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My Meadows - Jawaid Khaliq - World boxing champion

Brought up in the Meadows, Jawaid is proud of his roots.

He talks to Sara Johnston.

My name’s Jawaid Khaliq, I’m the IBO Welter Weight champion of the world and I’m a resident in the Meadows.

I’ve been boxing for 15 years and I actually started in the Meadows at Portland Leisure Centre.

Boxing is a big part of my life, I’ve been doing it half my life now and it’s like a full time job and it’s something I really love.

I’m most proud of my IBO World title Belt, nobody expected me to win, nobody gave me a chance of winning it and I proved a lot of people wrong and it just makes you feel really good and it’s something I actually dreamed of when I started boxing so it’s a very big achievement for myself.

The Meadows means a lot to me, it’s my home, it’s where I’ve more or less grown up, my friends, family, everyone’s there, so I love the Meadows.

It was really good growing up in the Meadows, I've been here since I was about 8 years old, me and my friends used to run around the streets, play around the streets, so it’s been brilliant.

The people have been really good, a lot of them are still here and you can really identify with everyone and it’s just a homely feeling.

The bad image of the Meadows is like anything - I think people look at bad more than good - they don’t look at the good things that are going on here. There has been a few bad things that have gone on in the Meadows but it’s just a few individuals and it’s like anywhere, you get a few bad, but there’s a lot of good people in the Meadows as well and it’s a really friendly place now.

The support from people in the Meadows has been brilliant - everyone’s really proud of me, they all love what I’ve achieved and they all really get behind me it’s really good - brilliant.

I think we’ve got more talent in the Meadows too, there’s a cricketer who’s playing for Notts who lives just a couple of doors away from me, it must be a lucky spot round here!

The boxing club where I actually started is still here - anyone’s welcome there and I do a little class at the local mosque for the youngsters - I try to give something back to the Meadows and the community, it's really nice.