Amin Asikainen

"Idi" Amin Asikainen (b. 21 January 1976 in Kirkkonummi) is a Finnish boxer. He was European Boxing Union (EBU) Middleweight Champion between in 2006–2007.

His nickname comes from the similarity with Idi Amin.

Early life

Amin was born in 1976 to a Moroccan father and a Finnish mother. At the age of six, he started playing football, but abandoned the sport in favor of boxing 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. Asikainen has won in Tammer-, GeeBee-, Copenhagen Box Open- and Karl Leman tournaments too.

Professional career

Asikainen won the EU middleweight championship on 5 May 2006 after beating the Frenchman Christophe Tendil by a knockout in the fifth round. After beating Sebastian Sylvester, a German, 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, Germany.

In March 2007, Asikainen had been contracted to fight a rematch against Germany's Sebastian Sylvester for the European title, however, Asikainen pulled out due to injury and Sylvester faced Italian Alessio Furlan instead.

In June 2007, the rematch did take place and Sylvester knocked Asikainen to the floor twice in the eleventh round before the fight was stopped by the referee.

Other

Asikainen was selected to hit boxing-game Fight Night Round 4.