Mehrullah eager to make another comeback

Fighting against time and adverse circumstances, Pakistan's star boxer and Asian Games gold medallist Mehrullah Lassi is still hoping to represent his country in this year's mega assignments of India and China and has rubbished the rumours that his career is over.

No, my career is not over yet. I want to play in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year and I have been training hard under the supervision of Muhammad Siddiq Qambrani and as soon as I am match fit I will inform the Pakistan boxing authorities about my availability,the star boxer, who had got a record purse of Rs5 million for lifting gold in the 2002 Seoul Asian Games, told The News during a detailed chat on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games are slated to be held in Delhi from October 3 to 14 while China will host the Asian Games from November 12 to 27.

A top official of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) informed the other day that Mehrullah's career is now over.

Last year, we gave him a chance to use his muscles in the World Championships, in Milan, but he could not prove himself and I believe that his career is now over, the official said.

Mehrullah along with his teammate Faisal Karim was slapped with a life ban by the PBF in 2006 after both were tested positive for using cannabis at Colombo's South Asian Games.

However, later it was converted into a two-year suspension as per International Boxing Association (AIBA) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.

The two-year ban expired in August 2008 and after having gone through rigorous training both at home and abroad, the boxer was given a chance to play in the World Championships last September last year, but he failed to impress on his comeback, when he lost to Sandro Schaer of Germany 1-11 in his preliminary round bout.

If I did not find myself capable of playing at the international level this year then at least I will be able to prepare few youngsters, also including my two brothers Samiullah (Navy) and Sanaullah (KPT) to represent Pakistan in these major competitions,he said.

He admitted that he is facing problems to adapt himself to the new boxing rules, saying, unlike in the past, the game has become very fast and the boxers will have to be more accurate in both offense and defence.

I will face no problem in defence but it could take time, even a year, to bring my attack upto the modern standards, the boxer said.

Mehrullah is also not satisfied with the kind of training being imparted to the boxers during the national team camp.

How can I join the camp, as here the coaches don't provide training according to the temperament of the boxers and normally concentrate on only two or three boxers out of the 20 to 25 boys present at the camp, he said.

Mehrullah also met light welterweight world champion Amir Khan on the closing day of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing tournament here last week and informed him about his resolve that he is still there and is determined to represent Pakistan in the twin major assignments this year.