Meet the 12-year-old Sheffield Muay Thai fighter representing Great Britain in the IFMA European Championship

Ali Hussain first got into Muay Thai fighting at the age of four through his father, Asif Hussain, who taught Thai boxing himself.

He has been coached by Christian Di Paolo at the Ni Yai Muay Thai gym in Ecclesall. Christian is the owner of the gym and a Thai boxing champion himself who was a very accomplished fighter back in the day.

Asif wanted to get Ali into Muay Thai training from an early age to teach him how to be disciplined and respectful.

He explained: "I decided to get my son into training for fitness reasons, for developing him in terms of having respect, a hard work ethic and to have discipline, as well as everything else that comes with martial arts.

"He struggled with asthma when he was younger, and so I wanted to get him fit so he could overcome his asthma and it has helped, he doesn’t suffer from asthma anymore now.”

Having trained from an early age, Ali has entered numerous competitions around the country, with lots of success.

He is now a Multiple World Kickboxing Organisation K1 champion, Multiple World Kickboxing Organisation Thai-boxing champion, International Sport Karate Association Thai-boxing champion, Sandee Thai-boxing champion, All Fighting System Organisation Thai-boxing champion and an All Fighting System Organisation K1 champion.

He has won so many competitions and gold medals for his young age, and already has around 70 fights in total from tournaments and also single fights.

Thai boxing has recently received its status to be a sport at the next Olympic Games and now, after qualifying through the UK trials by winning all of his three fights and becoming the UK champion at his age, Ali will be representing Team GB for the IFMA Championships in Turkey next month.

The Championships take place in Turkey between February 12 and 20.

Unfortunately, the event is not funded, meaning it is Ali and his family have to pay raise the money themselves. Asif is now fundraising to get Ali to the championships via GoFundMe, and he needs around £2,000 to afford the trip, GB kit, entry to the tournament and other expenses.

Ali and Asif are really looking forward to the championships, which Asif says will be an amazing experience for Ali.

"It will be great to see him compete with the rest of them, hopefully win some medals but if he doesn’t it will be a brilliant experience for him to be at that top level stage,” he said.

"He has to go through the amateur, then from there he moves into the professionals then hopefully into the Olympics. He would love to fight for team GB in the Olympics if that was a possibility in the future.”

Ali Hussain’s fundraiser can be found on GoFundMe, titled ‘Ali's IFMA European Fundraiser 2022 Turkey’. So far, they have raised £800 of the £2,000 goal in just three days.