Adam Azim produced the most mature performance of his career with a very efficient showing against the unbeaten Santos Reyes at the OVO Arena, London and claimed the WBA continental super-lightweight title in the process over ten rounds. Azim was headlining his promoter’s second show of 2023 (Boxxer) with Azim demonstrating why he is one of the most talked about prospects in British boxing.
Adam Azim started the opening round very fast with the jab in a dominant opening round leaving his opponent unable to land anything of note, Azim offered good variations of attack to the head and body of which Santos took well. The second Azim exploded into action in the final seventy seconds of the second with a big right-hand timing Santos Reyes which sent the away fighter onto the canvas heavily. Santos to his credit rose to his feet and was able to survive the onslaught coming from the twenty-year-old Azim.
Round three saw Azim happy to box on the back foot and have Reyes come forward towards him and able to pick him off and pivot and move. Azim did catch Reyes in the body with a telling left hook as the highlight of the round. Round four was a repertoire of heavy punching for Azim who was able to pick his shots perfectly against a very static Reyes with the highlight being a very heavy check-left hook around the guard which shook him to his boots, a very dominating showing in the round.
Reyes showed a lot more ambition in round five and sought to enforce himself on Azim with attempted shots which were blocked and countered by Azim who was in control virtually for the majority of the round. Santos did land a lead left hook flush on Azim as he was moving backwards but Azim handled this mistake very well. The sixth was a repeat of the same as the previous with Reyes starting to get more confident in his ability to handle the velocity of Azim and was more ambitious in his own work attempting to be more aggressive with some good work. However, Azim was still very efficient on the counter and was able to take control of proceedings when he took the lead but was still happy to box on the back foot.
Round seven was back to the momentum which we saw earlier in the fight with Azim taking the lead and displaying good and differing variations with shots, particularly with hooks around the guard and an uppercut in the final minute which stunned Reyes. Reyes did land a big shot in the final ten seconds of the round with Azim’s chin high in the air which did snap the neck back of Azim.
The eighth saw Azim try perhaps a little too hard and started to make little mistakes and lose the accuracy that he was displaying but still in no real danger despite Reyes closing the distance and landing some shots up close. Round nine was a very dominating round for Azim with Reyes being clipped hard with a variety of single shots and combinations to the body which made Reyes very apprehensive and knocked out the ambition to come forward to engage with Azim much more accurately than the previous frame.
The final round saw Azim continue his drive forward with sharp crunching combinations and elusive footwork with Reyes seeming to be continent in surviving the round and seeing the final bell. Azim was looking for the knockout with his aggressive nature but was taken the full scheduled ten-round distance for the first time in his career. Azim claimed the contest with an unanimous decision with a score of 100-89 across all three scorecards.
100-89