Rising Byron Boxing ABC star Fawaz Aborode will this weekend bid to land a spot at the world boxing championships.
The 19-year-old will travel down to Sheffield to participate in an elite Team GB training camp.
Aborode aims to impress in Sheffield to secure a berth at the AIBA world championships in Belgrade, Serbia which begins on Sunday October 24.
The highly rated teen also hopes to further increase his chances of securing a spot with Team GB to follow in the footsteps of Byron Boxing graduate John Docherty.
Now a successful professional Docherty was part of the GB Podium Squad whilst at Byron Boxing and also fought at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning bronze.
Aborode said: “If I do well at the GB training camp in Sheffield I will hopefully get picked to go to the worlds in Serbia later this month.
“The target is also to get into Team GB over the next few years. If I could get into Team GB that would mean the world to me.
“John Docherty was in Team GB whilst at Byron and when I was younger I always looked up to him.
“Hopefully I can accomplish that as well.
“Having John at the same club during that time gave me the motivation and confidence that I could achieve that.”
Commonwealth Games 2022 target
As well as bronze at the Gold Coast games in 2018 Docherty also secured gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa three years earlier.
Middleweight Docherty, 23, has a pro record of nine wins with only one defeat from 10 fights.
In the bid to emulate Docherty’s success Aborode trains with the Scotland squad at the High Performance Centre for two days each week in Glasgow.
He balances that with training at Byron.
Aborode also aims to compete in the Commonwealth Games and is targeting next summer’s tournament in Birmingham.
He said: “I want to go all the way and will train hard so that will hopefully pay off.
“The target is to get picked for the Commonwealth Games next year.
“The nationals are in April so if I win that I will hopefully get selected for the Commonwealth Games.
“I beat the Scottish champion in my last fight and then was set to box him again in the nationals but Covid happened the week before.
“That meant I couldn’t fight in the nationals.
“Throughout the lockdown I continued to train and did my running so my weight never really went up.
“Now I go down to Glasgow to train at the High Performance Centre. On Monday and Thursday I am at Byron Boxing and on Tuesday and Wednesday in Glasgow.”
Inspired to box by Anthony Joshua
It will be five years next month since Aborode first walked into Byron Boxing Club and began his ascent to the level where he is now targeting the world championships and Commonwealth Games.
The inspiration for initially taking up the sport was heavyweight star Anthony Joshua who recently lost his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO world titles when defeated by Oleksandr Usyk.
He said: “Anthony Joshua got me into boxing.
“I saw a video of him boxing. The next day I went to school and told all my friends about it.
“I told them I was going to go the a boxing gym and I started from there at Byron and never looked back.”
