Dan Azeez: How light-heavyweight newcomer took old-school approach to collect domestic treble
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Dan Azeez has won all three domestic titles - the Southern Area, English and British light-heavyweight belts
Throughout British boxing's colourful history, not many fighters have held Masters' degrees and the British title at the same time. In fact, amiable and articulate light-heavyweight Dan Azeez, from Lewisham in South London, appears to be the first.
Since turning professional in 2017, Azeez has racked up 15 straight wins, collecting the Southern Area and English titles, before bagging the coveted Lonsdale belt when he became British champion in his last fight.
On each occasion, he started as an underdog. Yet all three bouts he won, usually in dominant fashion, a fact made all the more remarkable by his late start in boxing.
Azeez's first, brief experience was at the Honor Oak club, a local institution. He was 14.
"I was a rough kid," the 32-year-old recalls, with a chuckle. "Nothing outrageous, but I was often fighting around my area and stuff. So, I went in the gym with the same attitude, no discipline. I thought it was just a tear-up."
As a result, the coach declined the opportunity to train him and Azeez returned to his contradictory teenage life of street scuffles and studying. It was not until reading for a degree in accounting and finance at Essex University, aged 18, that his love affair with boxing began in earnest.
"Outside of my studies I used to go on YouTube a lot," Azeez says. "And I was watching these highlight reels of fighters like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Marvin Hagler. It opened my eyes. I realised boxing isn't just wham, bam, thank you ma'am. There's an art there. It fascinated me."
Inspired, Azeez sought out a local gym in Colchester, where he trained under coach Gordon Charlesworth. From there, he never looked back.
"I knew I started late. But I also knew that when I focus on things, I get results," he says.
He remembers watching from ringside as Anthony Joshua, who also started boxing at 18, won his second Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) title in Colchester in 2011. Joshua's continued success gave Azeez a real-world example to emulate. Soon he started a boxing club at his university, of which he was named president.
An amateur career of 60 contests ensued, while Azeez finished his degree, then pursued his Masters. He won more than 40 fights and picked up the Southern ABA title three times.
However, his natural assets - a low centre of gravity, physical and mental strength and ring IQ - were not best suited to the tippy-tap, point-scoring, amateur code.
"I liked the purity of amateur boxing," he explains. "It's not about showmanship or promotion, or any of that. It's just sport, but in the ring I could see it wasn't perfect for me.
"You have those big gloves on and, as my style evolved, I'd be feeling my way into the first round, getting on top in the second, battering them in the third, but then the fight was over."
Azeez turned pro, despite the protestations of his mum, and linked up with coach Brian O'Shaughnessy. Since then, his trajectory has been upward all the way, although some aspects of the pro game were tough to reckon with.
"People don't understand," he says. "But when you're a professional boxer, especially if you weren't an Olympian who signs with the big promoters straight away, you have to sell tickets yourself.
"It's really not easy to sell enough to cover all the expenses, and I struggled with that. I've had to get out on Instagram, do all that stuff. I'm not really that way inclined, but you do what you have to do to survive."
Dan Azeez is targeting the Commonwealth title next
In July 2019, an explosive sixth-round stoppage of big-punching Charlie Duffield, for the Southern Area title, brought Azeez to a wider audience. A British title win over highly rated Hosea Burton in November sealed the deal.
Both wins were similar in that Azeez hurt his opponents early, then systematically turned the screw as the rounds passed, controlling distance and reading their movements. Short for the weight at 5ft 10in, he is tenacious, strong, but always calculating, like the legends he so admires.
So far in his pro career, he has never been put down.
Azeez now has all three domestic belts in his possession. With the likes of Anthony Yarde, Callum Smith, Callum Johnson and Joshua Buatsi packed into a red-hot division, what could the future hold?
"I'm a traditionalist," he says. "I love the history of boxing. I want to do it the old-fashioned way, title after title. So, I'd like the Commonwealth next, which is Yarde."
He pauses for a moment, then resumes speaking calmly.
"But you know, give me any of them. I'm not scared of losing. If Ali lost, why can't I? It's not about the loss, it's how you learn and grow from it.
"I'm ready. I think we should all mix it up. All the British light-heavies. Let's give the fans an era to remember. What a legacy that would be."
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- Published29 November 2021
