Chantilly High grad and artist continues his passion for boxing at age 35

There are things you should know about Zain Shah's hands.

In a studio, they can snap an artsy photograph and create classy graphic designs. In a boxing ring, they can rearrange your face like a cubist Picasso painting.

Fighting out of Chantilly, Shah, 35, has chased two passions throughout his life -- art and boxing. Both careers have proved fruitful for the middleweight, and both started in the classrooms of Chantilly High School.

"I was a jock in high school," he said. "I used to do the minimum amount of work in art class, but my teachers saw something in me."

Teachers urged him to pursue his art, but when the school day ended, he turned to his second talent -- fighting.

"My brother, Ali, and I got picked on a lot at Chantilly because, back in those days, we were some of the few Pakistanis in the area," he said. "We got into a lot of fights because of racism."

In response, Shah's father, Muozzam, enrolled Ali and Zain in boxing classes. Zain showed as much potential as a fighter as he did as an artist.

When students picked fights with the Shah brothers, they often found themselves on the ground unconscious, said Kevin Ford, Shah's longtime friend and current co-manager.

"They would start fights with him and Ali on the tennis courts or in people's back yards," the 1996 Chantilly alum said. "But after seeing these big football player-type guys get knocked out by two lanky kids, they never did it again."

Despite some early success with boxing, Shah focused on art. After graduating from Chantilly in 1992, he enrolled in the Savannah College of Art Design in Georgia, where he received a bachelor's degree in fine arts.

Upon graduation in 1996, he pursued a career in art direction, working for an entertainment company and advertising agency. But he kept boxing, too.

"I'd jump in, take a break, and then jump back in," he said of the sport.