After having a storied wrestling career where Mahmoud Sebie has won several African championships, plus an Olympic berth in 2016, he has decided to set his sights on pursuing an MMA career. Sebie, 28, will make his debut tonight for the XMMA promotion against Jarell Murry, 25, who is 0-1. Murry is looking to pick up his first MMA win as is Sebie who has yet to fight in a cage until now.
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Sebie is a Greco-Roman wrestling standout who trains at MMA Masters alongside UFC standouts such as Colby Covington, Anthony Martin, and Ricardo Lamas. He has won numerous wrestling championships such as the Arab Championship four times, the African Championship five times, and was dubbed the best wrestler in Africa back in 2015.
He also won the gold medal at the African Cup and medaled in numerous wrestling championship Grand Prix tournaments all over Europe. Sebie advanced to the field of 32 in the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 75 kg Greco-Roman wrestling tournament before losing out to Elvin Mursailyev.
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With the athleticism that he displays and the training he undergoes, there’s no telling what Sebie can do and how he can do it as he begins what very well could be a quest for MMA fighting dominance. He made the announcement in Arabic on Facebook Watch about his future plans.
“I’m letting everyone know that I’m quitting sports in Egypt, and I’ll no longer compete there,” Sebie says. “No matter how hard you work, someone else will take your place. I’m telling everyone not to play sports in Egypt.”
Since the video went viral, he garnered just over half a million followers, as if he didn’t have any before then, and even spoke to MMAjunkie.com about his plans to transition to MMA and experiences wrestling before making that decision.
“At the time, there was some corruption from the federation,” Sebie told MMA Junkie. “They kind of took my name out of the national team, and they suspended me because I talked about that. I spoke up and mentioned every single person who was involved in that thing. That’s why my video went viral and was trending in the country. That’s why I became really big in the country.”
Sebie makes a claim that corruption played a part in his decision when he and a fellow wrestler were supposed to compete in a trial match to determine who the Egyptian committee would use. When the matches ended up getting cancelled, the committee selected the other wrestler, even though the match never formulated.
When Sebie accused the committee of bending to a local businessman who was connected to the other wrestler, he claimed that this wasn’t the first time this was done. Now that Sebie is using social media to make his announcement to go to MMA, this may be the best transaction someone like him can ever make. Whether it takes him anywhere, remains to be seen. Staying tuned to see him showcase his talents is the best all can do.