On Saturday night at the very first XMMA promotional event was the very first MMA fight of Mahmoud Sebie (1-0). He didn’t disappoint and took home his first victory over Jarell Murry (0-2) in West Palm Beach, Florida in the promotion’s preliminary matchups. For someone who hasn’t competed since 2018 in a wrestling Grand Prix event in Bulgaria, he made it short and sweet.
Mahmoud Sebie TKO's Jarell Murry #XMMA1 pic.twitter.com/UCHCDcUZy8
— Streetfight Banned-cho (@streetfitebncho) January 31, 2021
At the start of the opening bell, he came out and started taking down Murry several times using suplexes and from there mounted Murry with punches. Sebie ended up winning the fight via TKO using the ground and pound method at 1:52 of Round 1. On a bad note, Sebie also happened to injure his left knee while stomping the mat after the victory.
The MMA Masters fighter began training in his new sport in late 2020 after ending a bid to train for his second Olympic appearance. Before participating in his first, he was a four-time Arab wrestling champion and a five-time African champion. He also won a slew of wrestling tournaments in other international competitions.
Sebie took to social media to announce his transition to the new hybrid of MMA. He also called out the corruption of the Egyptian committee for favoring another wrestler over him after canceling a supposed matchup between the two. He knew that speaking out against the committee would have serious repercussions, but nevertheless, Sebie’s decision has given him a stronger sense of morality.
“I’m fearless,” Sebie said to MMAJunkie. “I’m not scared of anybody. Whatever I see, I’m going to talk about it – especially when you see your career and all you’ve planned to do and some people literally put you down. I was falling down, you know? At the time, I was sad. I had done all that for the country. I was with the national team for almost 12 years. That’s not what I deserved.”