UAE professional boxer Eisa Al Dah, right, and Bob Sapp.
UAE professional boxer Eisa Al Dah, right, and Bob Sapp.

Emirati boxer shadows Amir Khan in preparation for next fight



DUBAI // The UAE's first professional boxer, fresh from sparring with Britain's Amir Khan in the United States, will return to the ring in the Emirates next month when he fights the Mexican welterweight Miguel Angel Munguia as part of the undercard for the Dubai International Boxing Championship.

Eisa Al Dah, 33, was due to fight Munguia on December 16 in Florida, but the bout was postponed one week before the event when his opponent suffered injury. The rescheduled fight will now take place on February 2 at The Aviation Club.

"I was ready before and I am even more ready now," Al Dah said yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference promoting the seven-fight event, to be headlined by the American mixed martial artist Bob Sapp.

"It will be a good fight. He has a good record - 22 wins with 19 KOs - but I have been training with Amir Khan and have more speed and more power now than ever before. My skill has improved so much and I will definitely beat him with my speed," added Al Dah, who has won seven of his nine fights.

Amir Shafiypour, Al Dah's manager, said he intends the event, which will see all profit donated to Dubai Autism, to become the first of many in the region, adding the goal is to have fights every three months.

"Every fight has some costs and to make the sport grow here, we need to build up a relationship between fight entertainment and the people," he said. "Once you build the market, you can then aim to fill up a good stadium and pay well to get the best fighters from around the world."

Al Dah made his professional debut in Dubai in March 2007, beating the American Larry Foster in a first round TKO. The decision was deemed controversial in local media as replays of the knockout punch showed contact was minimal. He has since been dividing his time between Dubai, Bristol, England and Tampa Bay, Florida.

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A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
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Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books 

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

Cracks in the Wall

Ben White, Pluto Press 

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Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

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Company name: Blah

Started: 2018

Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri

Based: Dubai

Industry: Technology and talent management

Initial investment: Dh20,000

Investors: Self-funded

Total customers: 40

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Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports

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Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Barcelona 4 (Messi 23' pen, 45 1', 48', Busquets 85')

Celta Vigo 1 (Olaza 42')

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