\n<\/p>\n
Aziz Abdul never met his grandfather. He was a military dictator and died in exile when little Aziz was a toddler. His name was Idi Amin.<\/b><\/p>\n
Globally, he had another name. The Butcher of Uganda. <\/p>\n
Amin took charge of his homeland in a coup in 1971 – becoming the country’s third president – and ran a brutal regime for eight years. It’s estimated half a million people were killed and the country’s entire Asian population were expelled.<\/p>\n
He married six times and fathered around 60 children. Or, rather, that’s how many he acknowledged. Somewhere among all that, belongs Abdul. <\/p>\n
This week, the 25-year-old is one of around 3,000 athletes in Glasgow. Just another face in a tracksuit, here for the Commonwealth Games. But not many others have the lineage that the super-heavyweight boxer does.<\/p>\n
Abdul fights England’s Damar Thomas in the quarter-finals of the 90+kg category on Wednesday, knowing victory will guarantee at least bronze and make him Uganda’s first Commonwealth boxing medallist since Auckland in 1990.<\/p>\n
That it could come in Glasgow is particularly pertinent. <\/p>\n
The despotic Amin harboured a fascination with Scotland after serving in the King’s African Rifles in his 20s. At the height of regime, he was fond of wearing a kilt and playing the bagpipes – and even declared himself “King of Scotland” in 1976. <\/p>\n
Some years later, those predilections even spawned an Oscar-winning film, The Last King Of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy.<\/p>\n
So what would it mean to Abdul – who goes by the nickname Ringo – to win gold in Glasgow? <\/p>\n
“In everything we do, God knows tomorrow,” he told BBC Sport Scotland. “It’s God’s plan. I might be the new King of Scotland. It’s possible.<\/p>\n
“When I arrived, I put up the flag, ’cause I like Scotland so much.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n