Abu Dhabi: Revenge, as the cliche goes, is a dish best served cold.
But for the UAE’s only professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, Ahmad Al Darmaki, his own quest for retribution has been fuelled in the blistering heat of the Abu Dhabi desert, where he sprints six days a week for one and a half hours.
The Fujairah-born 27-year-old has subjected himself to this punishing training regime in preparation for next Tuesday’s Abu Dhabi Warriors 4 at the IPIC Arena at Zayed Sports City, which will host 10 bouts involving fighters from all over the world.
He will face Ukraine’s Artiyom Gorodynets, who he feels controversially beat him at the third edition of the UAE capital’s MMA showpiece last October by using an illegal armbar submission.
It was Al Darmaki’s third loss in as many fights since turning professional four years ago and he exudes an unshakeable belief that there will not be a repeat.
“I have good news for the people who are waiting for my rematch,” Al Darmaki, who fights at lightweight and who achieved two victories as a boxer and three in MMA at amateur level, tells Gulf News in an exclusive interview in Media City, Dubai. “I am confident that I am going to make my opponent so exhausted and, Inshallah, by the will of God, let his muscles scream for oxygen.”
His self-assuredness owes much to his innate stamina, which has been enhanced by pounding the unforgiving Abu Dhabi desert, as well as CrossFit and swimming sessions.
Running in such gruelling conditions have held no fear for the grimly determined Al Darmaki, either, as he experienced similar when he was a UAE army officer for six years in the UK and Afghanistan.
He was also naturally proficient at 15-kilometre and 20-kilometre runs and marathons, to the extent that a friend, Diab Bin Ghanim Al Mazrouie, encouraged him to test his endurance in a fighting capacity.
“I’ve been through the hardest things in the army, like camping in the desert,” he explains. “So when you go into the [MMA] ring, you feel mentally tougher and you feel no pressure and are so calm.
“In the desert, we used to do shooting rifles in the night in 45 degrees. Five-hundred shots with a heavy bag, walking 20 kilometres is tough.”
Isn’t he physically sick afterwards?
“Yes. It’s good,” he replies, with masochistic relish.
Expounding on the benefits of his routine Al Darmaki, who wants to be known as ‘The Desert Fighter’ and who took up MMA six years ago, adds: “Because the ring is so hot with the lights and stuff, I was wondering, ‘How can I manage with that stuff? How can I improve my cardio?’.”
Al Darmaki has also focused rigorously on improving his technique with his training partner, and fellow MMA fighter, Anas Siraj Mounir.
“Technically, Ahmad is good, his striking is good,” the Moroccan tells Gulf News. “His pressure on top is really good as well, so there are just a few little details he needed to improve, such as his movement and his ground game, so we have been doing a lot of drilling and sparring and conditioning work.”
One thing Al Darmaki does not have hone is his supreme self-belief.
“I am so confident,” he repeats, several times.
No wonder, then, that his boxing inspiration was Britain’s former featherweight world champion, Prince Naseem Hamed, who won renown for his cocksure, hands-down style and spectacular ring entrances in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Al Darmaki says his ultimate aim is to be a world champion like his hero, but how can he justify such braggadocio without a victory in the professional ranks?
“I feel like I am brave when I enter the ring; I don’t feel nervous, and I feel so calm,” he insists. “These three losses don’t bother me.”
What does Mounir – who trains Al Darmaki at the FitRepublik gym in Dubai – make of his friend’s apparently vaulting ambition?
“It’s very realistic,” he says. “To be honest, anyone can become a world champion if they work hard and he’s doing that. He’s very brave, never nervous, never scared.
“He’s always moving forward, which is a really good quality, as a lot of people shy away [from combat] sometimes.”
Al Darmaki returns several times to the perceived injustice of his second-round stoppage last October, tacitly harnessing it as a powerful driving force for his return to the ring.
“I lost the fight and it wasn’t my fault as he used an elbow against the rules,” he says, the agony of the memory wreathed across his face. “I didn’t expect to lose and this time I am going to knock him out.”
Also spurring him on is the fact that he is jobless after a recent redundancy. As such, he says failure is not an option in his new discipline because he has a wife and six-month-old daughter, Muna, to support.
“I have to win, man,” he says. “It’s kill or be killed.”
As he did last October, Al Darmaki will enter the ring with the UAE flag draped proudly over his shoulders and he is sure to be greeted by a rapturous reception by a partisan home crowd.
“I wanna be a big example to the UAE people and I wanna show them I am very good at MMA,” he says.
Fighting talk, then, but now it is time for Al Darmaki to walk the walk in the heat of the battle as bravely as he has survived the rigours of the desert.
Source:: Gulf News | Sports
Ahmad Al Darmaki primed for the heat of battle in Abu Dhabi Warriors 4 after tough training in the desert
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