Guard that bacon butty with your life or become a world champion boxer. Either way, these are the skills you need…
He’s known as “Razor Ali”. He hails from Iran and smuggled his way into London on a fake passport. He slept in Barking train station for two months, surviving on asylum seeker’s rations. Now, he’s in the frame for the English championship. And we salute him.
All Hail King Razor
He’s sharper than a MACH3 and has a better barnet than Beckham. The poodle perm has a ‘just got out of the sleeping bag’ a la mode edge to it that could walk right into Tracey Emin’s bed and win an art award. Fondly named ‘Razor’ by coaches for his sharp and explosive punch, the 26-year-old is taking time out of training for fresh ink.
“I'm going to write ‘ask and you shall receive on my stomach’, he says, chatting to me from a dodgy looking tattoo salon. “It’ll go here in-between my angels.”
Razor tells me he had no choice but to flee, since he grew up among gangs in Tehran. “Where I come from, it’s all about gangs,” he says. “My neighbourhood is a proper ghetto. It’s violence, shooting, stabbing, and drugs- that’s it. You have to pick your postcode and fight, or you get bullied. I left school early, my dad was a heroin addict and I had to fight since I was a young boy. I was always involved in sport though. I was national kickboxing champion at 10.”
Razor Feld Iran at 18, heading to London alone and seeking asylum.
“I came here to make all my dreams come true,” he says. “I got a fake passport and booked myself a flight. I slept in Barking train station homeless for two months. I didn’t beg. I lived on the £35 a week asylum seeker payments the government give you. I had a fiver a day for food, I was starving and freezing, but I was determined.
“I started boxing right away. I went to the local boxing gym and told them I had no money and they said, ‘you can clean the toilets in exchange for training’, so I did. They saw my potential and took me to another boxing club. I couldn’t speak any English, but the day I arrived they put the gloves one me and said ‘fight’. I was a good Thai boxer but had no English boxing experience. Suddenly I was sparring with a national champion.
“I soon turned pro and people started buying tickets to watch me fight. I had no fear of anybody. I improved my English, made a lot of friends and got signed to an agency. Now I’m training for the English title fight. My plan is to become world champion within two years. I dare anyone to come and stop me.”
Razor says he’s right handed and fights smart not hard. “I can still left hook or jab a body shot with my left,” he says. “I just attack non-stop. I’ve never been given anything and I love that people now want to come and see me. The British people have been very welcoming. I had to prove myself in Britain, but now I feel a part of it. I remember going to the gym and sparring then watching the other kids go home when I had no home to go to, no food. I fought through that and now I’m tougher than ever.”
Earning his British passport five months ago, Razor says he’s proud to be British and fight for the country that saved his life.
“It took me seven years of hard work to get my British passport and I want the British title to go with it,” he says. My coach told me, “Razor, you’re one of us, you go fight for it.”
ENDS
Move Over Gypsies! Here’s How to Fight Like an Asylum Seeker (Thanks to Razor’s Top Tramp Tips)
What if you’re sitting on the station floor and someone tries to steal your sandwich?
“Kick them while seating with a front kick to the body.”
What if someone tries to attack you from behind?
“Give them a spinning kick while throwing a left hook”
What is someone attacks you square in the face?
“If you can block the shot, duck and throw them a right hand in the chin.”
Long Reign the Refugee! Here are some more asylum seeking champs to make you feel as if you’ve underachieved…
Jesus- He fled the holy land because of King Herod
Jackie Chan- Fled to the US from Hong Kong after being threatened with death by the Triads
Wyclef Jean- Haitian refugee
Ed Miliband- Son of Belgian Jewish refugee
Rita Ora- Came to the UK from Kosovo as a baby
Freddie Mercury- Fled to England from Zanzibar in 1964