Amin Asikainen (born 21 January 1976) is a Finnish former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who competed from 2001 to 2011, and in 2016. He held the European and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

middleweight titles between 2006 and 2007, and the Finnish middleweight title in 2003. His nickname of "Idi" refers to the similarity of his first name to that of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

Early life

Amin was born in 1976 to a Moroccan father and a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

mother. At the age of six, he started playing football and training karate and taekwondo when he was around age of nine, but abandoned the sports in favor of

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

when he was twelve. A childhood friend of his, Joni Turunen, also became a successful amateur boxer.

Amateur boxing

Asikainen has fought a total of 175 amateur matches, winning 135 of them. He was the Finnish champion in 1996, 1998 and 1999, and also won in Tammer-, GeeBee-, Copenhagen Box Open- and Karl Leman tournaments.

Professional career

Asikainen won his first

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

title in 2003, beating Kai Kauramaki to win the Finnish middleweight title. Asikainen later won the EBU- EU middleweight championship on 5 May 2006 after beating the

Frenchman The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially th ...

Christophe Tendil by a knockout in the fifth round. After beating Sebastian Sylvester, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, on 3 June 2006, Asikainen became the EBU Middleweight Champion. Asikainen defended the title twice, first against Alexander Sipos on 6 October 2006, and then against Lorenzo Di Giacomo on 30 January 2007. Sylvester regained the European middleweight title with TKO-victory in June 2007 in

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...

, Germany. In March 2007, Asikainen had been contracted to fight a rematch against Germany's

Sebastian Sylvester Sebastian Sylvester (born 9 July 1980) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2011 and held the International Boxing Federation, IBF middleweight title from 2009 to 2011. Professional career In March 2007 Sylvester ret ...

for the European title, however, Asikainen pulled out due to injury and Sylvester faced Italian

Alessio Furlan Alessio Furlan (born 16 October 1976) is an Italian professional boxer. He is a former IBF Mediterranean and Italian junior-middleweight champion.. Retrieved 27 January 2016. Debut and Kaddour fight Furlan boxed to national level as an amateur ...

instead. The rematch between Asikainen and Sylvester took place in June 2007. Sylvester knocked Asikainen down twice in the eleventh round before the fight was stopped by the refere

https://web.archive.org/web/20070717204006/http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=11424&more=1] In 2011 in Helsinki Amin Asikainen lost to Piotr Wilczewski by TKO in the eleventh round, retiring from the sport soon after. On 22 April 2016, 40 years old Asikainen returned to the ring for a single match beating Ivan Jukic with points.

Professional boxing record

Other

Asikainen is featured in the 2009 sports game '' Fight Night Round 4''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Asikainen, Amin 1976 births Living people People from Kirkkonummi Finnish people of Moroccan descent Finnish male boxers European Boxing Union champions Middleweight boxers Super-middleweight boxers Sportspeople from Uusimaa