A kickboxer Zabit Samedov is called the true manifestation of the international essence. Azerbaijanis, Belarusians, Chechens and all Russians are proud of him. Samedov was born on June 21, 1984 in the Georgian village of Jandari, near the border with Azerbaijan. When the boy was ten years old, his family moved to Minsk, and a year before moving, he has started to learn martial arts. At first it was karate , under the leadership of coach Aziz Dursunov, and in Belarus Zabit discovered Thai boxing (Muay Thai). There, the world champion Dmitry Piasetsky started coaching him in the Chinook club.
Like many boys interested in martial arts, Zabit was a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. In the 1990s, many future champions admired his movies. But when Samadov formed his own style, he forgot about Van Damme. But Van Damme learned about the young champion and after another Zabit's victory called him to congratulate and invited him to Los Angeles.
But it was much later, but first, in the late 1990's the coach was solving an important problem of his new ward in the cold Minsk club's Thai boxing section - the boy needed a fighting nickname for professional performances. If Zabit and his coach did not come up with a big name, the organizers of the battles would do it for them, maybe his life wouldn't have turned out so - a ship will sail the way you name it. As a result, the coach straightforwardly said: "You are not like the other guys, dark and curly-haired. From now on you're Mowgli".
Now Mowgli is a multiple-time World and European champion, winner of various professional kickboxing tournaments.
A few years ago, he performed in Grozny for the first time. He was offered only one fight against Stefan Leko, whom Zabit knocked out in just 12 seconds. Then the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, noticed him, who, as is known, is not indifferent to martial arts. A couple of months later, Samedov visited Kadyrov, and since then they have developed friendly relations.
"Kadyrov gave me a car, luxury watches which are worth $70 thousand. We are like brothers, so he does it as a friend," the kickboxer says.
This May Zabit Samedov met with Belgian Frederic Sinistra (Muhammed Malik) at the tournament in Istanbul. The President of the Kickboxing Federation of Azerbaijan Adil Aliyev was watching the fight in the hall. Already in the second round, Samedov delivered some heavy blows to his opponent, practically laying him out and earning a convincing victory. For Samedov, it was the 76th victory and the 36th knockout, which he achieved after training in Thailand and Baku.
And in the late summer in Grozny, within the framework of the International Kickboxing Tournament in memory of Akhmad Kadyrov, Mowgli got into a ring of the Coliseum sports complex with Errol Zimmerman, a Dutchman born in Curacao, whom Zabit lost in 2008 in Amsterdam. In the Grozny battle, by a decision of the judges, the victory was awarded to the Azerbaijani athlete.
"My compatriots give me strong support. In any case, I will fight under the Azerbaijani flag until the end of my career. I am an Azerbaijani, I am an Azerbaijani citizen thanks to our president ... After each fight, I return to Azerbaijan, to my homeland, so that my people see that I am Azerbaijani, I return home with a victory. In the future I want to open my own sports club, and raise, train new fighters, new heroes, to glorify our country and educate healthy and proper youth, who do not drink, do not smoke, do sports and took part in international competitions. Our nation has always been famous for its heroes, we had plenty of them. We have always been like that. We should continue these traditions," Samedov says.
