People ask me all the time why I fight. Some people want a simple answer. Some want an inspiring one. The real answer is complicated and I think it is worth telling properly because it explains not just why I started but why I keep going even when it gets hard, which it always does at some point.
I was born in Khartoum, Sudan. My family came to the United States when I was four years old. My mother raised me as a single parent in Seattle, Washington. She worked jobs that most people would not want to work and she worked them without complaint because she had children to feed and a future to build. I watched her do that for years and it shaped everything about how I approach difficulty. She never made excuses. She just kept going. That is in me. That is in everything I do.
Finding Wrestling in Middle School
I found wrestling in middle school and something clicked immediately. I went through my sixth, seventh, and eighth grade seasons without losing a match. Not because I was naturally gifted beyond my competition. I want to be honest about that. I won because I refused to lose in a way that felt almost irrational at the time. When I was on the mat and someone was trying to beat me I had a response in my body that went beyond strategy or technique. It was something more primal than that. I simply was not going to let it happen.
I did not know it then but that refusal was the foundation of everything that came after. Combat sports is at its core about who you are when you are exhausted and hurt and somebody is trying to impose their will on you. The answer to that question lives in your character not in your technique. Technique is what you build on top of character. Without the character the technique has nothing to stand on.
I also discovered during those wrestling years that the discipline of training felt natural to me. Getting up early, putting in the reps, doing the work that nobody sees, competing and then going back to the gym the next day regardless of the result. That cycle made sense to my brain in a way that a lot of other things in life did not at that age. The gym was where I could control outcomes through effort. I responded to that strongly.
Starting MMA at Nineteen
I started training mixed martial arts at nineteen years old. By that point I had a wrestling base that gave me a real foundation to build on. I started learning striking, BJJ, and how to put it all together in a format where everything is on the table at the same time. The complexity of MMA is part of what drew me to it. It is not just one skill. It is the integration of multiple fighting systems under pressure with another trained athlete trying to stop you from doing what you want to do. That puzzle has kept me engaged for over a decade.
My amateur career ran from 2014 to 2021 and I finished with a record of 21 wins and 3 losses. Those 21 wins were built one by one in gyms and at regional shows across the Pacific Northwest. The three losses taught me more than most of the wins. Every loss I had in my amateur career forced me to look at a specific weakness and address it. My game today is significantly built on lessons from the times I came up short.
When I turned professional I knew the level was going to jump. The LFA fight against Moses Diaz in December 2021 was my first professional bout and I lost by TKO in the first round. That was a hard night. Going back to square one mentally after working so hard to get to that moment took real effort. I will not pretend it was easy. It was not. But I came back. I always come back.
The Nickname and What It Means
Black Lightning came naturally. People who have trained with me or watched me fight understand it. Fast hands, fast feet, and a style that can light up an opponent without warning. The nickname stuck and I grew into it. Now it feels like more than a nickname. It feels like a responsibility. You put on a name like that and you have to show up and represent what it stands for every time you step in the cage.
I am also a jiu jitsu coach and content creator alongside being a professional fighter. I trained at Marcelo Alonso BJJ for years building my ground game and now I train and coach at 10Kicks Gym under Coach Stanly Phan in Seattle. Teaching others what I know about fighting and movement has made me a better fighter. When you have to explain something clearly enough that another person can understand it and apply it, your own understanding of that thing deepens significantly.
Why I Will Not Stop
I fight because I am built for this. Not because I never question it. Every fighter who is being honest with you will tell you there are moments of doubt. Hard camps, long days, losses that sting, the grind of managing everything that comes with being a professional athlete outside of just the athletic performance itself. Those moments are real and they test you.
But I also fight because of what it means. Because there are kids in Seattle from immigrant families who need to see someone who looks like them competing at this level and building something from it. Because my mother sacrificed too much for me to half effort anything. Because when I am on top of my game and everything connects inside that cage there is nothing else in the world that feels like it. Because I am not done yet. The work is ongoing. The mission is ongoing. Black Lightning is ongoing.
If you want to follow where this goes, stay connected on Instagram and YouTube. The best chapters are still ahead.
