Walsall's Hamza goes back to his roots for motivation

The 20-year-old, who was signed by Matchroom Boxing last year, marked his professional debut in style with a third-round knockout against Santiago San Eusebio in April.

Now, Uddin will return to the ring when he fights Italy’s Giulio Commerso on the undercard of the European Middleweight title fight between Wolverhampton’s Tyler Denny and Felix Cash at Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena.

In the build-up to fight night, Uddin delivered a short talk at his gym – Fearless Boxing Academy in Walsall – before heading to his local mosque.

And Uddin feels local support, and the work Matchroom have put into the local community, will provide him with the extra motivation he needs both on fight night and his ambition of becoming the first British-Bangladeshi world champion.

“Big shout out to Matchroom who’re doing some top work for the community,” he said. “Matchroom is such a big organisation who have such a foothold in boxing globally not just in this country.

“They don’t need to be working with these communities. However, they’re putting in the hard work and giving boxing a different light in the local community.

“In a little town like Walsall, we only see boxing on the TV screens but now we have such big organisations like Matchroom coming along and helping the community.

“It’s an honour to be a part of that and to be inspiring the next generation of boxers. Many of the boxers we saw today may be the next superstars of tomorrow.

“It’s an absolute honour to have the whole of the Walsall community and the British Foundation community, as well as the South Asian community behind me.

“Today we’ve seen at a variety of locations now, how much the community does support me and they’ve supported me not just on my professional journey but ever since I started boxing almost 15 years ago.

“To have such loyal support for so long is an honour and it’s another reason why I am so motivated to achieve my dream of becoming the first British-Bangladeshi world champion.”

Saturday’s event will also see Wolverhampton boxer Conah Walker in action against Lewis Crocker.

But while Uddin is proud to fight as such a prestigious event, he is confident that he will steal the show on his West Midlands return.

He continued: “My next fight on June 22 in Birmingham is as close to a homecoming as I can get. I’ve not boxed in the Midlands or anywhere near it for a very, very long time due to being at various national and international tournaments as an amateur.

“But now I finally get the chance to show my skill, to show my worth and everything I’ve worked on to my local audience.

“I am proud to be in the show because of how great of a show this is but I will be the star performer on the night.

“I know that for sure because of the work we’ve put in. My style attracts eyeballs and although I have a massive local fan base, after June 22, that fan base is going to be even bigger.”