The stage of Liverpool Olympia was set and all the hard work had been done.
U.S.K.A golden boy Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar's night of destiny was final upon us, the night that he would set about to prove himself the best 60kg cadet full contact fighter in the country and capture the prestigious Golden belt in the process.
This had been Qasim's focus since the start of the year and was very confident after all the hard training that he had put himself through that he would be victorious and not be denied this first full contact title belt to add to his already impressive hoard of light continuous titles.
Qasim was coming into this competition with a full contact record of 5 fights, 5 wins with four of those wins coming by way of the big KO. Such an impressive record had to see him installed as the favourite and he was eager to show the crowd that those betting odds were not just on paper.
A coach load of over 60 Dream Team fans made their way to the Olympia and on arrival Qas was keen to weigh in straight away as he knew he was tight at the weight.
He need not have worried too much as he weighed in a lean, mean 58KG under the supervision of Golden Belt vice president and 5 times World Champion the legendary Master Ronnie Green.
With the weigh in out of the way it was time for Qasim to eye up the competition.
Two of his opponents Sam Dack from Norwich and 'Razor' Rajesh Salan from Birmingham's IFA had already weighed in but there was no sign of the final competitor in the division.
This however was of no concern to Qas as by this point he was only concerning himself with a king sized baguette that he had been thinking about all the way down on the two hour coach drive.
It was only later that we would discover that the final competitor in the group was not going to make it due to the him and his team breaking down on there way to the venue.
So then there was three! We were told of the situation in the rules meeting and all the coaches agreed that the fight off would be done on a round robin basis with each fighter fighting each other and the fight order being decided by a draw out of a hat at the start of the show.
With all the change in the format of the competition you would expect Qasim to be showing some signs of nerves or anxiety but instead he was as cool as a cucumber and very much ready to rumble.
Corner men Neil Kelly, Phil Richards and Sean Quinn found a nice little changing room out of the way on the top floor of the venue and the preparations started in getting their man ready for action. Hands wrapped and fighting kit on it was time to make his way to the ring with the other two fighters for the draw from the hat to find the nights fight order.
As the fighters were each announced it was clear to see and hear who had brought the most support and as Qasim was called the rapturous USKA crowd let rip with horns, whistles and air horns really raising the roof and i'm sure making the other two wonder why they had not pushed their ticket sales a little further.
Qasim was asked by the MC to pick a name out of the hat to see who would be fighting first. There was a little suspense followed by the name of the Norwich boy Sam Dack. Sam then was then asked to pick the second name to see who would his opponent would be and to the delight of the USKA team it was Rajesh who was selected. We could not have asked for a better draw and the situation meant that Qas would face the loser of that bout in his first fight and the winner of that fight in the final at the end of the night.
The Dream team were waiting in the wings watching carefully as Razor Rajesh and Sam Dack made their way to the ring to do battle in the first fight.
We had in our heads that Rajesh was going to be the man to beat and expected him to do a number on Dack and win without too much trouble. The only question was, would he go all out to try and force a stoppage or would he coast and just do enough to secure a points win?
The implications of course would be that if he stopped Sam, Qasim would not have a first fight and go on fresh legs into the final against the Razor. All was about to be revealed.

