Flyweight is one of the most stacked divisions in the UFC. It has fighters like Brandon Moreno, Kai Kara France, Brandon Royval, and of course Deiveson Figueiredo. However, the division is constantly evolving, and one of the new fighters in the division is Amir Albazi. Although he is a great fighter, Amir had an inspiring journey to the top.
From escaping countries overnight to moving around frequently, Albazi has lived quite an interesting life. UFC has fighters from all over the world. But, Amir Albazi is the only Iraqi fighter in the promotion. He was born on October 27th, 1993 in Iraq’s capital city Baghdad. But, he did not stay in the country for long and moved to Syria instead.
After his submission win over Iuri Bejenari at Bellator 200, Amir Albazi spoke on his life journey and revealed why fights with such a passion in the cage. Till the age of 8, Amir did not have a settled place to live as his family had to go through different countries before settling in Sweden eventually.
“I was born in Iraq, Baghdad during the war and everything. And, we had to flee the country. I just woke up one night, we just packed our bags and left to Syria, where I was for one and a half year, moving again to Kurdistan. From there, as a young kid, I didn’t have any idea, we moved to Sweden. at the age of 8.”
“So I grew up there and everyone who moved to a new country know the struggles. Don’t know the language, no friends, nothing. So I got into a lot of trouble because I couldn’t speak, people made fun of me and I didn’t like to back down. So I found MMA, I started doing that and after 5-6 years I wanted, I felt that a lot of people wanted to see me succeed. So I decided to move to London.”
Amir Albazi had humble beginnings and life has taught him a lot of lessons. Hence, Amir is a devoted Muslim and he is very open about his religious beliefs. Amir often posts religious messages on his social media posts. However, there is no credible information on his parents or family. However, it is reported that Amir has a brother named Ali Albazi, who is an aspiring MMA fighter.
Amir holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Sports and Exercise Science from the University of Roehampton. Albazi has also an A.S. (Associate of Science) degree in Sports Science.
When did Amir Albazi make his UFC debut?
Moving from one country to another and getting into trouble for not adjusting to the culture is a common theme among fighters. But, like many before him, Amir Albazi also managed to focus his attention on fighting and managed to build up a very good career for himself. In an interview with MMA Junkie, Amir revealed that he found UFC in his teens and he related to it deeply.
He added, “I think when I was 13, 14, I just saw MMA on Eurosport without even understanding what it was, but I loved it from the moment I saw it. It was just pure, raw violence in form of a sport and something was attractive to me.”
Amir started his MMA career in 2009 and had an unbeaten streak of 11 fights till 2018. Going unbeaten for 9 years in MMA is an incredible feat and he had 10 stoppages in that period. However, his first loss came against Jose Torres in Brave CF. However, Amir bounced back in the following fight with a submission win over Ryan Curtis. With that win, Amir had a chance to break into the UFC.
He fought Malcolm Goron on July 18th, 2022. Since then Amir has only fought two more times in the UFC. “The Prince” beat Zhalgas Zhumagulov via decision at UFC 257 and submitted Francisco Figueiredo at UFC 278.
After beating Francisco, Amir jumped up to the 8th position in the UFC flyweight rankings. He has an MMA record of 15-1. Albazi fights out of Xtreme Couture and is set to take on Alessandro Costa at UFC Vegas 66 next.
