Brave Combat Federation is my favorite mixed martial arts organization. I can tell you why – I can talk about the figuratively and literally noble vision from which Brave was born, about an organization devoted to growing our sport and providing opportunity worldwide. But that’s theory. I’d rather tell you about a man; his name is Muhammad Abbas Khan.
Abbas is not just on the undercard of Saturday’s Brave 17, he’s the first fight of the night. His is the sole amateur bout on a pro fight card. You might barely notice his name. But you should.
He was born poor in Mardan, Pakistan. There’s poor in the USA, where the per capita GNP averages over $60,000 per year; in Pakistan, it’s under $6,000. Abbas was a village boy, the son of a laborer, grandson of a farmer. Education didn’t work out, so he worked as a laborer in construction, and loading and offloading trucks, and as a farmer.
Abbas the farmer
He saw some of his friends continue their schooling and achieve coveted positions in business and government. Determined to be somebody, Abbas decided to become a boxer. But he lived in a city without a single boxing gym.
Abbas watched footage of Muhammad Ali, Englishman Amir Khan, and Pakistan’s world title challenger Muhammad Waseem, in an attempt to learn to box via osmosis.
Abbas (R) with Muhammad Waseem (Center)
I have two arms, and they have two. I have two legs, and they have two, he reasoned. They are human, I am human. I want to be a good boxer. I want to be world class.
Abbas decided to stand up to his problems, and become like his boxing heroes. In time, he heard there was a boxing gym in another city. Everyone knows the story of GSP driving from Montreal to Renzo’s in Manhattan to take lessons. The city in Pakistan with a gym wasn’t 400 miles away, it was just 20 miles. But Abbas only had a bicycle, and thus he started boxing every day, pedaling 20 miles there, then 20 miles home at night through a rough area.
He made a heavy bag from a discarded grain sack, and was lifting weights to make his body stronger. He put on his father’s army boots to do road work. When he saw people smiling he thought they were impressed, but then realized they were laughing at the young man in the oversized boots. Eventually, he went to a market and bought some sports shoes; his boxing coach was baffled when he walked into the gym with cleats. Abbas saved up again and when he was able, Abbas bought the right shoes; his coach gave him some gloves. He had begun.
Abbas and his father
However, bicycling 20 miles each way wasn’t the biggest of his problems. In a culture with profound respect for family and age, Abbas’s father was aghast at his son’s choices; while focus on cricket could conceivably have led to income, in boxing it was inconceivable.
It was the equivalent to a kid in America going to college and then telling his parents he planned to focus on playing Rock Paper Scissors. And the kid was the family’s retirement plan.
Focus on your job, on making money, Abbas was told.
So he trained in secret.
A regional secretary in the sports authority said he could get him a boxing match at a local show. Abbas knew a jab and a straight right, and that’s it. First fight, he got his nose broken, and lost.
But the official saw his heart, and said he should train on, and he did. At Pakistan’s nationals he lost his first match, and lost his second too. He wanted to cry when he saw the medal winners on the stand, but determined to try harder.
Abbas got bronze at the next event and eventually was part of the national team. But at the trials for the 2013 world championships in Kazakhstan, he lost again, and cried again – was he not improving? Was it political?
His phone broke and he gave the boxing association his father’s number. They called about an upcoming event. Furious, Abbas’s father beat him. I am retired he said. It’s your responsibility now to support your younger siblings.
Abbas with his uncle
Discouraged and heartbroken, Abbas moved to Bahrain for job opportunities, to live with an uncle, also a laborer, who sponsored his visa, and found him employment as a garbage man, emptying the content of large barrels.
Abbas went to every sports complex but found only volleyball, soccer, basketball. However, Abbas’s uncle was sympathetic to his nephew’s boxing dream, and knew of a friend of a friend running a fight gym in Manama, Bahrain’s capital. The gym owner’s name was Muhammad Shahid; he got a phone call – Hey, there’s a kid who wants to be boxer. Every gym owner gets that call all the time.
Abbas showed up and upon seeing the heavy bags starting throwing combinations with gleeful abandon. He apologized for being so overcome, but the coach saw something.
Put these gloves on, to spar, said Shahid.
This would normally be 3×3, and at the end, normally, the kid would be gassed beyond description, and wouldn’t show again. They sparred for 25 minutes straight. The coach saw something.
How much are gym dues? When he found out, Abbas thought, Oh my God, I have no chance.
Shahid asked Abbas how much he made, and the short of it was short – he was basically working for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Can you perhaps extend a discount to me? The coach’s reply was to change the course of his life.
Brother, whatever you would give me, save for food for yourself, said Shahid. You just train.
Shahid explained that the opportunity in Bahrain for boxing would come, but right now it was in mixed martial arts. But Abbas had a boxing dream.