RAZOR VS DACK

First to the ring was the smaller framed Sam Dack accompanied by his Norwich Kickboxing corner team. Second up headed by newly crowned World champion Paul 'The Iceman' Collins was Birmingham IFA's 'Razor' Rajesh Salan.
The first obvious thing for the USKA crew to take note of was the fact that Dack was a southpaw as he came out fast pressing the attack.
Any thoughts that he would be overawed or intimidated facing the Birmingham man were soon forgotten about as he showed good head movement and footwork suggesting that he knew his way around the ring and that his 9 - 0 record going into the bout was a genuine one.
For the first two rounds of the fight a pattern was set with Rajesh looking the stronger of the two but Dack landing some sneaky right lead hook counters notching up the points. Rajesh looked to be stuck in second gear and the feeling was he was doing just what he felt was enough to squeeze home a points decision without over working himself.
Most techniques from both sides were dropping short of their target or slipping off the mark and it seemed more of a technical than physical battle between the two.
Round 3 saw Rajesh asserting himself more probably at the request of his corner to insure he was doing enough to suitably impress the judges into awarding him the decision.
The final bell went to end what had been a very uneventful three rounds and the fate of the two were now resting in the hands of the IKF and golden belt officials at ringside. The scores were announced....... Judge A scores the bout 29 - 30 BLUE, wow! that close? Judge B scores the bout 27 - 30 BLUE, all three rounds to Razor. And Judge C scores the bout 30 - 28 RED, two rounds to one to Dack.
The winner by majority decision 'Razor' Rajesh Salan.

We made our way back to the changing room somewhat confused by what we had just seen.
Sure Dack had made a fight of it but Rajesh looked to be in control at all times and looked to be fighting well within himself. A majority decision! What was that all about?
One thing was for sure though, Qasim's confidence was elevated up another few levels and he was even more ready to go out there and show what he could do.
He was out to make a statement to get the job done more conclusive than Rajesh to set up the final with Razor having a few doubts in his own mind.
About 30 minutes later it was time now for Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar against Sam Dack.

DREAM VS DACK

Qasim first to the ring and into the red corner to another great reception from the USKA Dream team crowd of supporters. To an in comparison very quiet ring entrance Sam Dack made his way in and over to the blue corner.
Qasim the much taller of the two towered over Sam as referee Mike Fowles read the two their final instructions.
Back to their corners to await the bell to start the first round of a scheduled three.
The round began with Dack trying to again assert the good footwork and head movement that he had done in the first fight against Rajesh.
Dack attempts long front kicks that are still dropping short highlighting the reach advantage of Qasim.
Qasim's jab is working well for him at distance and although Dack is having a little success at slipping the first straight the second straight punch is finding it's target and snapping his head back.
To slow down Dack's head movement Qasim drops in a hard straight leg round kick to his mans body which straight away made the Norwich fighter wince in pain.
Qas decides now to apply a little more pressure and instead of stepping out or leaning out the way of the kicks is stepping in intercepting them and landing his punches even more cleanly and with more power.
Qas is dictating all ranges now and mixes it up even further by landing a flush right leg snap round kick to the head.
As far as feeling out rounds go, Qas was FEELING GOOD and Dack was
FEELING sick!
Two rear straight leg round kicks land to the body of Sam as Qasim follows up with a hard straight one two punch combination to finish off.
In an attempt to switch momentum in the fight Sam Dack try's to throw a big left leg round kick only for Qasim to once again step in with a jab to intercept and takes Sam cleanly off his feet.
Although ruled a slip there is no doubt now that Sam is finding the fight hard work and he cannot work out the range or variety of technique from the USKA man.
Qas lets go with good punch combinations and for the first time in the fight brings his fearsome right uppercut into play.
Another two hard straight legs to the body hurt Dack and back him up to the ropes and the referee is watching closely with the suspicion that it is all getting just that little too much for Dack in there.
With Qasim not getting caught with anything of note for the whole round he feels the time is right to turn up the heat and put more pressure onto Dack.
After an exchange of punches Dack signals distress to the referee and claims that he has been hit on the back of his head.
The referee ignores his plea and waves the fight to continue.
Qasim by now knows his man is looking for a way out and being the nice guy that he is obliges by letting rip with a hot/cold round kick to the head followed by a hard lunging jab. As Dack rocks back Qasim follows up with a right hand, another hard jab and a rear straight leg round kick to the body that doubles up Dack in pain.
The referee jumps in to administer the count and seeing that the Norwich fighter was in no position to continue after the mandatory 8 waves the fight off in favour of the winner Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar by TKO at 1:59 seconds of the first round.

