WBO European super-flyweight champion Kaisy Khademi has joined Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren and will now fight under the Queensberry Promotions banner.
Khademi (8-0, 2 KOs) is now part of a promotional set-up that includes brothers Charlie and Sunny Edwards operating around 115lbs, giving him established names to target when the time is right.
“The likes of Sunny and Charlie Edwards have been fighting on the bigger stage, which I haven’t, so I would like to have three or four fights before taking them on,” Khademi, 25, told Queensberry Promotions’ Lockdown Lowdown series.
“I have no experience of fighting on the bigger platform, but in my own time I will be ready to fight them and pushing yourself is what boxing is all about. I would definitely love to fight them though.”
Khademi fled his native Kabul, Afghanistan, in the midst of military conflict aged just four and, along with family members, embarked on a four-year journey to reach their ultimate destination of the United Kingdom.
The East Ham-based Khademi launched his professional boxing journey in October 2017 and set about learning his trade on the small hall circuit, culminating in a points victory over Pedro Matos for the WBO European crown in December 2019.
“I was very surprised when they sent the contract and it was a great offer as well, so I was very happy with it,” said Khademi in reaction to the news of his promotional pact with Warren.
“I am very excited because it will be my first chance to box on a bigger platform, so I cannot wait. My career started a little slowly because it was very hard to get fights, especially with being a super-flyweight.
“A lot of fights were getting cancelled and I stalled a bit, but hopefully, now I am with a bigger stable, things will be a lot more organised.
“Winning the WBO title was the moment of my whole boxing career so far and it was a title I would never have thought I would have got to. We won it and now I want to push on.
“When we left, the war was crazy so we became refugees I think in 1998 and headed to Pakistan,” he continued. “We were there for two years and things didn’t go well, while my older brother was already in the UK and wanted us to come here to the land of opportunity.
“My parents wanted a better future for their children so we decided to make our way here and it took almost two years on foot with a group of eight of us.
“I was very young and left my country at the age of four. The two years in Pakistan came to end when people started knocking at our door and pulling out a gun on my dad and things like that. Our lives were under threat so we needed to go somewhere safe.
“I remember leaving Pakistan and the two years after that was like an adventure for me at that age. I was a kid so people were giving me a piggy back when we had to go into the jungle to avoid capture by the police, who would have just sent us back to the previous country we had passed.
“So looking back it was a bit like an adventure, like a game of hide and seek where you didn’t want to get caught. The first country we got to that was more relaxed was Germany, but my dad said this was not our destination and our destiny was the UK.
“Once we got here in 2002, it was like heaven, so calm and relaxed, it was the best feeling.”