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The 23rd edition of the Leeds Sports Awards will take place on Thursday 14th May at The Carriageworks in Leeds City Centre. The awards are a celebration of the outstanding individuals, clubs and organisations that make sport in our city so special. Ubaid Hussain has been reflecting on being shortlisted for the award, and his time developing his career as a Muay Thai fighter.
Transcript
00:00Hello, my name is Obed Hussein.
00:02When I was eight, my dad took me to this gym.
00:05I just fell in love with the sport after that.
00:07Before that, I used to play football.
00:09But after that, when I got introduced to Muay Thai,
00:12I just forgot about football.
00:14I just carried on doing Muay Thai and had loads of fights
00:18till I'm now 20.
00:20So about 12 years of fighting and stuff now.
00:23Football was really soft.
00:25People used to fall around easy and stuff.
00:27But Muay Thai was really hard, tough,
00:30like sparring, doing pads.
00:32It always took, like, when I used to train,
00:36I used to go home and just quickly fall asleep.
00:38That's how hard it used to be.
00:40But I like that because, you know,
00:42I'm just that person who likes to push myself all the time.
00:46And I like to see improvement in every fight.
00:50So it's like, train hard and then fight easy.
00:53Training with Jump Hop, it's like,
00:55training here is, like, my second home.
00:58It's been, like, I live...
01:00It's basically, like, training with my family, basically.
01:03Everyone's nice to me.
01:04Everyone's, like, friendly.
01:06We mess about, we get serious sometimes if you have, like, fights.
01:09Before I started, I used to do inter-clubs,
01:12which is, like, a friendly match.
01:14So there wasn't any winners or losers.
01:16I used to have loads of them, like, every...
01:18I had a few every week.
01:20And then I got into, like, tournaments as a kid.
01:24And I had around, like, 60, 70 amateur fights and junior fights.
01:57And then when I was 16, I moved to a professional,
01:59like, London and other ones.
02:01But this one, like, really big
02:02because it's in, like, my home city and stuff.
02:04And me and my dad are, like, heavy on, like, charity work.
02:08So we're doing, like, fundraising where I sparred.
02:11And I sparred, like, different people around the country and stuff
02:15to raise money for, like, care homes and hospitals and, like, food banks.
02:23And that brought, like, more people around me.
02:26And then I bring, I train, like, kids.
02:30I help with the kids' class, even the adults' class.
02:32I train people privately.
02:33In my next few fights, hopefully, I can get the big contract.
02:38I get signed to the biggest stage.
02:41And hopefully, one day, I can fight for the belt as well.
02:45It's helped me, like, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally.
02:49It's truly a blessing to help these people around me,
02:53such as my dad, my mum, John Pop, my trainer,
02:56and my teammates around the world.
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