Draft:Murat Kazgan

• Comment: All sources given seem to be auto-generated statistic websites. The last source seems to be written by the subject, so it is not a secondary source. LR.127 (talk) 01:34, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

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Murat Kazgan was born in Istanbul in 1986. He began his sports career with kickboxing in 1992. Between 1997 and 2000, he became the Turkish champion twice and held an undefeated amateur record with 33 fights in boxing and kickboxing until he started MMA in 2004. From 2000 to 2009, he intensely trained in freestyle wrestling in addition to boxing and kickboxing to develop his MMA skills.

In 2009, he earned the title of the first and only A-class professional cage fighter called from Turkey after his fight in London. Upon returning to Turkey, he founded Kazgan Fight + Fitness Academy in Istanbul to promote and develop the sport of MMA.

In 2011, he fought in Turkey's first professional MMA fight and defeated his Kazakh opponent in 55 seconds with an arm triangle technique, winning by submission. He appeared on numerous television programs in Turkey, including Beyaz Show, Hülya Avşar, Billur Kalkavan, Seray Sever, Saba Tümer, and Defne Samyeli, gaining widespread recognition in both print and visual media and introducing MMA to the Turkish public.

In 2012, he defeated Lee Hyung Sung, a semi-finalist with 9 wins in 11 fights, by submission in 55 seconds with a Guillotine Choke technique. In the same year, he became the face of Adidas' 100th-anniversary model and appeared in various media outlets as a brand ambassador.

In 2014, he became the first and only Turkish MMA fighter in the world to achieve a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). He signed a sponsorship deal with Booster Fight Gear, one of the renowned combat sports brands, which lasted for seven years. He competed against Anatoly Pokrovsky in one of Europe's largest MMA organizations, Fight Night Russia, and won the Best Submission of the Year award at ROAD FC, one of the top five organizations in the world based in South Korea.

In 2015, he became an official contracted fighter for Blackhouse MMA in Los Angeles. The same year, he was appointed as the head coach of the Turkish MMA Federation. Since 2015, he has been providing training to promote and develop MMA in various cities across Turkey. Additionally, he gave seminars in Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 2015. He has trained 12 professional and hundreds of amateur MMA fighters who have competed in various organizations worldwide. In 2016, he married Jasmin Kazgan.

In 2016, he signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Reebok, becoming the official face of Reebok's fight sponsors in Turkey. He also signed a sponsorship agreement with Xenofit, one of Germany's largest supplement brands, becoming their official face in Turkey. He was featured on the cover of Men's Health magazine's 100th-anniversary special issue in 2016 and competed for the ROAD FC World Championship belt that same year.

Murat Kazgan at BKFC

In 2017, he was featured on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine and joined American Top Team, one of the largest MMA teams in the world based in Florida. By 2018, the number of Kazgan Fight + Fitness gyms in Turkey had reached six. Numerous world-renowned UFC stars and trainers, including Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Pedro Munhoz, Rani Yahya, Katel Kubis, and Conan Silveira, have held seminars at Kazgan Fight + Fitness gyms. In 2018, he welcomed the birth of his daughter, Mia.

In 2019, he won the Vendetta FC World Championship belt at an event held in Istanbul's Ülker Sports Arena. In 2021, he signed a sponsorship deal with Damat Tween and hosted his own sports program on Turkey's most-watched sports channel, S Sport TV, for 31 episodes in 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, he became the first Turkish bare-knuckle fighter to sign with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), the world's largest bare-knuckle boxing organization.

In his first BKFC fight on January 27, 2023, at BKFC 35 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, he defeated his American opponent Jordan Weeks by TKO in 1 minute and 47 seconds. In 2023, he served as the fight director for the Netflix movie "Boğa Boğa," produced by Ay Yapım and starring Turkey's famous actor Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, directed by Onur Saylak. He moved to Florida, USA, in 2023, and fought as the co-main event against renowned UFC fighter Julian Lane in the BKFC organization in Orlando, Florida.

In 2023, he continued his success by expanding the Kazgan Fight + Fitness gym to West Palm Beach, Florida. This was a significant milestone as it became the first professional fight gym from Turkey to open in the United States. He also partnered with Drink Glow, a brand co-owned by Kylie Jenner, in 2023.

References

Herbertkikoy (talk) 14:18, 24 July 2024 (UTC)