Qatari boxer Fahad Al Thani is preparing for his 10th professional bout in Spain early next month, the country’s only pro fighter announced yesterday.
Fahad, who is unbeaten in 9 professional bouts so far in just a matter of three years, will fight on March 3. The 31-year-old Qatari beat Romania’s Dumitru Nicu Manea in his last fight in October.
“I don’t know my next opponent yet but my fight is going to be in Leon, Spain,” Fahad told The Peninsula yesterday.
“I am fully geared up for the fight,” he added.
“Soon I’d be switching off completely from my every-day routine and focus solely on the fight. I am in a much better place from where I was in the summer of 2017.
“I feel much stronger physically. My training has improved immensely,” he added. “I feel very fast,” said Fahad, who will fight in super welterweight category.
Fahad said he is already in ‘fight mode’.
“I am there already but usually a week before the fight, I switch off completely. I switch off social media, no going out. I just have dinner and relax. I don’t watch TV. I have my own routine,” Fahad said.
“I am not a superstitious person. I can deal with change. I don’t like to talk a lot. I like to focus. I just get the points from my coach. My family knows when they see me training. I don’t have to tell my family anything. They can see me changing the way I eat or sleep,” he added.
Fahad, who trains and fights on his own, said he has specific goals in mind.
“I have a long-term goal. It’s to be a champion at a world level. I want to have a world level belt,” Fahad said.
“I believe in short-term goals also. And my short-term goal is my next fight, next opponent. I will never look past my next opponent.
“Unless I beat the next opponent, I cannot plan for the next fight. In boxing you can’t really plan far ahead. You just can’t take out a calendar and say ‘I will do this’. Once I beat my opponent, I will plan my next fight,” Fahad said.
“The number of fights is about six fights. Not more than that. Six fights is a good number. It is a high number,” Fahad said.
“Still I am not on TV so I can go up to eight. Once you are a TV fighter, it changes everything like what time I walk into the ring. Now I want to build on my experience, improving my skills, doing what I do in the gym and adding things to my arsenal. If you don’t train for it, you can’t do it.
“Maybe you could but it would tire you out. Champion boxers have told me there is high importance on the element of surprise. So I use my intelligence inside the ring. I change things up,” he explained.
Fahad said it is important to fight smart in the ring.
“I’d like to see myself as an intelligent fighter. As you get older, you get stronger,” he said.
“What actually decreases is your speed and reflexes but your strength and power increases. In boxing, it is the norm. Look at Evander Holyfield. It depends on your style of fighting style. Let me give you another example - Roy Jones Jr - he was an amazing athlete. He had unbelievable reflexes but as he got older he couldn’t used his skills the same way as before,” he said.
“In boxing, the brain tells you see the left hook is there but as you get older, you don’t see the left hook and you get knocked out. When you are a skilful fighter likes Flloyd Mayeather, Bernard Hopkins, they could fight till late (in their careers). They are extremely skilful. They know the game inside out. They know when to breathe. They know when to punch. They know when to take you off your game. They know when to take your best punch,” Fahad said.
Fahad said his exploits in recent times have been well appreciated at home in Qatar.
“The recognition in Qatar is very positive. It is something that gives me hope and pride. It shows a sportsman from Qatar can be on the world stage,” Fahad said before praising compatriots track and field star Mutaza Barshim and rallying icon Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah.
“We saw that with Mutaz Barshim. We saw that with Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah recently in their sports. I look up to them and I see myself following in the same paths or footsteps,” Fahad said.
“So that gives me sometimes the motivation to keep going. Sometimes I receive a message on social media ‘Fahad, I want to be a boxer’ and that adds to my will to win. I now not only fight for myself, I fight for Qatar. I fight for amazing development for Qatar sports. I love the way how Aspire Academy teach young athletes how to go about their life, how to eat, how to rest, how to deal with nerves. We had to do it the hard way,” he said.
