Hira gunning for fourth world title

Sunny Hira is looking to become the equal of his mentor when the Handsworth kickboxer guns for his fourth world title in Germany on Saturday night.

Hira is trained by Kash 'The Flash' Gill, also from Handsworth, a former four-time world champion who shot to fame in the 1990's before retiring in 2002.

Today the 100-fight pro leads his protege into battle, and will be on hand in Ingolstadt for the massive ask against home fighter Johannes Wolff.

The two will do battle for the ISKA featherweight crown, with Hira having already won the organisation's belt at super bantamweight.

'The Hitman' has also lifted the UKSA and WKA titles at feather, but has been out of action for over a year since taking John Dick, the number one ranked Muay Thai fighter in Britain, to a draw in March 2009.

But the opportunity to follow in his trainer's illustrious footsteps was too much of a pull for the 27-year-old part-time security guard.

Hira said: "It's an uphill task, but nothing I haven't had to do before. I had enough fights now for my experience to count for a lot, and this is an opportunity that I couldn't turn down.

"The pressure is on from all angles and not least from my trainer, because for me to win four world titles would be to equal what he has done. We have had a bit of banter about it in the past, but now the chance has come there isn't much of it now!

"It has been many years of hard work for me and it's all paying off now."

Hira is just as popular outside of the sport as in it, having been voted British Asian 'Up and Coming Sports Personality' of 2008 and one of the most eligible Asian batchelors of 2009 by Asiana magazine.

But the nine-year pro, posting a 23-3-1 record in the sport, takes all of the attention with a pinch of salt.

He said: "It was good recognition to get the sports personality award, to have my achievements recognised like that was a nice bonus. The bachelor thing was just novelty, a bit of a laugh really.

"I guess I should take it as a compliment, as I have given a lot of beatings rather than took them and tried not to get hit."