EXCLUSIVE – Five days into 2023, the Professional Fighters League’s announcement that it had signed Jake Paul inevitably drew plenty of public attention.
While the headlines about the YouTube sensation’s MMA move were being written, a towering former kickboxer who was once named the best male fighter in the Netherlands was also putting pen to paper with the promotion.
“I didn’t expect it, to be honest,” says Mohamed Amine, a menacingly powerful Moroccan based in Amsterdam with a taste for quick finishes.
WATCH: PFL Europe 1 live on DAZN on March 25
“It was the same day they announced the deal with Jake Paul, so it was a surprise but I was really happy. At first, I didn’t believe I was signed because it was a big opportunity. The PFL reached out to my management and I think it was finalised within a week.”
A kickboxer from the age of six — he was “a bit shy” and “always screaming and crying”, so his parents introduced him to the sport to improve his confidence, Amine says — the powerhouse has had to be as tough away from rings and cages as he is under the lights during some of the challenges of his early career.
Now 26, he came close to winning several tournaments as he fought around Europe, losing a tight decision to a Czech fighter in Prague in 2021 that held the promise of a ONE Championship contract for the winner.
By then, Amine had also experienced the frustration of putting his career on hold because of circumstances beyond his control including the onset of the Covid pandemic, but he made up for it when he moved into MMA, only to find himself inactive again.
“I had four fights in four months in my first year including a title fight, and I won everything,” he says, having successfully ended one of those bouts in the second round despite being on painkillers after being hospitalised by a kidney problem days earlier.
“Then three months later I lost a fight — controversially, in my eyes — and my wife had a child, and I didn’t fight for almost eight months. That was the biggest obstacle of my career because you want to win — you don’t want to stay on a losing streak.”
Amine’s persistence has now been rewarded with a shot at unbeaten rising British star Simeon Powell in Newcastle on Saturday as part of the PFL Europe season, when he will headline in front of a potentially huge global audience on DAZN and hope to take his first step towards the final of the inaugural regional league.
Powell, who came face to face with Amine in London for the first time in February, might not gain much confidence from watching the beating his opponent gave experienced former bare-knuckle fighter Leo Pla to win AKIRA’s intercontinental light-heavyweight belt in October 2021.
“I knocked him down three or four times and he didn’t stay down, so that was the proudest I’ve been,” says Amine.
“It was like a zombie moment. I was like, ‘motherf***** — go to sleep, make my night easier.’ I had to go five rounds with him. Everything I throw is to knock people out. I don’t throw easy shots.”
However he achieves it, Amine will already have imagined his exact method of ending Powell’s perfect run of seven fights. “It’s going to be carnage, this one,” he believes.
“I build it up in camp because you cannot be ferocious for eight weeks, otherwise you’re going to burn out. I visualise the fight every day and how it’s going to play out, 10 different outcomes of me winning – never losing.
“Every day I build it up and become stronger, faster and leaner. For the last few weeks, I’ve been really dialed in. I’ve seen every fight in my head; every fight against a kickboxer, a heavyweight boxer, a light-heavyweight boxer, a middleweight boxer.”
Part of that is down to his experience in different divisions, spending four of his MMA fights at heavyweight to avoid a weight cut.
“I was vegan for my first fight, and when you’re vegan you lose a lot of weight and muscle,” he says. “For my loss, I didn’t have my power. Afterwards, I started eating meat again - beef and everything - so I put on about 10 kilos and became a small heavyweight.
“Everyone has a different opinion and veganism worked for me cardio-wise. I cannot say it didn’t work because I had four fights and won three within 20 or 25 seconds. But overall, for me, I didn’t have the strength I needed with veganism.
“Maybe I got my diet wrong and needed to eat more healthy carbs, maybe more protein. Meat is easier for me. It’s a learning process — a marathon, not a sprint.”
Amine expects to be around 97kg (213lb) against Powell. “This is going to be my first weight cut since I was a heavyweight,” he says. “I’m not worried because I have a good strength and conditioning coach and he always helps me with my cuts to get down.
“I’m a professional, so it’s going to be easy. People are going to see who Mohamed Amine is and what I bring to the table. I’m really aggressive. When I fight, I’m ferocious.”