Fadi Merza

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Fadi Merza boxer
Data
Birth Name Fadi Merza
Fight name The Beast
Weight class medium weight
nationality Syriac - Austrian
birthday March 8, 1978
place of birth Derbassiah , Syria
style Orthodox
size 1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles 155
Victories 127
Knockout victories 53
Defeats 26th
draw 2

Fadi Merza (* 8. March 1978 in Derbassiah , Syria ) is a former Syrian- Austrian Thai boxer and multiple world champion . He fought in the middleweight division. His nickname was "The Beast" ("The Beast").

life and career

Fadi Merza with his wife Ines (2012)
Fadi and Ines Merza at the Vienna Film Ball 2015

Fadi Merza was born on March 8, 1978 in the Syrian village of Derbassiah to an Assyrian family who consider themselves to be Syrian Christianity . His parents came to the Austrian capital Vienna as guest workers at the end of the 1980s , where they also brought their children who had stayed behind in Syria some time later. At the age of ten, Fadi Merza also emigrated to Vienna, where the family lived in Ottakring , he learned the German language within six months and began kickboxing as a hobby in the early 1990s. Since the family in Austria lived in modest circumstances and the money for the membership fee at a martial arts club was not available, he taught himself kickboxing by studying on his own, including by watching films with Jean-Claude Van Damme .

After training more seriously from 1994 and at the age of 16, the first successes of Merzas, who at that time was in training as a locksmith , soon arose. During his first Thai boxing match as a 16-year-old, he suffered the first of three broken nose bones in the course of his career, which shaped his appearance. In the early days as an amateur kickboxer, he finally switched to Thai boxing and was able to celebrate his first major title win there on November 15, 1997 at the age of 18, winning the WPKL Junior World Super Welterweight Championship , a junior title of the World Professional Kickboxing League ( WPKL ). A year earlier he is said to have fought his first professional fight, a defeat against Abdel Bchiri , in the Moroccan capital Rabat . His real breakthrough only began in the early 2000s when he won various world championship titles from different associations.

In 2000, in his new home in Vienna, he won the WPKC Muay Thai World Middleweight Title , a world title of the World Professional Kickboxing Council ( WPKC ). In May of the following year he won the Thai boxing European Middleweight Title of the World Karate and Kickboxing Association ( WKA ), one of the oldest and largest associations, after a TKO over the Englishman Eugene Valerio . Almost exactly a year later he fought against the Moroccan Mohammed Ouali to receive the vacant WKA Thaiboxing World Middleweight Title , but lost there after a split decision . He was then signed by the Austrian businessman, entrepreneur and trainer Marcus Bauer , who founded his own club in 1998 and founded the Thai & Kickbox SuperLeague in 2003 . After his company was already involved on DSF in 2002 with two hours of live broadcast of the Vienna Fight Night , in which Merza also took part and remained without a win against Ouali , Fadi Merza was used almost exclusively in the SuperLeague in the following year .

The native Syrian was then used from the beginning of the SuperLeague in May 2003 and started successfully with victories over the Japanese Takahiko Shimizu and Akeomi Nitta in the year before he lost to the Filipino - Dane Ole Laursen in the SuperLeague competition in the Netherlands . Shortly thereafter, at the Vienna Fight Night, he entered a title fight for the receipt of the IKBO World Middleweight Title against the Moroccan Kamal El Amrani , who he lost just on points. After a few more fights, of which he lost the majority, including a fight for the WFCA Thaiboxing World Middleweight Title of the World Full Contact Association ( WFCA ), he fought his way into the top 3 of the Europe-wide SuperLeague from May 2005 . He came in a period from May 2005 to January 2006 on a record of five wins, which only one defeat, of all things against Kamal El Amrani, faced.

After another defeat against the Turkish Şahin Yakut at the SuperLeague Apocalypse 2006 in the French capital Paris, he was also defeated in the subsequent title fight for the SuperLeague Middleweight Title at the SuperLeague Elimination 2006 in Vienna in May 2006. In the following years, especially in a two-and-a-half year period from March 2007 to September 2009, the Syrian-Austrian martial artist became one of the most successful fighters, who celebrated numerous victories and mostly suffered only minor defeats. In December 2009 he also took part for the first time in the Kings Cup , the world's most important Muay Thai tournament in honor of the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej , which is organized by the World Muaythai Council ( WMC ). After he had prevailed in the semifinals of the qualifying tournament in Arosa in Switzerland after a first-round knockout against the Turk Ümüt Demirörüs in the final, he also defeated the Frenchman Rico Recineu with a knockout in the first round and thus managed to qualify for the world's most important Muay Thai tournament with venue in Bangkok . In the final round that followed, he won the quarter-final match against the German Enriko Kehl on points, but was then eliminated from the rest of the tournament due to a tear in his eardrum and had to pause for a few weeks.

