12-year-old Muay Thai fighter from Sheffield wins gold at European Championships in Turkey

After winning all his fights and becoming UK champion, Ali qualified for the IFMA European Championships for Muay Thai in Turkey.

On the first day of the Championships in February, Ali was asked to represent team GB as one of the flag bearers at the opening ceremony in a proud moment for the youngster and his family.

Beginning on day two, Ali had to fight Russian competition in the semi-final and came out on top, dominating the bouts and winning all three rounds to come out victorious – a significant victory for Ali and Team GB, who were losing the previous fights to Russia.

“Team GB were losing to Russia, Russia were dominating the whole time,” said Asif Hussain, Ali’s father, who attended the competition with the youngster.

“Then when Ali came out, he managed to beat Russia and everyone was like pretty surprised that he was really good.”

On the next day of Muay Thai fighting, Ali had to face the winner of the other bracket, which was a fighter from Turkey.

The Turkish fighter was bigger than Ali and also older and heavier, but Sheffielder Ali managed to pull off another victory –again never losing a round during the clash and winning all rounds.

This impressive victory made Ali European champion for his weight class and saw him on the top of the podium to collect his gold medal.

“For myself, it was the proudest moment ever to see him on that stage, to see all that hard work he has put in over the last eight years finally pay off and him getting the recognition he deserves to be one of the top athletes for Team GB,” said Asif.

“He was also one of the youngest athletes to win gold for Team GB so far at 12 years old – the record was 13 and Ali is obviously not quite 13 yet so he did it when he was 12.”

Asif added: “The trip was absolutely amazing, it was great to meet all the rest of the Team GB squad, get to meet the coaches, and the parents, people that had come to support and obviously it was really nice for all of the athletes to all be in one big hotel – there was about 600 athletes all together from all over Europe.

“It was a really really good event, so credit to Turkey for organising such a brilliant event.”

A total of 31 nations entered the event, with Britain finishing fourth, only behind Russia, Turkey and Belarus.

The entire event saw Team GB claim 15 medals - six gold, four silver and five bronze.

“Next year, he will still be in the same category as he will be 13 but he might have moved up weight class or something, but he will still be in the same age bracket,” said his proud dad.

Ali and Asif would like to thank all the people that donated to Ali’s GoFundMe page and supported his journey so far. Without the help of donaters, his coach, training partners, friends and family, it wouldn’t have been possible to go to Turkey and achieve what he did.