2023-12-30 08:00:03
Khyzer Hayat arrived in Catalonia in 2001, seven years old, from Pakistan. “My father had come to live here alone before I was born because supporting 6 children and his wife working in Pakistan was not easy,” she recalls, remembering her father’s work journey: Saudi Arabia, Greece, Barcelona… until put down roots in Malgrat de Mar, where they were the only Pakistanis. Few could imagine that, two decades later, that young Pakistani raised in Catalonia would become triple muay thai world champion and it would be an example of integration.
“Our father brought us here so that we could become more alert than we would have done in Barcelona, where there were many Pakistani families,” he remembers. “In big cities some communities relate only to each other, but it’s different when you go to a small town like Malgrat [19.000 habitantes]. In Barcelona it would have taken longer to learn Catalan and Spanish and I wouldn’t have integrated as quickly because I would have only interacted with people from my culture. In Malgrat there was no other option, I wasn’t going to be signing all day.”
Although the teachers and the other children tried to help him, Khyzer remembers that it was hard, because Urdu or Punjabi that he spoke until then had nothing to do with Catalan or Spanish. “It’s not so easy to make friends, especially when you don’t have much command of a language at first. Because you are the different one, the strange one. You have to make a living, because imagine a child of that age without friends. He is not recommended to anyone.”
Fight with partner
When he was 10 years old he got into a fight with a classmate in physical education class. “Do what we trained,” another boy advised his rival. “He threw me to the ground and started hitting me.”, remember. After that first fight The teacher forced them to make peace. The next day, once the armistice was signed, Khyzer asked him what he was training for. “Muay Thai.”
He had just learned two more new words, but not just any pair, but ones that would change his life forever. “Come train with me,” said his former enemy, now the first teacher of that exotic martial art. She accepted the invitation and a new world opened up to her. “Instead of walking around the street alone, without friends, I spent an hour training, doing what I liked,” she says. “It helped me acquire the discipline and values that martial arts give you, which are very valuable.”
Not only did he like it and it helped him expand his social network, but he was good at it. More than good. He was seeing his evolution, that he didn’t miss his coach either. “If you go all out you can get good results,” he repeated to himself. At the age of 12 he played his first amateur fight and at 18 he made his debut as a professional. Until October 23, 2021, it was sheathed the world champion belt of the WKN Muay Thai federation in the 67 kilo category. A title that he has maintained and to which he has added those of two more federations, ISKA and WAKO (K1).
Khyzer ‘The Destroyer’ Hayat aHe has accumulated 41 victories (15 by KO), 2 losses and 13 defeats in his career, which he has combined professionally with another childhood dream. “Since I was little I wanted to be a police officer, like my grandfather. When there were fights at school, I and a colleague always mediated. At 20 I started studying competitive exams, although I put it aside because I saw that I was getting good results in Muay Thai. But I had that thorn in my side because what I like is helping people.” He coronavirus land gave the opportunity. “During the pandemic, since there was no combat and I did not train so many hours, I resumed my studies for the opposition to local police of Palafolls. I’ve been here for two years and I’m very happy.” And he still hasn’t fought outside of a ring. “Never in 19 years of training have I gotten into a fight with anyone. When you don’t do a contact sport you are not aware of the damage you can do or can be done to you. On the street you have no idea what the other person is capable of, whether he carries a knife or another weapon. “You’re nobody, man.”
Embassy recognition
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When he won the first World Cup it was awarded by the Pakistani ambassador to Spain not only for its sporting success but for being a reference for integration. His last fight, held in April in Malgrat before 1,500 people, in addition to giving him the third world crown, also had a solidarity component, since the proceeds went to the Sports Training Association Despite, which helps children at risk of social exclusion, to whom Khyzer also gives talks at the gym and in schools. “I see kids like me and I always tell them that they don’t have to close themselves off and that they have to integrate and that, for this, there is nothing better than sport.”
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