So Shahid trained Abbas at no charge. Then one day, Abbas was horsing around with a well-regarded wrestler, and he had a moment like the Wax Off scene from The Karate Kid. After all that physical labor, all those years of lifting heavy garbage cans, he could throw people, too.
Abbas, you have power, said his downed, surprised gym mate. You should try MMA.
Abbas went to Shahid and asked what do I have to do to do MMA? And so he began to work on his kickboxing, and his wrestling, and his Jiu-Jitsu, and continued with his boxing too. But he was working all day as a garbageman. Then training all night. The human body has limits.
He asked Shahid, coach, what do I do?
Don’t worry my brother, was the reply. Give me a few days, I will have good news.
His Highness, Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family, son of the king, had a vision to use MMA as a vehicle for providing opportunity. The coach said, His Highness is a sportsman himself – he knows your dream. You can leave your job, and focus on training.
Abbas got to stay at Shahid’s gym, with food and a stipend. He helped out, showing kids boxing fundamentals. And he was slowly becoming a fighter.
It would be a terrific story if Abbas won his first fight, leaving the fans amazed at this diamond in the rough. But this is mixed martial arts and it’s as real as it gets. His first fight was a No Contest after a knee he threw landed low. Second fight Abbas lost.
However, legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote, for when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes–not that you won or lost–but how you played the Game. Abbas was game in losing; His Highness was watching from cage side.
Don’t worry, said the Shaikh. You did well. Keep training.
Abbas at KHK MMA with Khabib Nurmagomedov
Finally, he made Team KHK MMA, a moment that left him in a state of shock, unable even to speak, this kid from a village who reasoned you wear cleats in a boxing gym. Then on the first day of sparring he went too hard with a lighter opponent who had a fight coming up. He apologized desperately, but was consoled.
Don’t worry, replied the Shaikh. This is your home now. We are here for you.
15 days after selection, he entered a Bahrain vs. Kuwait event, and won via that Americana under the knee from top side control.
Then he was selected for the IMMAF world championship, but couldn’t secure a visa in time. Then he was selected for IMMAF Europe, where he fought SBGi’s Lee Hammond, who trains with Conor McGregor; Abbas was controlled on the ground, eventually losing a decision.
Team KHK MMA coach Eldar Eldarov explained he had to work on his wrestling and ground game. Some tough Bulgarians had recently moved to the gym, and proved to be invaluable training partners, as did teammate Hamza Kooheji, coach Renat Lusubov, and many more of his adopted brothers.
At the IMMAF Asian Championship he finally medaled, earning Bronze. Abbas still had pressure from his family to focus on making money at a normal job, but he determined to become the world’s top fighter, God willing.
He made the IMMAF worlds, but lost a tough decision to the USA’s Benjamin Bennett, who went on to win gold. They’re friends now.
A week after returning to the gym, coach Eldar said he should try the World Combat Sambo Championships in Tajikstan. He broke his Iranian opponent’s nose in the first match, and got tossed around in the second by an opponent who cut weight hard; losses are really lessons, but they’re really hard lessons. He won the third place match, winning bronze. Still, bronze isn’t gold.
Abbas trained harder, twice becoming boxing champion of Bahrain, twice becoming BJJ champ, and twice under amateur Muay Thai rules. He went to Jordan and won All Arab titles under both American rules kickboxing and K-1 rules.
He entered the IMMAF African Open Championship. There he beat a fighter from Cameroon in the quarterfinals. He beat a South African fighter in the semis. And he beat an Aussie fighter in the finals, to win gold.
At last.
Abbas is quick to say that all credit goes to His Highness, to Muhammad Shahid, to his coaches, to his teammates, and to the Team KHK staff which include a physical therapist and a nutritionist. People say all credit to stuff all the time, but Abbas means it, from the heart. He can’t put it into words, exactly, but he loves the team, and he loves Bahrain, and he feels love back.
He deeply loves his home country, Pakistan, too. He says there’s a lot of talent there, but it isn’t always nurtured.
Abbas looking like a movie star
Abbas is 26 now, old enough to humbly offer advice to people getting started. If you want to make it in MMA, or anything, he explains, every step is hard, every step will challenge you. Knowing that fact, make yourself a good person first, and everything comes from there, God willing.
Muhammad ‘The Hawk’ Shahid is now the president of Brave Combat Federation, born from the vision of the Shaikh. On Saturday night at Brave 17, Abbas returns to his home country in the very first fight of the night. You might barely notice the bout, but Abbas Khan is the personification of Brave Combat Federation, my favorite show on Earth, providing opportunities now worldwide to people without opportunity. Brave has 1,000 stories like Abbas’s; Abbas is Brave.
On Sunday Brave 17 will be over, but High Highness and The Hawk are going to grow MMA in Pakistan now, and everywhere. It’s the best story in our sport.
Follow Abbas on Instagram.
Big thanks to KHK MMA Social Media Manager Hassan Sohaib for his help.
