Shah Kamali was recently successful in his professional debut, and has now revealed his plans for both the immediate and distant future.
He faced Dutchman Jimmy Van Bemmelen at a Levels Fight League event in Amsterdam back in October. Despite suffering a dislocated knee in training camp, Kamali rallied from an early takedown to knock his opponent out in the first round.
He shared the card with training partner and fellow heavyweight talent Mario Pinto, who found success in the main event.
The Bangladeshi fighter is now looking to return early next year ahead of a busy 2024.
He said: “Yeah, yeah 100% – I’m looking towards February, get 2024 started off strong, you know. Yeah, I’m always about activity, I want to stay fit, healthy and if I’m healthy I’m gonna fight as many times as possible in a year.
“So, February, that’s what I’m looking at and then we’ll see after that because, you know, It’s the pro game, you know if you rack up a few big wins you can already see the path to the big organisations.”
Kamali also discussed his distant plans as he looks to progress as a pro.
He continued: “Personally, I want to fight and get as much experience around Europe and Asia as I can.
“I want to look at fighting in Rizin or anywhere around there – granted that It’s not a restrictive contract. Because I’ve heard that ONE championship and organisations like that – they have extremely restricted contracts.
“Yeah, but I really want to just get that experience on the global stage because I think it’s important, as a fighter, to build your brand in other countries and, you know, get your name out there.”
Kamali Proud to Represent Bangladesh on the World Stage
The former FightStar amateur heavyweight champion is of Bangladeshi heritage and is proud to represent his country.
The South Asian country has little representation in professional sports outside of cricket, and Kamali is looking forward to making waves in MMA while representing Bangladesh.
He said: “It means a lot because there’s not a lot of people, especially in pro sports. Especially as a Bangladeshi, you know, the only pro sports that really get recognition is cricket and things of that nature – [and] badminton or whatever. But, on a global stage they haven’t really seen MMA fighters that are Bangladeshi.
“So I’ve got a lot of big attention over there because they shared my debut, it’s got millions of views on Facebook – [it’s] got about two three million views on YouTube which is crazy, which is insane if you think about it. It’s just my debut and it’s already racking up millions of views because, you know, they’ve never seen it before and I kind of know that but at the same time it’s crazy to see the feedback.
Shah Kamali Full Exclusive Interview
You can watch the full interview with Kamali below:
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