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Heavyweight Amir “Hardcore” Mansour will appear at Bally’s Event Center in Atlantic City, N.J., on Saturday, Oct. 30.
Mansour emerged victorious on Aug. 27 at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino when he felled Sam Brown in round two with a right hook, sending Brown crashing to the mat where he lay motionless for several minutes. Mansour will return to Dover Downs Hotel & Casino for Friday Night Fights on Dec. 3.
The swift triumph was noteworthy considering Mansour’s lengthy absence from the ring. “There were some jitters,” said Amir Mansour, who was released from prison at 6 a.m. on the day the fight after serving a nine year sentence on a drug conviction. “Maybe two days prior, I must’ve asked myself ten times ‘Did I bite off more than I can chew?’.”
Howard Mosely, Mansour’s trainer and long-time friend, believed in the fighter all the way. “Power. We know he’s got power,” said Mosely. “But boxing is like tap dancing: when you have been away for a long time, you’ve got to get the kinks out of your performance. But the speed is there. The intensity is there so he does not miss a beat. This time he is focused and doing things right, you know?”
“I just needed to settle down a little, utilize my skills more instead of just my power,” said Mansour, who maintained his incredible physical conditioning during incarceration. In those nine years, he never lost sight of his ultimate goal of claiming the world heavyweight championship title.
“I have a knockout punch that America has been missing in the heavyweight division. I am watching these guys in the Top 10 now. None of those guys have a chance of beating me. I’m convinced.”
Despite Mansour’s confidence, he recognizes it is not enough to just believe in himself. “No matter how long it takes and how many I knock out, we still are at the mercy of organizational ranking. I am going to ride this thing until the wheels fall off. Once one of these organizations ranks me, the champ’s got to come see me then.”
With a pristine record of 10-0, Mansour expects to be within championship range in 18 to 24 months. “I do not know of any other heavyweight out there hitting like I’m hitting. As much as I say it, people will start to see it. My opponents are sent into oblivion. This is what you will continue to see.”
