DUBAI // The UAE’s first professional boxer is set to return to the ring next month after a three-year break and is hoping to show enough promise to warrant a lucrative place on the undercard of Amir Khan’s next fight.
Eisa Al Dah, a 36-year-old Emirati welterweight who made his professional debut eight years ago in Dubai, will face Britain’s Kevin Hanks over six rounds on April 3 at Dubai World Trade Centre. The match-up is the headline fight of Glory 20, an 11-fight event featuring both boxing and kick-boxing bouts.
Al Dah has won eight of his 10 fights – including all four in the Emirates – and is confident of doing enough to land a place on the undercard of what will be one of the biggest fights of the year.
Khan, the British two-time world champion and a close friend of the Emirati, has discussed possible 2015 fights with Kell Brook or Timothy Bradley, but is yet to confirm any details.
The Al Dah camp said yesterday, however, that Khan, 28, has already set a date and venue.
“Nobody knows this, it’s first-hand news, but Eisa is supposed to fight on Amir Khan’s card in New York on May 23rd,” Al Dah’s trainer, Anthony Wilson, said. “We’re going to go to the USA around April 14 to do a camp there and looking to be on that card.”
Al Dah added: “I will be on the undercard – it is confirmed. I do not know who I will fight yet because, of course, I will not be fighting for a title. It will be a last-minute decision, but whether I win or I lose in April, it does not matter. I will go to New York and fight on May 23 on Amir’s undercard.”
Before that though, Al Dah must first overcome ring rustiness. He has not fought since beating Miguel Angel Munguia by unanimous decision in February 2012 at the Aviation Club. Since then, he said, he voluntarily took time out to focus on his business ventures, which include the newly opened EDM Fitness Gym in Jumeira’s Sunset Mall.
“Ever since my first fight, I found it difficult to find sponsors and money, but I refused to give up,” Al Dah said. “Eventually, I decided to stop for two or three years, build my own gym and make my own money, which is now the case. Now I don’t rely on sponsors and don’t need to wait for them to pay me. Now I am back, busy and ready to go for a title in the next three years.”
Hanks, Al Dah’s opponent, hails from Stoke-on-Trent and has lost five of his eight fights, including a points defeat to Kristian Laight, who went into their October 2012 fight with the undesirable record of 131 losses from 143 bouts.
Anything other than victory for the Emirati would have to be seen as failure.
“Eisa is going through some intense training,” said Wilson, who is from Washington, DC. “This is going to be the best training camp we have done in a long time. I’m not worried about Kevin Hanks, but he should be worried about us. His side are all screaming, but we aren’t going to let the UAE down. Don’t worry about that.”
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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