Amir Albazi’s long journey to become the first Iraqi man fighting for UFC might have been tougher than any of his fights. The curveballs life threw at him were more impactful than any strike from his opponents inside the Octagon. He has an amazing record of 17-1 and fights in the flyweight division in the promotion. The #3 ranked flyweight has faced the harshest conditions growing up and maybe that was a catalyst that made him such a determined fighter.

We know all about his fight records and career, but what about his journey to this point? How did he come into the UFC? Where is he from? Let’s get to know the flyweight stalwart a little more.

What is Amir Albazi’s ethnicity and nationality? Is he from Afghanistan?

Amir was born in Baghdad on 27th Oct 1993. He grew up in Sweden though because his family had to flee Iraq to escape Saddam Hussein’s regime. This overnight escape changed his life forever as he arrived in Syria where he met his father after a long time. The family stayed in Syria for a year and a half, before moving to Sweden. The journey was still not over for the young Albazi as he then moved to Bredäng when he was 8, a district in Stockholm where immigrants make up almost 60% of the population. This is where a new chapter and new struggles began for the star that we see today.

There was a cocktail of bullying and discrimination along with culture shock that he had to endure resulting in violent outbursts. He got into a lot of fights because he was bullied for his background and his lack of knowledge about the foreign language. While speaking to UFC, ‘The Prince’ said, “When I moved to Sweden, as an immigrant I got in a lot of fights because I didn’t understand the language and was bullied for being foreign. I saw UFC on TV one night and I was hooked. I decided to start fighting because I loved the competitiveness.”

“In school, I couldn’t understand what people were saying, but I could tell they were making fun of me,” he told the BBC. “The only way I could express myself was with my fists.” This is why he used his brute strength and channeled it into martial arts. His interest in mixed martial arts happened overnight, as he once watched an old UFC fight on television. Having been impressed by this new type of professional fighting, Amir looked up the cheapest MMA gym and signed up the next day. After that, Albazi moved to London in 2013 and graduated from the University of Roehampton with a degree in sports science.

After he found MMA there was no going back. He started training from the age of 14 and at 31, he is already a powerful name in UFC. From fleeing persecution to becoming a martial arts star, Amir Albazi has come a long way.

More about Amir Albazi’s early life

For ‘The Prince,’ any fight inside the octagon is less painful than the punches that real life throws at him. He has grown accustomed to overcoming harsh impediments which gives him an upper hand in his pursuit of success in MMA. “Thank God I turned something negative into a positive,” Albazi said to Sherdog.com. “I’m glad I found the sport.”

The harsh reality of his life in Baghdad was likely increased by the fact that Albazi and his family are of Kurdish heritage. Being Kurdish in that region of the world can be difficult and they were almost wiped out by the regime of Saddam Hussein. For his father, who was a businessman, and his mother, an accountant, there was only one choice: They had to leave the only home they had built and known. Then his struggle with culture shock and bullying started in Sweden.

“Everything was different, from the weather to the language to the clothes people were putting on, even how people looked,” said Albazi to Sherdog, “I didn’t see any blond people [before I moved there], just on TV. That’s why I got into a lot of fights, the misunderstanding. You sit in school [and] someone is making fun of you, but you don’t have the language to answer him, so I had to [answer with] my hands instead.”

Once he found UFC, it was love at first sight because he felt free and could channel his anger and energy properly. He came from violence but did not let it take him and now he is fighting against Brandon Moreno at UFC Fight Night. Are you excited to see him fight?