dis

cipline and focus, so I thought you know what I’m going to help these kids. My brother Zhoib Kayani was exactly like me growing up and together we have been guiding these kids and counselling them, since 2016. They might call us in the middle of the night, and we will talk to them for an hour. We literally pick them up and drop them off to keep them out of trouble. It was mostly for the community more than boxing but now we have got some good boxers out of it. God willing, we are going to have a proper amateur boxing club early next year.”