By:  | April 11, 2023 8:52 am

Halil Amir is clearly a prospect to keep a close eye on. The Turkish lightweight has won eight fights out of eight with all of those victories coming inside the distance.

At ONE Fight Night 2 he faced the biggest test of his career and Amir passed it with flying colours. He knocked out Timofey Nastyukhin in the second round, picking up a $50,000 USD bonus in the process.

While Amir is becoming known for his aggression he thinks his greatest asset is intelligence,

“Whoever examines my game understands that I fight with my head. That is, I think. I don’t attack directly. Of course, sometimes you do, but I fight more with thought. I don’t mean to say I’m the highest-IQ fighter in the world, but I think my IQ is high.”

 

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Intelligent fighter

According to Amir the key to finishing opponents is not going all out from the opening bell, which could leave a fighter open to counters. Instead he prefers to work opponents out and pick his moments to attack,

“I’m a very intelligent fighter who picks up the pace as fights go on and wears down his opponents. I am well-rounded but I’m a striker at heart. My knees and kicks are my most dangerous weapons. I always come for a finish, so far getting it in all of my fights – mostly by way of knockout.”

At ONE Fight Night 9 he faces Maurice Abevi. The Swiss fighter is undefeated but Amir doesn’t sound too impressed by what he has seen,

“I don’t see anything too big as a danger. He looks like a standard fighter.”


Fast pace

While Amir might be willing to bide his time and wait for the perfect moment to finish the fight it doesn’t sound like he is planning on taking a patient approach. The 28 year old plans to start the fight on the front foot and see how Abevi copes,

“Pressure, I’m going to apply pressure from the first second and see if he will hold up to my pace.”

He expects to finish the fight just as he has finished his previous eight. But Amir won’t rush and believes that if he sticks to his normal process it will be a matter of when, not if, he puts Abevi away,

“I don’t want to leave it to the judges, as usual. I don’t go directly to the knockout, the knockout itself comes.”