A lot was going on in combat sports last weekend, with some prominent Muslim fighters among those in the headlines.

BOXING
In Bulgaria, Mahmoud Charr put his WBA “regular” heavyweight championship on the line for the first time since he initially won it back in 2017. (The “regular” title is not to be confused with the WBA world heavyweight championship, currently held by Oleksandr Usyk.) A hard-to-believe series of injuries and business/legal hang-ups prevented Charr from defending his title over the last seven years, although he did win three non-title fights in the meantime.

In his long-awaited first title defense, Charr lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Kubrat Pulev on Saturday. A win by Charr would’ve put the 40-year-old German-Syrian in a good position to get a crack at Usyk or Tyson Fury, who will face-off for the WBA, WBC, and WBO world titles on December 21st. Instead, the loss dropped Charr’s record to 34-5 with 20 knockouts. And considering he wasn’t ranked by any of the non-WBA major sanctioning bodies going into the Pulev fight, Charr has a steep mountain to climb before getting another title shot.

KICKBOXING
In the Netherlands, at GLORY Collision 7, Tarik Khbabez retained his light heavyweight championship via split decision against Donegi Abena. The 32-year-old from Morocco improved his record to 52-11-1 with 28 KOs.

This was the final bout in a trilogy for the heated rivals, and all three of their fights happened in 2024. In March, Khbabez won by split decision to take the light heavyweight title from Abena. In June, they met again in the semifinals of GLORY’s Light Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament; Abena beat Khbabez by knockout (in a non-title fight) on his way to winning the whole tournament. Then on Saturday, Khbabez took the rubber match in another close decision.

After the fight, an understandably frustrated Abena seemingly announced his retirement in the ring — or maybe the 26-year-old’s farewell message means he’s just leaving GLORY to pursue other professional opportunities. Khbabez had an eyebrow-raising statement of his own in the post-fight interview, calling out longtime GLORY heavyweight champ Rico Verhoeven, who already beat Khbabez convincingly in a 2021 heavyweight tournament final.

Also on the Collision 7 card, Bahram Rajabzadeh of Azerbaijan — the promotion’s No. 2-ranked contender at light heavyweight and No. 4 contender at heavyweight — scored a spectacular first-round TKO against Daniel Stefanovski. Rajabzadeh improved his record to 70-4 with 62 knockouts.

MMA
In Las Vegas, the UFC 310 show was supposed to be headlined by welterweight champion Belal Muhammad making his first title defense in the main event against Shavkat Rakhmonov. However, Muhammad — who’s from Chicago and has Palestinian roots — had to withdraw after developing an infection in his foot.

Rakhmonov, a Muslim from Kazakhstan, instead fought in the co-main event against Ian Machado Garry, and won by unanimous decision. He remains undefeated at 19-0 with 18 stoppages.

In Thailand, at ONE Championship’s Fight Night 26 show, Alibeg Rasulov of Turkey fought in the main event, challenging Christian Lee for the lightweight MMA championship. The fight never really got going, though, as Lee accidentally poked Rasulov in the eye in the second round and Rasulov was unable to continue. The fight was ruled a no-contest; Lee kept his title and Rasulov stays unbeaten in 15 pro fights.