20.07.05 – Former undefeated IBA world middleweight champion, WBA # 8, wbc # 15, and IBF # 12 Evans “The African Warrior” Ashira (24-1, 13 KOs) has been doing his own thing for a while, and came back after a one-year lay-off on April 30, when he gave previously undefeated Quentin “Happy” Smith a boxing lesson that had him hanging on for dear life to survive the ten-round beating, being “woppled” a couple of times.. Facing a tough, undefeated boxer like Smith was ideal for Ashira, as he didn’t want a soft landing for his comeback
Ashira is now looking forward to, as promised, be back on a Don King-promotion on August 13. The Kenyan contender promises to be good to go and ready at any time when he gets the opportunity.
The unfortunate night he lost to Maselino Masoe last year for the WBA title, Ashira claims that everything in his preparations was a total mess, and that he only had one and a half week with his normal trainer, and had to settle for another trainer up until then who tried to change his normal boxing-style which the he had been very successful with so far. On top of that, he only had one sparringpartner for the fight, while his planned second sparringpartner disappeared after only one session.
Ashira says that to him all the past problems are history, and that its simply just a part of the boxing game, and that he is not worried about doing whatever it takes to get a second chance at the top and prove that he is for real and can hold his own. He underlines that he is hopeful that promoter Don King will give him more work in the future, as one fight a year is not enough to keep him busy and fulfil his potential.