Zabit Samedov: "I will be rooting for Azerbaijan and Belarus at Baku-2015 Games"

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Azerbaijani fighter Zabit Samedov won the recently concluded tournament Global Fighting Championship 3 in Dubai, saying that he will donate part of the money he earns toward helping the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. Zabit Samadov was born in 1984 in an Azerbaijani family in Georgia. When he was 10 years old he moved to Belarus, Zabit started occupying himself with Thai boxing (Muay Thai). In an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza the boxer spoke about the development of martial arts in Belarus, Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus.

-Zabit, are you a Belarusian or an Azerbaijani athlete?

-I repeatedly became the champion of the world and Europe performing for the national team of Belarus, and now for Azerbaijan as a professional. As an amateur, I was three-time European champion and four-time world champion, performing for Belarus. However, in professional sports, I decided that I would perform for my country, because I am a citizen of Azerbaijan.

- If Azerbaijan and Belarus are facing each other in some competition, which side would you support?

-The best. Our sport is widely supported in Azerbaijan, just as well as gymnastics. The government pays a lot of attention to athletes, a lot of time is allocated to competitions, sport arenas are being built. Soon, Baku will host the first European Games, to the organization of which Azerbaijan also pays a lot of attention. I hope the Baku-2015 Games will be held at a very high level. I will definitely be in Baku during these days, to cheer for Azerbaijan and Belarus.

- You are an athlete with great experience, you have had a lot of fights, are there some particularly memorable ones?

- There was a fight in May 2013 in Moscow with the Moroccan Badr Hari, to whom I had previously lost twice, and during the third fight I knocked him out. This is, of course, a very big win for me and for all Azerbaijanis and Belarusians, because he was a titled opponent. I will fight Hari for the fourth time in December of this year in Dubai.

- In your opinion, how are the martial arts developing in the North Caucasus?

- In Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov is doing so much for the development of boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai. I went there a year ago, was a guest of the tournament two months ago, and in the summer I’m going back to Grozny.