Hamada Azmani, world champion in overcoming prejudices

Like all the children in his neighbourhood, Poblaw, in Nador (Morocco), Hamada Azmani spent hours kicking a ball. His obsession, however, was in the gym: he wanted to learn kickboxing, a sport that was very popular in the area. His mother wouldn’t let him because she thought it was too violent. When he insisted, one day she told him that she would allow him if he got good grades at school. She complied. So the little boy put on the gloves and tried. “Two months later, she asked me to keep practising because that would get me off the streets and everything would go better,” recalls the boy, now 23 years old. He was barely 15 when he snuck in with a group of female porters to cross the border to Melilla, where he spent 30 months in a juvenile centre. At 18 he arrived in Malaga. On his journey he never gave up his favourite sport and now he has just proclaimed himself a member of the World champion in the 57kg category“It was my dream,” said the man who celebrated his title with the flags of Morocco and Spain on his back.

Anklets, shin guards, helmet, gloves. Every training session is a ritual for Azmani. After warming up, he crosses the ropes and transforms into the ring. He stops being a simple, polite, somewhat shy boy with deep eyes, to become a brave, proud, determined guy. A prodigy. He seems to float above the canvas while he moves lightly and, in just a blink of an eye, he throws kicks that scare people. “From the outside it seems that in this sport we only hit each other. I think it is not well understood, because from the inside it is something else. In fights we are all equal, it does not matter if you are a lawyer, a policeman or whatever. And we are all family, friends,” he explains while effusively greeting his colleagues at the Ultimate Fight School gym in Mijas, where he trains. There he also trains children and teenagers. “He is a machine,” defines Abdo Chahidi, one of the instructors at the sports centre.

The fight where he won the world champion belt in his category was won by knockout. It was not easy. He was fighting as a visitor, with the public against him, against the Italian Paolo Cannito. He received numerous blows, but Azmani always recovered. He is used to it because life has already tried to knock him down on several occasions. He remembers how hard it was to leave his family behind, the fear of crossing the border, the difficulties suffered during the two and a half years in the La Purísima juvenile centre in Melilla, where the degraded conditions and lack of material in which migrant children live have been denounced on various occasions by social organisations and the Ombudsman. He did not know the language, but he studied it while training as a gardener and waiter in a difficult environment. In the autonomous city he again got away from the streets thanks to his training in Alejandro Bonilla’s gym, who saw his potential and encouraged him to compete. Then he achieved his first victories.

“Here comes the black panther”

On his 18th birthday, he was left on the street, with little money and documentation that did not allow him to work. He could travel, so he crossed to the Peninsula by boat. It was 2018 and he went straight to see some friends in Malaga. They recommended that he go through the NGO Malaga Welcomeswhich she went to the next day. There were no places available in the city’s public shelter for homeless people, but they did tell her where she could get food, what steps she should take to improve her situation, and asked her to be patient. She spent three months sleeping on the streets.

And one fine day in 2019, the social entity expanded its network of foster homes and offered him a place. He accepted and spent two well-spent years there. He continued his training and was trained in hospitality and construction. Every day he passed by the Málaga Acoge offices to look for new opportunities. There they knew him by his sporting name. “Here comes the Black Panther,” they would say when they saw him arrive. “Without a work permit he couldn’t fight at an international level, that was his biggest frustration,” recalls Geno Pérez, who heads the NGO’s Youth Department. “He didn’t always have the best of friends, but he never let himself be dragged down. Boxing saved him. And his partner, too,” adds Irene Peñalver, who coordinated the association’s Employment Department during those years.

In 2020, he became the father of a daughter with his girlfriend – whom he met in Melilla; she was in another juvenile centre, Gota de Leche – and Azmani took a step forward. He got a job in construction assembling plasterboard panels. He became independent with his family in a flat in the La Palmilla neighbourhood. First he worked for six months in Huelva. Then in Marbella. Every day he left home at six in the morning, walked 30 minutes to the station and got on a train for 45 minutes that took him to Fuengirola. There a colleague would pick him up until he reached his destination. Every afternoon, another almost two-hour journey back.

“It was very tiring, but I had to do it, I wanted to learn a trade and earn money,” he stresses. He always found time to train. And now, after moving to Mijas —much closer to Marbella— he goes to the gym for about two hours a day. “My partner is at home, looks after the girl, takes her to nursery, everything. That is a job too. Without her I couldn’t achieve anything,” says the man who speaks with admiration of Ayoub Ghadfa, a Marbella resident of his age —he is 25 years old and of Moroccan origin— who started practising kickboxing to defend himself from bullying at school and won a silver medal at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.

“We come to improve our lives”

“As with Hamada, the stories of all the children we have worked with at Málaga Acoge are of success. Being 18 or 19 is a complex age in which they become adults far from their families. It is a complicated path in which there are many failures, but when they feel support they always find their way,” says Geno Pérez. “It is very difficult,” confirms the boy. “You have to be patient, make an effort, and let yourself be advised,” says Azmani, whose skin colour and nationality have also caused him problems. “It is even harder to overcome prejudices: it takes a long time to show what you really are,” insists the one who looks towards Melilla, but also towards Ceuta. “People say that boys like me come to steal or commit crimes. There will be everything, but most of us come to improve our lives, just as there are Spaniards who go to Germany. With a little support and opportunities, it can be achieved. And in the end it is good for everyone,” he concludes.

After the conversation, Azmani prepares for the photos. He returns to the ritual. Anklets, shin guards, helmet, gloves. That was what he was doing when a few months ago he received the call to challenge the then world kickboxing champion of the ISKA federation. The time had come to fulfil a dream. He increased his training, studied his rival, worked his mind. Dressed in the Málaga CF shirt, he arrived in Rome, saw and conquered.

Happy, posed for Instagram with a Spanish flag and a Moroccan one“My daughter was born here, I’ve been here for almost nine years now… I’m from both places,” admits the man who competes representing Spain, although he has Moroccan nationality. After the victory, he went to Nador for two weeks to visit his family – he has a younger brother and two sisters – and his holidays are now over, so it’s time to get back to work. Now, between plasterboard and plasterboard, he’s looking forward to the call from a new rival to defend his title and continue his fight against prejudice.