Saudi fighters out to 'prove themselves'
Abdullah al-Qahtani trades jabs with a sparring partner at a gym in the Saudi capital Riyadh, surrounded by a dozen fighters running through their own drills on the crowded mat.
The humble setting is a far cry from where he's headed: the bright lights of Madison Square Garden in New York City, where this week he and another Saudi combatant will try to put the kingdom's mixed martial arts (MMA) scene on the map.
Combining elements of everything from boxing to judo and Muay Thai, MMA had a limited following in Saudi Arabia just a decade ago, but that started to change when the Gulf kingdom hosted the popular regional Desert Force competition in 2014.
The sport's popularity has since soared with the rise of fighters from across the Middle East and the establishment of a national MMA foundation to develop Saudi talent.
Qahtani and his Jeddah-based compatriot Mostafa Rashed Neda are set to compete on Wednesday in separate bouts in New York as part of the Professional Fighters League playoffs – a star turn they hope will lead to global recognition.
"They are fighting to prove themselves," said Peter Murray, chief executive of the PFL, an MMA promotion company that has come up in the wake of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's success.
Saudi Arabia, Murray added, is strongly placed to become a wellspring of MMA fighters and fans.
"We think the talent's there, and there's a need for added capabilities, and we're committed to that."
Qahtani, known as "The Reaper", told AFP he was more than prepared to square off against US featherweight David Zelner, despite training primarily in Saudi Arabia and being fairly new to the sport.
"This is an old-school gym," he said of the spot where he often works out, its walls decorated with cartoon sketches of boxing legends Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson and sayings like "The coward dies a thousand times".
"It's not the best and it does not have the best equipment, but it has very good fighters."
Qahtani spent much of his childhood in Morocco and first learned how to box there.
When he returned to Saudi Arabia in 2010, MMA was "not famous or known", and he did not find a local club where he could train regularly until 2016.
Neda, the other Saudi on Wednesday's PFL undercard, was forced to turn to YouTube to learn the basics of MMA, and his first proper sparring partner was an American-English teacher who showed him jiujitsu fundamentals.
Inspired, Neda took it upon himself to introduce MMA to other Saudis, selling it as a form of "street fighting" and eventually forming a club of his own.
"It was a difficult time, but thank God, during the last four or five years, MMA has grown a lot" in the country, he said.
"There is a very large fan base and it's a fast-growing fan base," the PFL's Murray said, noting that the league hopes to hold events in the kingdom as soon as next year.
"We're seeing avid MMA fans throughout the Middle East and Saudi Arabia further engaged in the sport."
MMA's journey in Saudi Arabia has not always been smooth.
In 2019, a year after Saudi agents had killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Ultimate Fighting Championship owner Endeavor sought to distance itself from Riyadh and returned a $400-million investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
For Qahtani and Neda, the kingdom's emergence as an MMA powerhouse is inevitable, something they hope the world better understands on Wednesday after they step into the cage in Madison Square Garden, hallowed ground for fighting legends.
"This fight will seal my destiny... it is a sacred place for us," Qahtani said.
"God willing, I will make everyone proud and win. I'm not afraid, but rather excited."