WESTGATE School student Hassan Azim has been crowned the best junior boxer in England after an exceptional weekend of boxing in Newcastle.

The news comes after the success of his elder brother Adam Azim, who last year won the national schoolboy championships and went on to represent England.

Hassan Azim, 15, came through by winning the regional rounds where all but his final opponent lasted more than a round.

He knocked-out all his opposition en route to the semi-finals where he came up against Frazer Mann from Harwich Boxing Club and the Eastern Counties.

Both fighters came out fast with Azim landing telling blows and eventually Mann received two standing counts to excellent precision in the upper cuts. Azim won by total knock-out in the first round.

Azim was up against a surprise finalist in Ammar Akbar from Warrior Breed in Bradford, who beat some good opponents to get to the final.

Akbar had the advantage of being the fresher fighter as Hasan had to complete his route to the clash over two days, whilst his opponent had only one bout to contest with a two-week break before that.

Having seen and heard what Azim did in the previous rounds, Akbar came out to neutralise his power by making the bout messy and not allowing him to get his boxing going to land the power shots.

The moment Azim was allowed to have space, he landed excellent shots, rocking his opponent on a number of occasions.

In the final round, Azim knocked down Akbar with a left hook and was awarded a unanimous decision to be crowned the best junior boxer in England.

Along with his belt, Azim received an invitation letter and will attend a three-day training camp with England at the Sheffield Institute of Sport.

After that he will go on to represent England at the Tri-Nations tournament in Cardiff the following weekend and compete for the British title.

Azim’s proud father commented: “The amount of chauffeuring I do for my sons is unbelievable – Sheffield, Cardiff, Newcastle and many other places.

“I enjoy it as the boys are doing really well and I will travel the world if I have to as both boys will go to the European Championships in their respective tournaments with England.”

Azim added: “I had trained hard for this, always in the shadow of my brother, but I can now say I have won the bigger prize in junior amateur boxing.”