This week, our WBC Asia Continental Champion Hamzah Farouk, shares his boxing
journey, his favourite family memories and what he’s looking for in a girl.
HIS BOXING JOURNEY
I started boxing when I was 16 and boxed as an Amateur for 8 years. I got a job in the banking industry as Operations and Sales while studying Psychology, then I stopped boxing. During those years, I missed boxing and training every day. I didn’t know what to do with the extra time and energy I had not training and started to develop a very unhealthy lifestyle. I felt very unhappy and unsettled with life and kept thinking about boxing every day. Until finally in mid-2016, I decided to turn my life around, quit my job and started boxing again. I am very happy where I am now, and to be boxing professionally.
3 FAVOURITE MOMENTS WITH YOUR FAMILY:
Going for our first ever family holiday to a place in Malaysia called Cherating beach. We grew up not really having much and my dad used to struggle financially. So for us to go on a holiday at that time was something I’ll never forget. We had a lot of fun together.
All my brothers’ weddings. Three of them. Bittersweet for me, not because they beat me to it, but because we grew up together being really close! I knew we won’t be able to spend as much time together once they get married. I was very happy for them, but at the same time felt a bit sad.
Winning the WBC Asia Continental belt last November. Not only was it my childhood dream, but it was for my family. They have supported me so much throughout my boxing career for 15 years now and I owe it all to them. Without the support of my parents and my brothers, nothing would be possible. It’s a way I give back to my family who stood by me throughout everything and what I am doing now, I am doing it for them.
FOR THE LADIES:
I like confident and cute girls who don’t take life or themselves too seriously, who have goals and are driven working towards it, and are able to hold serious intellectual conversations, and be sexy at the right times drive me crazy.
Hamzah’s 1st Boxing Photo
THINGS WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU
AS A CHILD, I WAS PROBABLY THE BIGGEST NERD EVER.
Like all the other kids would be playing outside and I would be reading books in the house. I was very skinny and sickly, and I surrounded myself with more books than toys. I hated doing physical activities and loved reading about the outer space. My dream was to be an astronaut and a boxing champion. I already achieved one. Maybe the other soon!
I used to be a heavy smoker (30 sticks a day) from 2012 to 2016. When I decided to turn my life around and become a professional boxer, I quit smoking and I literally did it overnight without any help. If I can do it without counselling or calling a hotline, anyone can too.
