Pakistan's Waseem wins WBA Gold Bantamweight title in Quetta

Pakistan’s premier professional boxer Muhammad Waseem eventually engineered a major shot when he knocked out Wiston Orono of Venezuela in the ninth round to lift the WBA Gold Bantamweight world title at his hometown Quetta on Saturday night.

It was a tough fight with both boxers making an all-out effort to register victory.

Waseem, who trained for two months in Liverpool under his trainer Danny Vaughn, showed a lot of maturity and he exploited a mixture of aggressive and defensive tactics to put his opponent in persistent pressure in the 12-round battle.

Wiston also was seen highly skilled but it was eventually Waseem, the Falcon, who struck in the ninth round to knockout the Venezuelia's fighter.

Waseem’s trainer Danny Vaughn was seen extremely emotional and excited over the spectacular win.

"It was a splendid win," Waseem's brother Mohammad Faheem told Nukta after the bout.

"He had worked harder for this fight and he deserved such a victory. We the entire family are very happy over Waseem's major achievement.

"Waseem was never given the kind of support at home from any cordon but this major achievement, which has come at a very critical moment, will be remembered for ever.”

Waseem's entire family witnessed the bout conducted at the cantonment area. However, His wife and little son could not reach Quetta from Islamabad because of flight issues due to war between Pakistan and India.

Waseem prepared in Liverpool for this vital fight for eight weeks during which he passed through 65 to 70 sparring sessions.

Waseem played his previous fight against Georgian fighter Jaba Memishishi six months ago in Malta. This was after long two years that Waseem played a fight since facing Sunny Edwards of England in the world title shot in Dubai in March 2022.

Waseem had to wait for long for his maiden world title due to visas and other issues which also impeded his growth as a professional fighter.

Having lost to Sunny Edwards and Moruti Mthalane of South Africa in his previous world title shots held in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, respectively, Waseem eventually got the job done at his hometown which created history as this was the first time that such a loaded and major international boxing event was conducted which featured eight international and two local fights.

The victory also catapulted Waseem's fight-tally to 16 in his professional career so far, spanning over a period of nine years, having won 14 of them with ten knockouts.

He has also remained WBC No1 boxer for quite some time when he was working under Korea-based AK Promotions.

Waseem made his fine pro debut in October 2015 following a long and productive amateur career when he defeated Min Wook Lee in Incheon. He went on to excel and in his fourth fight in July the same year he lifted the WBC world silver flyweight title by beating Jether Oliva of the Philippines in Seoul.

He then defended it in November the same year by upstaging tough Filipino fighter Giemel Magramo in Seoul.

Waseem won the same title again in November 2021 by defeating Rober Barerra of Colombia in Dubai.

Waseem also has served for over a decade for Pakistan in the amateur circuit during which he won several international medals for the country. Just before switching over to professional circuit way back in 2015, Waseem won silver in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a few months later the same year he clinched bronze in the Incheon Asian Games. Since then no Pakistani boxer has won any medal in the Asian Games.