Jawaid Khaliq

Jawaid Khaliq , MBE (born 30 July 1970), is a British former professional boxer. A dual Pakistani national, he became the first British Asian minor boxing world champion, winning the International Boxing Organization (IBO) welterweight title and defending it for seven constructive bouts before retiring.
During his boxing career he also held the Commonwealth welterweight title, World Boxing Federation Inter-Continental Light Middleweight Title, Midlands Area light middleweight title and Midlands Area welterweight title. He is the first Kashmiri descent minor world champion boxer.

Personal life

Khaliq took up boxing at the age of 16. Within a short span of time, he went on to win the Amateur Boxing Association of England championships and fought for England. Whilst boxing, Khaliq also worked as a taxi driver to support his family and initially went back to the trade after retirement, later using it to fund his Boxing Academy. He achieved an MBE for his service to his community.

Professional career

Khaliq made his boxing debut at the age of 27 in 1997. Initially, he started taking fights on short notice, taking his second fight on a day's notice, and his third fight on two days' notice.

Light middleweight

As a light middleweight he held the WBF Inter-Continental Light Middleweight Title, winning the bout in way of 5th round TKO. He also held the BBBofC Midlands Area light middleweight title, winning that bout in way of 6th round TKO.

Welterweight

As a welterweight, he held BBBofC Midlands Area welterweight title, winning the bout in way of 4th round TKO and Commonwealth welterweight title, before finally winning the International Boxing Organization welterweight title, and made seven constructive defenses before he chose to retire and vacate the title.

Promotional issues

Following the win over Willy Wise for the IBO World Welterweight Title, Khaliq started to want to pursue big fights in the U.S., coincidentally, world-class fighters such as Vernon Forrest started to call him out, but due to promotional issues Khaliq's ambitions failed to materialize.

Retirement

Khaliq chose to retire partly due to complications, stating;

"...I had a couple of years waiting for fights, seeing people pull out, (and) fights not happening. I had a couple of fights cancelled. I was fed up, (after which) we started talking about come-back fights. I saw it as a backward step... I always wanted to test myself against the very best guys... I've lost the hunger."

Life after boxing

After boxing, Khaliq started working full-time as a taxi driver in order to support his wife and children.

After requests from people asking him to train them, Khaliq set up 'Jawaid Khaliq Boxing Academy' in Nottingham which he funded by being a taxi driver. The club claimed to prevent Anti-Social behavior, and the police had acknowledged the club helped with making healthy relationships with the local youth. However, in 2013, the club faced financial hurdles as it could not afford to stay on its current premises and faced the threat to close-down.

Khaliq has helped raise awareness about fire fighting within the British Asian community, and has previously taken initiatives to help recruit more fire fighters from within the community with the partnership of the service.