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Few people on the planet can claim that they are among the best in the world in the most brutal and demanding sport on the planet. After shocking Japanese fans by emerging out of oblivion and decimating his competition, Gegard Mousasi has recently made his U.S. debut. It’s safe to say that he did not disappoint.
Born in Iran on August 1, 1985, Gegard Mousasi is an Armenian mixed martial arts fighter. After the Iran-Iraq war, his family moved to Leiden, Netherlands, where he finished grade school and developed an interest in combat sports. At the mere age of 15, he began training judo and boxing by sheer circumstance: “There was no particular reason. The fitness gym I was a member of offered boxing classes, so I started,” stated Mousasi. Amazingly, after just a year of training, at the young age of 16, he became the amateur boxing champion of Holland.
As time went on, he adapted his fighting style to Mixed Martial Arts, which is a combination of many different fighting disciplines such as, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and wrestling. When asked about his reasons for transitioning to mixed martial arts, Mousasi answered, “When I began kickboxing, my older brother was wrestling, and got into Mixed Martial Arts. Then we began training together.”
After his transition into Mixed Martial Arts, he joined the Jurojin Fight Team. Though he has gotten to known other Armenian fighters after traveling to the United States, due to the relatively small amount of Armenians in Holland, he has no Armenian training partners back home. Fortunately for him though, he has no shortage of world class training partners, such Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko (arguably the best fighter in the world).
His professional record is currently 26-2-1; and out his 26 wins, 24 were due to either knock out or submission. Mousasi took the Japanese Dream tournament by storm in 2008 by winning six consecutive fights and taking the first Dream middle-weight championship belt. In addition to his wins in Mixed Martial Arts, Mousasi awed fans even further by entering into a professional kickboxing match in the Japan-based K1 organization. He knocked out the heavily favored Musashi in the first round.
Up until recent weeks, Mousasi’s fights had only taken place in Japan where he has had much exposure and has developed a large fan base. Due to his impressive record and reputation as an exciting and dynamic fighter, negotiations took place in order for Mousasi to compete in the U.S.-based fight organization “Affliction.” Unfortunately, prior to the scheduled fight date of August 1st, the organization disbanded and Mousasi’s American debut was postponed indefinitely.
To the relief of fight fans everywhere, it was recently announced that the fight organization “Strikeforce” would not only be recruiting fighters who had been left unemployed by the demise of “Affliction,” but also would allow Mousasi to make his American debut on August 15th in the light-heavyweight (205lb) division against Renato “Babalu” Sobral. “Strikeforce” was not doing Mousasi any favors. Sobral is a very experienced fighter who has faced giants in the sport, such as Fedor Emelianenko and Chuck Liddell. Many who were not familiar with Mousasi believed that Sobral would steamroll over his opponent who is physically much smaller.
On August 15th, both men stepped into the cage and the outcome simply shocked the Mixed Martial Arts community. Mousasi was expected to avoid the wrestling game of Sobral, who was a national champion in Brazil; however, Mousasi who looked as calm as someone out for an evening stroll, wrestled Sobral on the mat with relative ease, then gained a dominant position. After pressing Sobral up against the fence, he unleashed a torrent of punches, leaving Sobral completely defenseless, which forced the referee to stop the fight at exactly 59 seconds into the first round. This outcome was unexpected, to say the least. One of the commentators, who was both surprised and impressed by Mousasi’s performance, gave him the nickname “The Armenian Assassin.”
Nick Meyer of Betus.com states, “Simply put, there are no fighters in ‘Strikeforce’ at the light-heavyweight level right now who can give Mousasi much of a challenge…” You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who disagrees with that statement.
In the young and still-evolving sport of Mixed Martial Arts, there are fighters which storm the world stage with style and techniques that the world has never seen. Ten years ago, there were no athletes in existence that were world class strikers, grapplers, and wrestlers. Super-fighters like Mousasi, who are emerging today, have world class skills in multiple different combat sports, which they combine into one smooth technique. They are mavericks who are effectively changing the sport every time they step into the ring. And although Mousasi has had quite a bit of success already, he is only 24-years-old and has ample time to improve his skills even further. However, when asked about his future ambitions, Mousasi modestly said, “I just hope to be a good fighter and I hope that people enjoy watching me fight as much as I enjoy doing what I do.”
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