Issue 048
April 2009
He’s the number one lightweight in the UK, but after a five-year reign of terror in the UK, Abdul Mohamed is at a crossroads in his career.
The stocky wrestler, born and raised in the war-torn Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, spent his formative years fighting the Taliban. A resistance fighter committed to repelling the oppressive fundamentalist government, Mohamed turned his back on war and came to England in 2000.
“It’s hard to leave your own country and go somewhere else, to get used to the culture and the people,” the softly spoken fighter said. “It was hard, I couldn’t speak any English. Now it’s my home. I’ve got a family, I’ve got a business. I’ve got a little boy, three years old. This is my home now.”
Abdul is a quiet man. Not one to waste words, he speaks only when he has something to say. Though his stony demeanour can unnerve people (especially his opponents), he has a dry sense of humour that catches people off guard.
Well known on the UK scene, Abdul cut his teeth fighting in small promotions before graduating to the more prestigious domestic shows such as Cage Warriors and the now-defunct Cage Rage. Taking no prisoners with his ‘pick-‘em-up, slam-‘em-down, beat-‘em-up’ style, he proved he was no mere grappler. “I’m not just a wrestler, I’ve submitted people, I’ve knocked people out,” he said.
He’s fought every lightweight fighter in the UK of any note, but having cleared out the division he now finds himself at a loss of where to go next.
“I would like to go in the UFC and fight, you know? I’m ranked number one in the UK. My managers told me you have to win two fights, and you’ll go in the UFC,” he said.
Abdul feels that though he won his last fight against the tough Ross Pearson, it was a questionable hometown draw on his record that is holding him back. “I got robbed against Andre Winner; I clearly won the fight but they put a draw,” he said, referring to the three-round fight that took place in Winner’s hometown of Nottingham.
With a record of 16-6-3, Mohamed has fought some of the world’s top talent, facing off with (and beating) fighters from Europe and Brazil. He fought for the Cage Rage world lightweight title in front of 5,000 people in London, and is no stranger to big fights.
His next fight is against the tough German submission specialist Daniel Weichel, who handed Abdul a loss in 2004. They’ll meet again in April in Hull, but this doesn’t bother him in the slightest . “It’s just another fight. No excitement,” he said. “I’d like to go fight in bigger shows, in the UFC or any big shows. But this is better than nothing. I’m not doing anything so I thought I’d take the fight.”
Much of his confidence comes from the fact he is a team member and trains at the famous Wolfslair Academy. “I love it there, it’s a good training camp,” he says of the Wolfslair. “We’re all friendly, help each other. It’s good to train at Wolfslair. It’s hard training.”
One of the things Mohamed particularly likes about the Wolfslair is the quality of the training partners. With top names from the USA coming over on a regular basis, he gets to train with some of the best fighters in the world, including the likes of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Michael Bisping, and more. “Rampage is a funny guy, he calls me mini-Randy Couture,” Abdul said with a smile. Rampage has even given his support to the Afghan warrior. “He says, ‘You train hard, you should be there’ [the UFC]. I’m good enough to go there.”
Some fighters despise the hard training that comes before a fight, but not Abdul. A fitness enthusiast, he loves physical training, as evidenced by his chiselled physique. “My wife says, ‘When you’re 60 or 70, what are you going to do?’ I say, ‘I’ll still be training!’ he laughed.
“To be honest, since I was a kid I loved training. I loved it all the time.
Even back home when I was a soldier, fighting the Taliban. Even on the front line I would do some press-ups, some training. I never stopped. When I came over here, I was only here four days and straight away I was looking for somewhere to train wrestling. It’s my hobby, I never stopped training.”
It was through a wrestling club in Middlesbrough that Abdul was given his first taste of MMA. Meeting up with two brothers who also participated in submission grappling, they introduced him to the sport. Upon discovering how well wrestlers had fared in the cage, Mohamed, a former national champion as a teenager in Afghanistan, was keen to try it out.
“I started wrestling at 14. It was late, usually they start wrestling at ten in Afghanistan. I wrestled for four or five years, I was national champion,” he said. “I went to a Thai-boxing show and there was one MMA fight on it. I thought, ‘I can do better than that’.”
“The wrestling in England is a lot better now. I’m glad now everyone loves to do wrestling and learn wrestling. I like to teach it, that’s how I started my gym, it was to train myself and help people. Everybody comes down – kickboxers and boxers come and train here.”
It was this exposure to local Thai-boxing talent that gave Abdul one of his most formidable weapons: his spinning backfist. “Yeah, it’s my favourite technique!” he laughed. “When I get in the cage, all my opponents, their hand is here now,” he grins, demonstrating how his opponents clamp their right hand to their cheek in anticipation of the blow that knocked out Ross Pointon.
Abdul believes it may not be his fighting skills that hold him back, but maybe his personality, or even his nationality. He attended the trials for The Ultimate Fighter 9 in London, making it through to the final couple of dozen candidates, but no phone call came. “Maybe it’s because I’m not English and I’m from Afghanistan,” he said with a shrug.
The rejection hasn’t disheartened him through. He’ll continue to stay busy in the UK, picking up fights where he can, but his goal will always remain the same. “I’d love to be the first Afghan fighter in the UFC. Fingers crossed.”
MMA'S GREATEST SUPLEXES
Known for his suplexes and slams, Abdul isn’t the only fighter to use his wrestling background to toss around his opponents. Here are five famous suplexes from the world of MMA.
Dan Severn vs Anthony Macias
It was 1994, and the still-emerging UFC was hosting its fourth event. Until now, the only grappling evident was that of Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Royce Gracie. That was until Dan Severn turned up. A solid 6’2” of muscle, the 260lb Severn was a real wrestler, the first the UFC had seen. Facing off with Anthony ‘Mad Dog’ Macias, Severn used his wrestling skills to hoist his foe up and over in a picture-perfect ‘suplay’, which would later become known as a suplex.
Jon Jones vs Stephan Bonnar
Anyone who saw UFC94 will have seen the perfect belly-to-back suplex that Jones, a Greco-Roman wrestling stand out, landed on Bonnar. Expect more of the same from Jones in the future.
Kevin Randleman vs Fedor Emelianenko
Simply the greatest suplex to have ever happened in combat sports, the ferocious Randleman pile-drove Fedor’s head into the floor of the Pride ring. The Russian barely winced, reversed position and tapped Randleman out seconds later.
Josh Barnett vs Yuki Kondo
Submission wrestler Josh Barnett enjoyed a sizeable weight advantage over Yuki Kondo in this open-weight King of Pancrase title fight, and he used it to good effect, executing a rolling German-suplex, slamming Kondo into the canvas not once, but twice. Barnett went on to win by choke.
Charlie Valencia vs Ian McCall
Bantamweights Charlie Valencia and Ian McCall had a ferocious toe-to-toe battle, capped with one of the most entertaining finishes the WEC has ever seen. Valencia stunned McCall with a right hand to the temple and followed it up with a belly-to-back suplex that sent McCall somersaulting back through the air and onto his head. Valencia submitted a dazed McCall moments later.
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