3 Kurdish MMA fighters to compete at UFC event in Sweden
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Three Kurdish Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters are scheduled to compete at the upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 1.
Two of the athletes are seasoned UFC fighters who have competed in the past and are named on the UFC Fight Night 153 main card.
Makwan Amirkhani (14-3-0) will fight Chris Fishgold (18-2-1) in a Featherweight bout while Light Heavyweight Volkan Oezdemir (15-4-0) will take on Ilir Latifi (14-6-0, 1NC) in the co-main event matchup.
The main card begins at 8 p.m. Erbil time.
Amirkhani, who fights out of Turku, Finland, was born in the Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) city of Kermanshah.
Oezdemir, meanwhile, was born in Fribourg, Switzerland. His father is a Kurd from Erzincan province (Erzingan in Kurdish) in northeastern Turkey who married a Swiss woman.
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Elsewhere, Kurdish fighter Rostem Akman from Mardin in the Kurdistan of Turkey is set to make his UFC debut.
Akman, an undefeated MMA fighter who holds a professional record of 6-0, was called up to fill in for Bartosz Fabinski (14-3-0) who recently pulled out of his Welterweight bout against Russian Sergey Khandozhko (25-5-1).
With just seven days notice, Akman will compete in his first UFC fight on the preliminary card which begins at 5 p.m. Erbil time.
His most recent professional fight was a knockout victory against Brazilian opponent Mauricio Reis at Superior Challenge 19 in Stockholm on May 11.
The June 1 showpiece is the first time in UFC history that three Kurdish fighters will compete at the same event.
