Amateur boxer from Slough wins championship titles aged 16

An amateur boxer from Slough has become a Home Counties Champion and National Developments Champion at the age of 16.

Muhammad Yusuf Mehmood took part in this year’s England Boxing Development Championships and it through the rounds to claim victory as the National Developments Champion in the under 52kg category.

He first started boxing during lockdown in 2020 as a way of keeping fit.

The teenager soon grew fond of it and later joined Slough Amateur Boxing Club (ABC).

Muhammad said he got involved in taking part in the championships through his coaches Chris Donovan, Roger Gonzales, and Henry Williams.

He has also been supported on his journey by his strength and conditioning coach Khalid Khalid.

“They saw I had the potential,” Muhammad said.

Home Counties is the first round of the contest, and winners will then continue through the championship.

Boxers then take on the Southern champion, followed by the London champion before moving into the semi-finals and the final, which took place in Kettering on Sunday, October 19.

Muhammad said he previously took part in the championships last year but lost in the first Home Counties round.

He added: “I was a bit inexperienced.

“Then I went back and trained the whole year and then we won it this time.

“I feel quite proud as now [I’m] ranked number one in England.”

Muhammad said he won all the rounds unanimously, apart from the semi-final round, ‘which was probably the toughest fight for me’.

“I previously boxed the semi-final opponent in the [Midlands] Box Cup, which I won in 2025, in the summer’,” he said.

Muhammad also won the cup in 2024.

Sharing his future plans, he added: “I want to go into the National Championships again and hopefully become a European champion as well.”

He said that this club is also proud of his achievements.

“They haven’t had a National Champion in over, I think it’s 16 years,” Muhammad added.

Moving forward, he would like to make boxing his full-time career.

His mum Nazma Ahmed said: “We are super proud of him because he’s been working very hard.

“With the boxing, it's not just about the training, it’s about keeping on weight as well because there [are] weight classes.

“So, he’s done extremely well with his diet and stuff like that.

“Last year, he was inexperienced and it was the weight issue that was getting him down.

“But this year, he’s focused and he’s stayed pretty disciplined with the food and everything like that, and that’s what got him this win.”

She added: “Going forward, he wants to go for the next weight class, which is the 54kg.

“He wants to go for the next National Championship in that weight category.

“He’s doing amazingly well.”