In late January, Hattan Alsaif turned the primary feminine fighter from Saudi Arabia to enroll with a serious international combined martial arts (MMA) promotion, the Professional Fighters League (PFL).
Alsaif, 22, received gold on the 2023 International Federation of Muaythai Associations World Championships, the place she was awarded Breakthrough Female Athlete. Last yr she additionally took first place on the World Combat Games and the Saudi Games.
However, her journey outdoors the ring has additionally grabbed headlines.
Alsaif’s mother and father divorced proper after she was born and he or she grew up at her grandmother’s home. When she was aged simply 10, each of Alsaif’s mother and father died within the house of 10 months. She spent years residing with melancholy and tried suicide on a number of events.
In a dialog with Al Jazeera – has been edited for readability and size – Alsaif shares her struggles, her harm and ache whereas rising up, the lack of her mother and father, and the way she discovered her calling in MMA.
Al Jazeera: You’re the primary Saudi feminine fighter to signal with a serious MMA promotion. Tell us simply how huge that is.
Hattan Alsaif: This is without doubt one of the biggest issues to have occurred in my life. It’s additionally a really huge accountability and I’ve to take it severely and punctiliously. I’ll be representing my nation, my household, my workforce and in addition each different Saudi feminine. It’s large and I’m positive I’m the proper individual to do it.
Al Jazeera: What makes you say you’re the proper individual?
Alsaif: It’s due to the talents. I at all times inform myself I used to be born to struggle, it’s my path, my profession, my future, my pastime, my life, my the whole lot. I’m at all times attempting my finest and killing myself to do the most effective.
🚀 History within the making! 🌟 Hattan Alsaif turns into the first-ever Saudi Arabian-born ladies’s fighter to signal with a serious MMA promotion. 🥊 A real honor for her and a step ahead for aspiring feminine fighters. Let’s pave the way in which for extra alternatives! 👊 #PFL #MMA pic.twitter.com/QuzLxXqj3T
— Don’t Grab The Cage ! (@dontgrabthecage) January 31, 2024
Al Jazeera: You’ve mentioned you have been born to do that. How a lot does it imply to you?
Alsaif: It actually means the whole lot to me. Unlike different fighters, I discovered martial arts fairly late. While others have been preventing for 5 to seven years, it has not even been three years for me. I’m so pleased with all that I’ve achieved in that point.
Since the primary day of my coaching, I felt at dwelling within the health club. I felt so related with the coaching, the gloves, the coach. I knew this was my calling and the proper place for me.
Al Jazeera: You’ve had losses within the ring however larger losses outdoors of it. How have these formed the individual you’re right now?
Alsaif: After I misplaced my mother and father, I informed myself I’ve nothing extra to lose. Parents information you to heaven, allow you to in your life to change into a superb individual and shedding them is like shedding your complete life. There’s no person to information you or pray for you. So I made a decision to take my possibilities in life. I used to be attempting to be liable for myself.
My mother and father divorced after I used to be born. They then had their very own households. I used to be alone. When I obtained sick, I needed to maintain myself. When I used to be going to high school, I used to be doing my very own hair. It’s issues like that. I believe it’s that life that [helped me] to take this accountability for myself.
Al Jazeera: You endured a lot at such an early age: Loss of fogeys and melancholy amongst different issues. How have sport and martial arts helped you?
Alsaif: After shedding my mother and father, I used to be taking revenge on life. I used to be at all times indignant, selecting fights with everybody and taking my anger out in all places due to what occurred.
I attempted quite a lot of different avenues: writing, drawing, skating, operating, dancing, cooking and different issues. But I by no means discovered myself. I simply didn’t really feel I used to be in the proper place or might present how good I’m.
But since I stepped into the world of martial arts, I realised that’s the place I can put my melancholy, anger, revenge, the whole lot. And find yourself respiratory usually.
Al Jazeera: You spoke loads about harm and ache. How a lot harm and ache do you’ll want to change into a fighter and did you take into account giving up at any level?
Alsaif: We don’t have quite a lot of women taking on martial arts simply but in Saudi Arabia, so I’ve been coaching with guys within the health club. They not solely have extra expertise than me however are additionally extra highly effective.
My coach would at all times inform them to not go straightforward on me and to punch me and harm me. If they punch me arduous, I’ll attempt my finest to punch them tougher. I’ve been crying twice every week from the ache. It’s immense.
There’s psychological in addition to bodily injury. I cry however then I wipe my tears with the gloves and I full my coaching. There isn’t any stopping. I’ll cry and I’ll hold coaching. I’ll get harm, my eyes will go blue, my physique may have quite a lot of scars however I’ll hold going. This makes me really feel who I’m.
History within the making! ✍️👏
Welcome the latest Amateur signee to the Professional Fighters League @hattanalsaif24 pic.twitter.com/W2NMMBXlfm
— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 30, 2024
Al Jazeera: What then would you say to individuals who’ve been by way of loads and are near giving up?
Alsaif: I’ve been by way of melancholy for practically three years. I used to be drowning in it. On my physique, there are quite a lot of scars from self-hurt. I attempted suicide. Just something that might take me away from melancholy. It was controlling me method an excessive amount of. I used to be giving up. I needed to cease and for it to finish. I assumed there was no level being alive when you haven’t any mother and father and nothing goes your method.
That second, once I was so scared, I took a leap of religion and jumped to the opposite aspect. The second you are feeling such as you’re at your lowest, while you’re giving up, that is the second you need to leap. That’s once I took up martial arts regardless of the worry.
The considered going to the health club for coaching helped. I knew it could assist me sleep properly. I’m going to coaching, I put the whole lot else in my thoughts and life apart. I knew that if I didn’t try this and leap, I’d be caught in the dead of night with my melancholy and demons till I died.
Al Jazeera: So what then is the dream now? Where do you see your self going from right here?
Alsaif: I wish to be the most effective. Anyone can say that however, for me, it’s a deep, deep phrase. I’m obsessive. I love perfection. I wish to attain the highest in the whole lot. I don’t wish to have 15 p.c of something. I would like one hundred pc.
I do know the journey received’t be straightforward from right here and I’ll cry and get harm alongside the way in which however that’s the trail I wish to take.
Resources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2024/2/15/hattan-alsaif-female-saudi-arabia-mixed-martial-arts-fighter-mma-pfl-interview?traffic_source=rss
