Four Muay Thai fighters from the host nation UAE reached finals on the penultimate day of the IFMA Asian Championship in Abu Dhabi while three more had to settle for bronze on Friday.
Ilyass Habibali, Mohammed Mardi, Nouredine Samir and Amine El Moatassime won their semi-finals and now have their focus firmly placed on winning gold medals on Saturday.
“We have another day in office and that’s going to be the most important day for all four of us,” Habibali said after his semi-final victory over Kazakh Alexandr Tsarikov in the 81-kilogram division.
“It doesn’t get easy when you progress through the competition. I had another tough opponent to overcome but, Alhamdulillah, I’m glad to come through it once again.”
Habibali won the first two rounds (10-9, 10-9) to take a points decision 29-28.
“There was no need for me to take any risks when I knew I had the match in the bag,” the UAE gold medallist at the 2018 World Championship in Mexico said.
“I have to stay healthy for another fight and my corner advised me to take it easy in the third round. That was a smart thing to do without being involved in a fisticuff.”
Zakaria Eljamari was the first up of the UAE's seven semi-finalists but lost to Almaz Sarsembekov of Kazakhstan in the 57kg weight on points.
Mohammed Mardi, 18, was next up, scoring a unanimous points decision over Hyong The Nguyen of Vietnam in the 67kg class.
“I’m over the moon after reaching the final,” he said. “Needless to say how tough the fights are but the good thing is that I’m in the final and that’s incredible.
“It’s my first competition at this level and I feel what I have done is already an accomplishment. Of course my job is not yet completed. I have one more fight and I’ll go all out to win that.”
Nouredine Samir was the second UAE fighter to reach a final. He was awarded the win after Norapat Khundam of Thailand was forced to retire on the advice of the ringside doctor.
Amine El Moatassime became the third when he edged out another Thai opponent, Man Kongsib, in the 71kg sei-finals, before Habibali completed the quartet of UAE finalists.
Eljamari, Ibrahim Bilal (60kg) and Ahmad Bahman (86kg) had to settle for bronze as all seven Emirati fighters reached the medal rounds.
Tarek Al Muhairi, general secretary of the UAE Muay Thai and Kickboxing Federation and the event director, said the results were a remarkable achievement.
“We won a gold, silver and bronze when we made our debut in the Worlds two years ago and since then we have done a lot of work to keep progressing,” he said.
“It’s not only the results we achieved in the ring but to host the continental championship in just two years since the federation was founded is another milestone.
“We are hopeful we will succeed in our bid to host the Worlds either in 2020 or 2021. In Abu Dhabi everything is possible. So far we have had success both in the ring and as host.”
Today, 14 men’s and seven women’s finals will be worked off from 2pm at the arena on Abu Dhabi's Breakwater near Marina Mall.