Well, that couldn't have gone much better but it was all still to fight for in the final fight of the evening scheduled for about 40 minutes time.
Questions had already started to be asked, Did Razor take it easy on Dack to make sure that Qas had to fight? Did Razor soften Dack up and make it easy for Qas to stop him? Is Razor lulling Qas into a false sense of security in an attempt to make him over confident?
All the questions were about to be answered as both fighters were given their ten minute warm up warning back stage.
Razor was first into the ring and in fairness to him and his team he looked every bit as confident as Qasim.
The familiar ring entrance music of 'THE CHAMP IS HERE' sounded out and a pumped up Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar made his way to the ring acknowledging his loyal following of supporters and soaking up the atmosphere on the raised stage in front of the ring.
With both fighters now in the ring and the formality of the ring introductions dispensed with by golden belt referee and 5 times world champion Ronnie Green it was now time for the main event 60kg full contact final to be fought over 4 X 2 minute rounds.
Stair downs done, gloves touched up, ding ding.........round 1!

RAZOR Vs DREAM

Both fighters straight away assert themselves stepping forward in an attempt to claim centre ring.
Razor is cleverly stepping back away from Qasim's kicking attack and negating his reach advantage well.
Qasim knows he needs to be smarter in setting up his attack and not to be so crude forecasting his technique.
Razor is jumping in with his punch attack and although not landing cleanly or with power is upsetting the rhythm of Qasim's own attack.
Qasim brings his straight leg round kick into the mix and catches Rajesh as he is jumping in. This is the first really clean technique landed by either man and Rajesh steps back in an acknowledgement of it's power.
Qasim is working in combinations now setting up his scoring technique well behind solid combinations and range finders.
A beautiful right uppercut lands flush up the middle onto Rajesh's chin and in an attempt to get off the firing line tries to side step around to his right.
Rajesh as he is doing this turns over on his foot and twists his ankle.
The time is stopped to see how bad the injury is and for the referee to assess if it will be possible for 'Razor' Rajesh to continue.
Rajesh is visibly in alot of pain and cannot put any weight on his leg so the fight is called to an end with a little confusion to what the result will be.
After the golden belt officials deliberate to what the result will be given the feeling in the USKA corner is not a good one.
The MC make the announcement that due to one fighter being injured and the fact that the fight had not gone one full round the decision would be ruled a No Contest at 1:18 seconds of the 1st round.
It was also announced that a rematch would be set between the two to decide the golden belt title as soon as Rajesh Salan had recovered from his injury.

Disappointing doesn't even come close! Qasim through no fault of his own and in a cruel twist of fate and ankles had been denied the right to be crowned golden belt champion.
Concerns for Razor's ankle saw Qasim and USKA cornermen check on him in the changing room afterwards to make sure he was ok and thankfully he was in good spirits and optimistic of a speedy recovery.

So the Golden belt challenge was over, well, at least for the minute.
We are hoping that the rematch can be set sooner rather than later and with any luck it will feature on a show in the Midlands given that it's combatants both come from Birmingham.
This fight was cut short just as it was heating up but i'm sure that it will just add to the stock of the return match that will sell out whatever show it features on.
Well done to Qasim on doing everything within your power to come home with the spoils of victory. The Dream is not over!

I will leave the final words to the man himself Qasim 'The Dream' Nisar in his speech to his USKA supporters on the way back to Birmingham on the coach.
Anyone who was there will testify like i that his performance on the coach was every bit as entertaining as his one in the ring.

'Everyone who's sleeping......Wake up! Thank you to everyone who supported me. It was a good crowd. You were a bit flat at times (cheeky grin and tongue in cheek),
Thanks to Neil, Sean, Phil for the cornering.
Thanks to Mum and Dad for everything.
Thanks to all my sparring partners and everyone else at the gym.
Thanks for Shaf for his air horn.........
(at this point Qas proceeded to thank everybody who he has ever met in his whole life and gave everyone a chance to get some well deserved sleep. If his career as a kickboxer ever falls through this kid has surely got a career in stand up comedy)

BIG UP QASIM THE DREAM!