British Light-Heavyweight contender Dan Azeez seems to be turning into one of the best Light-Heavywerights to come out of Britain after his latest victory over former EBU European champion, Thomas Faure. Their match featured as the co-main event at the Zenith de Paris-La Villette in Paris, preceding the main event of Tony Yoka vs. Carlos Takam that was held on Saturday, March 11. The fight had the EBU European title on the line through its then-current holder, Thomas Faure.
Dan Azeez (19-0, 13 KO’s) retained his unbeaten record in a win against Thomas Faure (21-5-1, 2 KO’s) who is still regarded as one of the best ten Frenchmen to fight at the 175 lbs weight limit. Despite just recently coming off a win against fellow Brit Rocky Fielding (30-3, 18 KO’s), Azeez has continued his winning form with a second stoppage victory in a row against a decent opponent.
While Faure was relatively low-ranked as opposed to Azeez’ last opponents, Faure also seemed quite battle-ready and enthusiastic, making for a slightly tougher match for Azeez than most had initially anticipated. In the first round, the two switched between pressuring each other as they felt each other out, with Faure showing more initiative with his set-up jabs, and even managed to land a powerful right uppercut that Azeez took surprisingly well.
It was clear that Thomas Faure’s stance as a Southpaw made Azeez struggle somewhat as he failed to effectively land the power shots he sought throughout the first round, but the second showed Azeez had properly adapted as he came forward much more aggressively than before. With his guard remaining solid and Azeez continuously pressuring Faure in genuine attempts to hurt him, the rest of the rounds saw Azeez take virtually every round.
Azeez dug well into the body, which benefited him in latter rounds, but Faure also seemed unwilling to lay down and made several adjustments himself where he managed to keep pushing Azeez back at times. The Frenchman proved to be very competitive as he held out for as long as possible and showed fight even when it seemed like he was losing. He was most effective with his jabs and combinations which sometimes even put the Brit onto the ropes.
In the last and twelfth round, Azeez seemed ahead based on workrate and an overall better showcase of his abilities. The accumulation of punches that Faure had suffered made him more suspectible as the fight went on, and the last round saw him gruesomely stunned by a right from Azeez barely a minute into the fight that knocked his head back. Though he was still on his feet, the blow had seemingly knocked him out and his feet, and while he did trudge forward on very wobbly legs, the referee stepped in after analyzing the Frenchman could not continue in his state.
As a result, it was Dan Azeez who took the win by technical knockout and earned the EBU European championship belt from Thomas Faure. Having fought as a Light-Heavyweight since making his pro debut in December of 2017, Azeez now seems to be taking the next step of his career where he is arguably considered a legitimate – or at least plausible – contender for the division’s reigning champions, Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KO’s) and Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KO’s).
