Get to know the man behind the fighter
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Mohammad Fakhreddine, a Lebanese MMA fighter, is what you can call a double champion. Twice! That’s not all you can call him, you can also call him a father, a husband, a son and a genuinely good dude.
Inside the cage, he is a beast with blows that will knock you out, declaring him victorious. But once he steps out of the cage, this fighter puts down his fists a different man.
Just who is the man beyond the cage?
Growing up a feisty boy in war-torn Lebanon, he often raised his fists on the rough streets to protect himself from the chaos that surrounded him. But then he suffered a personal tragedy at 18. It was a tragedy that would change his life completely.
Born in 80’s Lebanon, at the height of political unrest, Mohammad Fakhreddine would get used to the civil war, deeming it normal. He took a liking to motorbikes in his teenage years. At 18, he was already an experienced rider who loved to feel the wind against his face as he floored the accelerator through the streets of Beirut.
One day, he was riding with a friend, just the two of them, on the way to the city. He did not see the collision. It happened too fast. The bike took his control out of his hands and smashed him and his friend onto the tarmac. He sustained serious injuries but his friend did not make it.
An event like that changes a young man.
Fakhreddine could not believe his eyes. As he was being lifted to the safety of the hospital. His dear friend had been taken away from the world.If only he could have, if only he would have gone through many other roads, maybe, just maybe. He would continue asking himself the same questions for years to come.
Distraught, his family decided that it was best to leave Lebanon and find asylum in the United States of America. They left behind the turmoil and the pain, and took a plane to San Diego, California where Lebanese MMA fighter, Mohammad Fakhreddine, would eventually become a man.
A man who would one day be able to forgive himself.
In sunny California, the atmosphere was vastly different to the one back home. No civil war and no political unrest to navigate, he could focus on becoming a man.Through his time there, he learned to calm down and approach life in a completely different way. It gave him time to truly deal with what had happened and slowly but surely, he regained and found himself. He found work in the motor industry, put his head down and toiled.
During the weekends in the States, he would blow off some steam. After working hard, he would party hard. Alcohol and drugs were never missing. This went on for a few years until another large event would help him to straighten his ways.
On a debaucherous night out, his friend went overboard. Fakhreddine found himself in the midst of death again when his friend overdosed. It was just too much for the Middle Eastern man to handle. Add to that, the economy crashing, Fakhreddine found himself between a rock and a hard place. He had to take stock and reevaluate his life. America no longer seemed the right place to be, so he bought a one way ticket back home.
It had been years since he had been to his homeland. He did not know what to expect and promised himself that it would be for only a short time but life had different plans for him.
Mohammad Fakhreddine landed in Beirut and began a new life, one that kept him close to his culture and country. Still having plans to return to the USA, he made up his mind to stay when he met the love of his life, that would later become his wife. He could not leave now so he grew roots and settled into his homeland.
Being back felt right and so he continued training. His father had been in martial arts and he had fought a few amateur fights in America. However, it was when he got to Beirut, that he decided to take boxing seriously, eventually making his way to the MMA cage.
As the years went by, he trained harder and earned respect for life. His experiences with death made him stronger and he began taking on life as a promise to himself to live to the fullest.He threw everything into his passion and started moving up the ranks of MMA in the Middle East, eventually getting noticed by Desert Force, a former MMA promotion that was the biggest in the region.
During this time, he welcomed a baby boy and then a daughter to make a family of four. Life was taking shape for the MMA fighter and his star was only just beginning to rise.
“I fight for my family. I fight for myself. I fight for the friends I lost. I fight for my country and fight for those who need to see me win. MMA gave me an opportunity to be the best man I could be. Every day, when I look at my children, I a happy that I can show them what a champion looks like, just by getting in that cage and training hard, they can see that they can also do whatever they put their mind to. I fight for the world to see a champion. And I will keep fighting because there is still so much more to achieve.” Mohammad Fakhreddine, The Latest.
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