Road to Rio: Name of Muhammad Ali set to resonate in Rio as Yorkshire boxers bid for glory

THE COUNTDOWN is on to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio with the opening ceremony taking place six months today on Friday, August 5.

But three Yorkshire boxers have a more immediate countdown in mind – to the European Olympic Qualifying event in Samsun, Turkey, on April 7.

Leeds punchers Qais Ashfaq and Jack Bateson plus illustriously-named Keighley fighter Muhammad Ali are all aiming to seal their place on the plane to South America. The trouble is only two of the three Yorkshire-based British Lionhearts will travel.

But that’s quite all right with 19-year-old rising star Ali who insists his all-Yorkshire battle with fellow flyweight Bateson “brings the best out of us both.”

Team GB can take one fighter from each weight category to Rio and bantamweight Ashfaq is leading the way in the bantamweight division.

The former Prince Henry’s Grammar School pupil took bronze at last summer’s European Games in Baku and bettered that achievement by then taking silver at the European Amateur Championships in Samokov.

Not that the 22-year-old is taking his place in Rio for granted.

And there’s a battle-royale on in the flyweight division with leading contenders Ali and Bateson knowing that while one will have the opportunity to shine in South America, the other will have to witness this year’s Olympics unfolding from the comfort of their own Yorkshire home.

Ali took silver at last year’s European Championships and will make his World Series Of Boxing debut in Morocco today when he fights for the first time since last October’s AIBA World Championships in Doha where a cut eye curtailed his participation.

Bateson, a Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist and European Championships bronze winner, also missed last year’s Worlds with injury but both boxers are now fighting fit and champing at the bit ahead of their bid to seal qualification for Rio. A harsh near-miss awaits one of the two talented boxers - but both are thriving in the heat of battle.

“That’s boxing at the end of the day,” Ali tells The Yorkshire Post.

“You’ve just go to deal with it and just move on. Hopefully I am not in that position to even think about that. I am going to qualify and do everything I can. Hopefully that’s the end of that.

“It’s good for us both because we train with each other and it just brings the best out of us both.

“It’s going to bring the best out of our boxing and everything because if there was no-one there we would just slack off.

“If there was no other kid at your weight then you’d just be like I’m the one going definitely. With two of you, you make sure you are at the top of your game and I would guess it’s a good thing.”

Former Ermysted’s Grammar School pupil Ali has also come to appreciate that his famous name is also a good thing. Any sight or mention of the 19-year-old’s name will naturally draw visions of Cassius Clay, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport.

Now Keighley’s Muhammad Ali is out to make his own name, and follow in the footsteps of another GB star in Amir Khan, who boxed at the same junior gym in Bury as Ali did.

Photographs of the likes of Khan hang from the wall at the English Institute Of Sport in Sheffield where Team GB’s young boxers train.

“It inspires you,” said Ali. “I see the picture of him on the wall every day and just think I would love to be in his position one day. Now I am pretty much in the same position, going for a late push on the Olympics as he was. Hopefully I can just get the same end result as he did.

“When people used to mention about my name, at first I was like ‘they are at it again.’ But now I am just getting used to it.

“It doesn’t bother me and I have just got to go out and perform and show them that I am half decent. Hopefully I can be half as good as the real Ali one day.”

Standing immediately in his way, though, is Bateson, who has already enjoyed a plethora of success as a junior.

But the 21-year-old says he would swap every achievement for a place on the plane to South America, and is relishing the in-house battle with Ali.

“I feel I am in a good position,” said Bateson. “People forget that I was injured last year. I was supposed to box Mo earlier this year in the GB Championships which he pulled out of.

“I was a bit gutted about that because I felt like if I beat him there it sort of proves that I am in the No 1 spot. I need to prove myself at these tournaments and make sure that I am the man selected.”

Ashfaq, meanwhile, appears to face a more straight-forward task to seal his spot in Rio, but he insists his spot is not guaranteed. Like Ali, the Leeds ace is also taking ultimate inspiration from Khan.

“I’ve got people from different counties against me but competition brings you on,” said Ashfaq. “I’ve been fighting with Sean McGoldrick from Wales since the minute I got into the GB squad. Without that top sparring and top competition I don’t think we would be where we are now.

“I remember seeing Amir Khan when I was 11 or when my coach showed me him.

“He said ‘if he can do it, you can do it.’ Amir was wanting the same result that I am when he was in the Olympics.

“I know I can do it myself but go one step further and win that gold medal.”