It was an action-packed week for combat sports, with a UFC Fight Night card, a GLORY kickboxing pay-per-view, and a boxing card that some analysts described as arguably the deepest lineup of bouts in recent history. When all of the punches, kicks, and takedowns had been recorded, a few Muslim fighters stood out from the crowd.

GLORY 98

The world’s foremost kickboxing outfit is giving almost all of its marketing and promotional attention toward its upcoming 32-man “Last Heavyweight Standing” tournament that begins April 5th — which made the GLORY 98 pay-per-view on Saturday, February 22nd feel like something of a distraction that they just needed to get out of the way before focusing on bigger and better things.

The GLORY 98 main event in Rotterdam, Netherlands, featured Jamal Ben Saddik and Uku Jurjendal, two of the heavyweights that are part of the announced 32-man tournament field. Ben Saddik, a 34-year-old Muslim from Morocco, was making his return to competition after a two-and-a-half year hiatus caused by a series of injuries, personal issues, and legal troubles. He’s one of the many who have tried and failed to unseat longtime GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, but even without a title to his name, Ben Saddik is so popular that his non-title fight against Jurjendal was given the main-event slot on a card that had GLORY welterweight champion Chico Kwasi defending his title against Teodor Hristov.

What was expected to be a slugfest was more of a stare-down between Ben Saddik and Jurjendal, two heavy hitters who were very cautious of their opponent’s power. Things were pretty slow until Jurjendal appeared to break his forearm while blocking a kick, and Ben Saddik then took advantage of his wounded foe. A head kick in the final minute of the final round put Jurjendal down, and while he beat the 10-count, the referee stopped the fight anyway.

Probably due to Ben Saddik’s large and passionate fan base, the rest of the GLORY 98 card was littered with Moroccan fighters. Those representing the Muslim-majority African nation included light heavyweight Ibrahim El Bouni, who lost via TKO to Michael Boapeah; and mononymous welterweight Hamicha, who defeated Calmente Mendes via TKO. There were three other Moroccans on the show’s preliminary card. In another main undercard fight, Turkey’s Cem Caceres beat Mory Kromah by decision.

Also fighting out of Morocco was middleweight Iliass Hammouche, who lost what might be the craziest fight of the year (it’s early, but still) to Mesud Selimovic of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Near the end of the first round, Hammouche knocked Selimovic down with a right hand that should’ve ended the fight. But instead of going to a neutral corner so the referee could start the 10-count, Hammouche tossed his mouthpiece and bounced around the ring celebrating what seemed like a sure win. The ref didn’t start counting until Hammouche went to the corner, then didn’t resume the fight until Hammouche’s mouthpiece was back in his mouth. All of which meant Selimovic got about 25 seconds to get to his feet instead of the usual 10, plus the one-minute break between rounds to recover. Hammouche was all over him immediately to start the second round, though, and knocked Selimovic down again — but again, Hammouche’s mouthpiece found its way onto the floor, delaying the referee’s count and buying Selimovic more time to get his bearings. Standing on wobbly legs, it looked like Selimovic was going down for a third time when he unleashed a prayer of a spinning backfist that put Hammouche down … and put him down to stay. It was a stunning comeback knockout victory for Selimovic, and Hammouche had to feel sick knowing he could’ve won the fight two knockdowns earlier. (By the way, backfists are cool and all, until this happens.) But while the Moroccan was livid at the referee and had to be calmed down by everyone in his corner and some GLORY officials, at least the two Muslim fighters were gracious and sportsmanlike with each other after a wild fight.

Boxing

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — about 500 miles northeast of Mecca — Turki Alalshikh put together another boxing mega-card deep with high-profile fighters and title fights, headlined by a much-anticipated rematch for the undisputed light heavyweight championship of the world. Artur Beterbiev, a Muslim from Russia, was outpointed by countryman Dmitry Bivol in a majority decision in that main event, potentially setting up a trilogy as the two have split their two fights.

It was the first loss of Beterbiev’s pro career. In his first fight with Bivol in October 2024, Beterbiev was victorious but failed to score a knockout for the first time in his career. In other words, Bivol is clearly the toughest opponent Beterbiev has faced, and the now-former champ, at 40 years old, faces the unprecedented reality of bouncing back from defeat for the first time in his career.

On the undercard, Agit Kabayel scored a sixth-round TKO against Zhilei Zhang to win the WBC’s interim heavyweight championship. Kabayel is a Muslim from Germany who is of Kurdish descent. He’s now 26-0 with 18 knockouts and is building quite the collection of secondary and interim titles on his way to a real world title opportunity. His biggest win before Zhang was a decision over fan-favorite veteran Derek Chisora in 2017.

Hamzah Sheeraz, a Muslim from England who is of Pakistani descent, challenged for the WBC middleweight championship held by Carlos Adames. After 12 rounds, the fight was ruled a draw. Sheeraz keeps his undefeated record (21-0-1, 17 KOs) but Adames keeps the title. Israil Madrimov, a Muslim from Uzbekistan, lost his challenge for the WBC’s interim super welterweight title against Vergil Ortiz by unanimous decision.

Other notable fights on the stacked card included Joseph Parker knocking out Martin Bakole for the WBO’s interim heavyweight title, Shakur Stevenson stopping Josh Padley for the WBC lightweight title, and Callum Smith defeating Joshua Buatsi for the WBO’s interim light heavyweight title.

UFC Fight Night: Seattle

The biggest MMA show of the week emanated from my hometown of Seattle, Washington, at the Climate Pledge Arena (home of the NHL’s Kraken and WNBA’s Storm), for UFC Fight Night. The main event saw Song Yadong defeat veteran Henry Cejudo by unanimous decision in an bantamweight bout.

The preliminary portion of the card featured light heavyweight Ibo Aslan, a Muslim from Turkey, who lost by submission to Ion Cutelaba; middleweight Mansur Abdul-Malik, a Muslim from the United States, who beat Nick Klein by knockout; welterweight Nikolay Veretennikov from Muslim-majority Kazakhstan, who lost by knockout to Austin Vanderford; and middleweight Nursultan Ruziboev, a Muslim from Uzbekistan, who beat Eric McConico by knockout.