Sebastian Eubank comes from British boxing royalty and he hopes that pedigree will hold him in good stead when he makes his Mixed Martial Arts debut in the UAE on Friday.
The son of British boxing great Chris Eubank, who held both the WBO world welterweight and super welterweight titles, enters the octagon at the UAE Warriors 10 at the Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi. His older brother, Chris Eubank Jr, is a former world IBF super middleweight world champion and currently holds the WBA's interim title.
Eubank, 28, has two wins from two professional boxing fights and meets another MMA debutant Mohamed El Mokadem in the catchweight 80-kilogram contest.
The Briton, who has worked as a boxing coach and nutritionist in Dubai for the past four years, has been preparing for his MMA debut for more than three months but was confirmed for Warriors 10 only six weeks ago.
"They asked me if I would be interested in MMA fighting and I accepted it," he told The National when asked how he got into the Warriors 10 fight card.
“It’s something like I watched the UFC. It was very interesting as a fighter to see the fights. I always thought I can really do some damage in the MMA.
“It wasn’t a reality but something in my head. Then the opportunity presents itself and I thought I can’t back down from it. Now it’s a reality for me to actually get into the octagon.”
Boxing skills and the ability to land punishing and knockout blows are a fundamental aspect of MMA, but many fighters are not trained boxers - something Eubank believes gives him an advantage.
“From what I have seen, the MMA fighters haven’t quite acquired the skills of the boxer,” he said. “A lot of MMA fighters wouldn’t be able to last with a boxer in the boxing ring and a lot of boxers won’t be able to last with an MMA fighter in the octagon. For me, it is finding that balance, taking from both.
“I already have my skills in the stand-up game with my fists. I’m looking to incorporate the rest of my fighting skills in MMA.”
Eubank has worked on new skills for his MMA debut but insisted he won’t change too much to his game plan.
“I’m going to box him,” he said. “But I can also avoid if he wants to kick and if he wants to try and take down.
“If he wants to try and take down, it will get him into lots of trouble because I’m coming off a rugby background. I know how to take down and how to ground my opponent too. If he’s going to take it there, he’s going to be in for a surprise.”
Eubank played rugby at a semi-professional level and represented the British and Irish Lions at the Dubai Sevens in 2010.
“I could have gone professional but I realised that the risk for the money they paid wasn’t worth it,” he said. “So I decided to call my rugby days over and transition into a sport that gets you a proper pay cheque for risking your health and life.”
Eubank’s MMA career will largely depend on how he comes through his first fight and he will then evaluate his options.
“Let’s see how it goes,” he said. “I think the way MMA is on the rise globally I think it’s something that I’m happy to do.
"The five-minute round is actually harder sport than boxing. So when I go back to the boxing, it’s going to be easy.”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