About two months later he was able to emerge victorious over the Italian Luca D'Isanto in a fight for the ISKA Oriental World Light Middleweight Title of the International Sport Karate Association ( ISKA ) . In the mixed year 2010 he celebrated Fadi Merza various victories, but got out of the ring several times as a loser, especially at the beginning of the year. From August 2010 Merza established himself as the winner again and defeated the German- Lebanese Bachir Maroun at the Stekos Fight Night in Munich in the title fight for the World Super Welterweight Title of the WKA based on the K-1 rules. After various other victories until the end of the year, he contested another title fight at the beginning of 2011; this time against the Swede Joakim Karlsson for the receipt of the World Middleweight Title of the WKA based on the K-1 rules. He won the fight after completing five rounds on points and was able to defend the title for six further fights. After further victories over Michal Halada from the Czech Republic and Ogün Sesli from Turkey, a less successful and defeated period began for the native Syrian, which lasted about a year, from April 2011 to April 2012.

During this time he lost the fight for the WIPU "King of the Ring" K-1 Rules Super Middleweight World Title , which is organized by the World independent Promoters Union ( WIPU ), against the Turkish-Dutch martial artist Ali Gunyar and also lost his ISKA Oriental World Light Middleweight Title in a fight against the Japanese Yoshihiro Satō . During this period he was able to prove that he only managed one victory, this one in a fight at the Premium Fight Night in Vienna, when he defeated the Turk Imre Gyrmati with a first-round knockout. In the time after that he was able to defend his WKA K-1 Rules World Middleweight Title , as already mentioned, six times. In a title defense, a victory after a technical knockout in the second round against the Bosnian Darko Delić , he was also able to fight for the OPBU K-1 Rules World Middleweight Title , a world title of the Oriental Pro Boxing Union ( OPBU ) in the Multiversum Schwechat . After further defending his title, the reigning world champion for almost two and a half years had to give up his title in a fight against Fernando Calzetta from Italy in another fight in the Multiversum Schwechat on May 4th, 2013. Subsequently, he completed a few professional fights in 2014, but largely withdrew from active martial arts. With a technical knockout in the first round over the Italian Gianfranco Capurso at the Final Fight Championship on December 6, 2014, he ended his official career as a professional athlete at the age of 36.

Others

Fadi and Ines Merza (right) at the Life Ball 2014

In 2011 he was the only German-speaking athlete to take part in the Singapore reality television series The Challenger Muay Thai , from which he dropped out after the second episode. In the same year, the multiple European and world champion was honored at the Una Notte Sportiva , a sports gala in the Vienna Hofburg .

In 2012 Merza married his long-time girlfriend Ines, with whom he has been in a relationship since 2001 and with whom he has appeared regularly at society events and similar events since 2011. In October 2014, the couple announced that they would become parents the following spring. Their son, Michel, was born on May 19, 2015.

During the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 and in the months before that, Merza appeared as an interpreter at the Traiskirchen refugee camp and also supported the refugees there with donations in kind. Before that, he had already worked as an Arabic-German translator for the Austrian Ministry of the Interior in asylum and police matters from 2005 .

In the fall of 2015, Fadi Merza launched its own line of nutritional supplements called Team Merza Nutrition .

In the 10th season of the Austrian dance show Dancing Stars , Merza appeared as Cornelia Kreuter's dance partner from March 2016 , after he was officially presented on November 20, 2015 in the ORF television show Great Moments - 60 Years of Television . On April 1, he left with Cornelia Kreuter in the fifth episode.

Match record

155 fights; 127 wins (53 (T) KOs) are compared to 26 defeats (4 (T) KOs), with only two draws.

titles and achievements

  • 1997: WPKL Junior World Super Welterweight Championship
  • 2000: WPKC Muay Thai World Middleweight Title
  • 2001: WKA Thaiboxing European Middleweight Title
  • 2009: WMC Kings Cup Challenge Tournament Champion
  • 2009: Participation in the Kings Cup
  • 2010: ISKA Oriental World Light Middleweight Title
  • 2010: WKA K-1 Rules World Super Welterweight Title
  • 2011: WKA K-1 Rules World Middleweight Title
  • 2012: OPBU K-1 Rules World Middleweight Title

Web links

Commons : Fadi Merza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FFC 16 kickboxing: Veseli slavio u izvrsnoj borbi, Merza se umirovio nokaut pobjedom ( Memento from May 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Croatian), accessed on March 3, 2016
  2. ↑ Back from the TV villa! - "THE GREATEST EXPERIENCE OF MY CAREER" ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 3, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fadimerza.net
  3. ↑ Fadi Merza honored in Vienna Hofburg ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 3, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fadimerza.net
  4. ↑ Thai boxer becomes father - Fadi Merza: "Hurray, we will soon be parents!" , accessed March 3, 2016
  5. ↑ Welcome, Michel! - Ines and Fadi Merza's son is here! , accessed March 3, 2016
  6. ↑ More and more refugees - professional boxer Fadi Merza as interpreter in Traiskirchen ( memento from July 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 3, 2016
  7. ^ Austro celebrities call for help for refugees , accessed on March 3, 2016
  8. ↑ Thai boxer up close Vösendorf: Meet Fadi Merza in the SCS ( Memento from March 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ These are the "Dancing Stars 2016" , accessed on March 3, 2016
  10. ↑ "Dancing Stars": Out for Thai boxer Fadi Merza , accessed on November 19, 2016
  11. ↑ Dancing Stars: Fadi Merza danced out , accessed on November 19, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Merza, Fadi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian-Austrian martial artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Derbassiah , Syria