Amir Naseri
The Fighter, 2015
BA (Hons) in Event Management
“I take failures as a push factor to train harder, instead of pulling me down.”
25 June 2015
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Amir Naseri is competitive, a believer of perseverance and determination. He trains hard and dedicates his time and body for his dream. On 4th May, his day-to-day intensive training and months-long hard work paid off. He was declared the winner of the ‘1 Muay Thai World Championship’.
Naseri has gone a long way in the Muay Thai world. He first tried this martial arts discipline at the age of 13, when a cousin invited him to a kickboxing gymnasium nearby for a trial session.
“I was only curious but it turned out to be interesting. As I developed my skills, learned and trained more, I found out that it was addictive,” Naseri recalled.
“I am satisfied of my accomplishment after winning fights, it makes me want to do them more.”
He then developed an even deeper liking to Muay Thai, and eventually, an attachment to it. At the age of 17, he fought his first match. Before graduating, Naseri had been in 17 fights, with a record 13 triumphant wins.
While studying in Limkokwing University, he won a few significant Muay Thai tournaments titles. In 2012, he became the ‘F-3 International Muay Thai’ champion. In the same year, he won the Best Fighter Award in the ‘Sultan Cup of Kelantan’ sport competition. Two years later, he brought home the victor belt of a local tournament recognised by the International Muay Thai Council, the ‘Kuala Lumpur International Muay Thai Challenge 2014’.
Right after graduation in December 2014, the Limkokwing alumnus with an Event Management degree dedicated himself for an intensive training in a local camp, preparing for an international tournament in Hong Kong, which he lost in a tight match.
“I remembered that quite a number of audiences protested the judges for putting me as a runner-up, but nobody could change their decisions,” Naseri chuckled, “Although I threw a lot of killer shots, but my opponent won by points.”
Losing, however, have encouraged the young fighter to keep on improving.
“I take failures as a push factor to train harder, instead of pulling me down,” he said.
“After losing to a fight, I honestly would feel a little down. I dedicated my time and body for an intensive training that made me function as a machine but I still lost,” he reminisced. “This was my schedule; woke up, trained, ate, woke up, slept, and repeat. Every single day until tournament day.”
Naseri continued, “failures are definitely learning experiences.”
At first, my parents were not supportive of me being a professional fighter. But as time goes by, they eventually do and they have been supportive of me until now.
When asked what else kept him going to win all those titles, Naseri credited everlasting support from his loved ones.
“At first, my parents were not supportive of me being a professional fighter. But as time goes by, they eventually do and they have been supportive of me until now”.
Naseri, who won a Leadership Award from Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr. Lim Kok Wing in December 2014, continued, “Even the Limkokwing community supported me continuously. I would get text messages from all my school friends and some lecturers before the fight, wishing me the best.”
Naseri, who was born in Tehran, Iran, but raised in Malaysia ever since he was 8, credited Limkokwing University and his Event Management studies, “The University houses students from 150 different countries, enabling me to meet numerous people of various cultural backgrounds.”
He continued, “I was rather a shy person before, but my course of study, lecturers, and the school’s environment encouraged me for interaction. From then on, I became a better communicator. I am signed up by a Spanish friend to a fight in Canary Island because of communication.”
In the next couple of months, he would be traveling back up to the Phuket camp for intensive trainings. He is currently preparing for three upcoming fights on August and September – two in Hong Kong and another in Canary Island, Spain.
Naseri smiled, “I have always defined success as finishing on top, and I will finish the upcoming three fights on top, as a champ.”
