{"id":64574,"date":"2024-01-22T11:41:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=64574"},"modified":"2024-01-22T11:41:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:41:35","slug":"interview-with-first-ever-british-pakistani-mma-fighter-shoaib-yousaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/22\/interview-with-first-ever-british-pakistani-mma-fighter-shoaib-yousaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with first ever British-Pakistani MMA fighter Shoaib Yousaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Asian Today speaks witjh <\/strong>English fighter of OKTAGON MMA organization. Shoaib Yousaf. \u00a0He started his professional career in 2016.<\/p>\n

What was your first experience with OKTAGON in November like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have fought on some big shows, but OKTAGON has been the best. The production, the way they look after you, it\u2019s a fighter\u2019s dream. Even the little things that people don\u2019t see backstage, everything was perfect.<\/p>\n

After that impressive win, you\u2019re ranked number 4 in their featherweight rankings. Do you think a win gives you a shot at the title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think so, I\u2019ll be up there. My focus is on my next fight though, I don\u2019t like thinking ahead too far, so let\u2019s see.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re fighting Eduard Kexel – how has it been preparing for him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s a very good, tough opponent. He reminds me of myself. We both did the IMMAF, and he\u2019s a good opponent, a good wrestler and I\u2019m not looking past him. It\u2019ll be a good fight.<\/p>\n

Losene Keita is the featherweight champ, and one of the biggest stars in OKTAGON. What are your thoughts on him as a fighter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s very very good. Explosive, and you can\u2019t say anything but good things about him. I\u2019d never say no\u00a0 to any fight.<\/p>\n

The fans you brought to Manchester were incredible, probably the loudest on the night. How has the reaction been since this fight got announced?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Assassin\u2019s Army will be in Newcastle! They\u2019re always amazing whenever I get a fight announced, and they\u2019ll come out in full force again.<\/p>\n

How important is it for you to be flying the flag for Lancashire?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I come from a small town in Lancashire (Nelson) and it\u2019s strange for me, but I think I am a bit of a role model. It\u2019s very important for me. They\u2019ve always given me great support and I want to do this not just for myself, but for them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a trailblazer when it comes to British-Pakistani fighters. Have you seen a spike in interest in martial arts in the British-Pakistani community in recent years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah 100%. When I used to fight on some shows, I used to be the only British-Pakistani fighting, but now they are more and more. A lot more are coming into MMA now.<\/p>\n

What does it mean for you be to a role model for this community?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a lot of other role models as well doing great things for the community, but the fact that people see me as one is amazing, and I love that I can help inspire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Asian Today speaks witjh English fighter of OKTAGON MMA organization. Shoaib Yousaf. \u00a0He started his professional career in 2016. What was your first experience with OKTAGON in November like for you? I have fought on some big shows, but OKTAGON has been the best. The production, the way they look after you, it\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64576,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64574\/revisions\/64576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}