FEW sports offer salvation to the troubled like boxing, and in a sport that values its storied characters, none have a tale that comes close to the remarkable life of Ajmal Faizy.

Tonight, the 22-year-old fights for a world youth title in London. Eight years ago he was a terrified 14-year-old in Afghanistan, tortured by the Taliban, mourning his dad who had been murdered by the same men who wanted the land Faizy’s family had lived on for centuries.

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As the eldest son that farming land in the province of Parvan went into Ajmal’s hands, and those who wanted it off him were prepared to do anything to get their way.

Had Ajmal, who has been known as AJ since his arrival on these shores, stayed in Afghanistan his future was bleak.

So his mum took the heartbreaking decision to send him away. Now he is safe, but he hasn’t seen his mum, or his little brother and sister, since he flew out of the only country he knew, leaving childhood behind for a new life.

Faizy has no complaints over his time as a child growing up in Afghanistan, and describes a ‘close’ and ‘good’ family unit.

But then his world was turned upside down.

“It was all because of land, I lost my dad because of that and the land came into my name,” he said.

AJ’s dad Abdul Salem refused to hand over the family’s land and paid the ultimate price.

“It was very valuable land in a good place,” Faizy added.

“They could use it for anything, they could use it for building houses or farming, we used it for farming, for growing grapes.

“It’s a lot of land, it’s valuable and that’s why they wanted it.

“We had lots of physical violence and threats. We were getting death threats. It was hard.”

Faizy himself was beaten and tortured by the thugs, suffering what his current trainer in East Lancashire, Barry Higginson, describes as ‘massive injuries’.

Something had to change.

“My mum decided I needed to go somewhere where nobody would harm me,” said Faizy.

“After what happened to my father she had to make sure I was somewhere where they couldn’t reach me.”

Faizy was put on a plane to Dubai and then a connection to Manchester, travelling with an intermediary who left as soon he landed in a cold, grey country, that couldn’t have been further removed from the land he left behind.

“I didn’t have any idea where I was going,” he said. “I was taken to the airport and I didn’t have a clue where I was going.

“Even when I landed I didn’t know where I was until someone came and told me, an inteprator because I couldn’t speak English.

“It was for the best but it was scary and nerve-wracking at the time.”

From Manchester Airport Faizy was sent to a foster family in Lower Darwen.

He had done some wrestling as a teenager in Afghanistan, and used to carry grown men up a hill on his back to earn extra money, but on arriving in Britain he decided he wanted to try his hand at boxing.

He walked the streets of Lower Darwen for nearly three hours before finally stumbling on Higginson’s gym, just as the trainer was closing up for the night. Faizy simply pointed at the empty ring in the dark, forbidding gym, and uttered ‘box’ at Higginson.

“It was probably from childhood but I never found it at home,” Faizy said of his boxing dreams.

“When I entered the gym I found something there, I kept focused and motivated and put all the hard work in in the gym.

“With all the time and effort I just wanted to do well at something, I wanted my hard work to pay off.”

After arriving in the UK Faizy attended Rhyddings High School, in Oswaldtwistle, achieving 12 GCSEs and spending an extra hour at school every day to grasp the language.

He went to college and secured qualifications in IT and plumbing, but just as his new life looked to be going smoothly, his 18th birthday brought more misery.

“When you turn 18 the funding for fostering stops, then you have to go through benefit and housing and stuff like that,” he said. “I wasn’t sharp, I didn’t know how to apply for stuff like that.

“So after I turned 18 the families’ funding stopped, we were having problems with payments so they kicked off with me and told me to leave and they chucked my clothes outside the door.”

Higginson takes up the story: “He was 18 on the Saturday and he rung me up on Saturday night. They were chucking his clothes out of the window, there was clothes hanging on trees.

“I said ‘AJ, get in the car, and we will go back to pick up your clothes tomorrow’.

“I wasn’t leaving him on the street, so we got in the car, and that was it, we took him in and can’t get rid now.

“I’ve got a son and daughter and grandkids.

“He’s just another son, he’s treated as a brother, the kids treat him as an uncle. He’s just one of us.”

This is no normal trainer-boxer relationship.

Tonight the two men will stand side by side in the iconic York Hall as Faizy aims to win the WBC Youth Intercontinental Super Lightweight belt, for himself and for his family.

And those he left behind in Afghanistan won’t be far from his thoughts, especially as he has been unable to speak to mum, brother or sister for over a year.

“The phone number that I used to get in touch with them isn’t working,” he said.

“One day I rang them and the phone was off, they don’t have access to computers or the internet and stuff so there is no other way to get in touch apart from mobile phones.

“The phone is out of reach now so I can’t get in touch with them. It’s a waiting game. I think about them all the time. Anyone who has family thinks about them a lot, but it’s different when you’re away from them and you can’t get in touch with them. It’s hard.”

As Higginson says it is apt AJ is called Faizy, as nothing fazes him.

His challenges are still ongoing. He is yet to secure a British passport from the Home Office, so he can’t leave the country, for professional or personal reasons.

He also hopes to go to university next year to study sports science and set himself up for a career when his time in the ring comes to an end.

But before that he wants to get his hands on a world title, and not just as youth level.

“I’m motivated to win a world title, not just because of my family issues,” explains Faizy.

“But to have a better life will help sort everything that has happened to me, because I can make a better life for my family as well.”