UFC Fight Island: Mounir Lazzez all smiles after making UFC 'take notice' with sparkling debut

After making the UFC “take notice” with a dominant debut display, Mounir Lazzez sauntered into the post-fight media briefing with a smile as wide as his victory.

The Dubai resident had just clocked up a first appearance in the world’s lead mixed martial arts promotion, and with it the win too, grabbing both just down the road in Abu Dhabi.

Lazzez prevailed by unanimous decision against Abdul Razak Alhassan on Thursday morning at UFC Fight Night 1, the second event in the four-show Fight Island.

The former Desert Challenge champion took the contest 30-27, 30-27, 28-27. Warm congratulations followed swiftly from Dana White, the UFC president whose chance meeting with Lazzez's friend in a Las Vegas restaurant last month led to the opportunity of a lifetime.

“The Sniper” then set sights on his dream coming true, and duly delivered. For him, though, it’s only the start.

“It’s always hard in this sport to stay humble and this is just the beginning,” a beaming Lazzez said shortly before collecting $50,000 (Dh183,625) bonus for Fight of the Night. “I beat a guy I think who’s top 15, but now my name will go to the ranking direct.

“Dana is happy, UFC are happy, that’s the most important. I will step back and talk to my management. Now I think the UFC’s capital is Abu Dhabi, and I’m here in Dubai. I’m healthy, I’m ready to go: just give me two weeks’ notice and I can take anyone in the top 15.

“I want to take my career step-by-step, but it’s hard nowadays because there is a lot of new talent and they like to stay busy. So that’s exactly what I’m planning: to stay busy too, and show my case in my second hometown. I hope all of you enjoyed the show tonight.”

Lazzez certainly put one on. Initially, he survived an early flurry from Alhassan - a 4-1 UFC fighter despite having not competed for almost two years - then settled into his game plan and began to take control. As Alhassan tired, Lazzez’s knees, kicks and elbows did damage.

“I know he’s a heavy hitter,” Lazzez said. “That’s exactly the plan of Mahdi, one of my guys who likes to spar every single day. He knows I have a chin.

“But my coach Sean says to me ‘Always hit and don’t get hit’. I’m happy with it - I got a couple of punches, I entertained people and that’s exactly what we planned for. It’s never perfect. We got the deal done, that’s the most important.”

As his pre-fight smile betrayed, and his overall attitude this week conveyed, Lazzez doesn't seem to suffer much from nerves.

“It’s weird, I feel normal, because I’ve been seeing this in my mind,” he said. “It’s just a moment, I feel it, like any other fight. I felt calm and composed in the beginning, then we had two or three punches and we go to the scrap.

“We adjusted, we picked the second and third round for domination. I’m just happy to go get my pizza.”

Eyeing even greater rewards, Lazzez moved to 10-1 in professional MMA, with eight of those coming via knockout. As he said, a quick turnaround is preferable, with him acting the UFC veteran by calling out fellow welterweight Mike Perry.

Asked why he had a problem with American, who made headlines recently for some regrettable behaviour away from the sport, Lazzez said: “Just because my teammate Darren Till has an issue with him. So if one of my team has a problem with someone, he has a problem with all of us.

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UFC Fight Island 1 in pictures

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“I just want to put him in his place because he’s an idiot and he’s been inspiring the new generation with his idiot stuff he does. I just want to put him in his place.

“Whatever the UFC… they throw for me a killer, so I’m happy to take any killer. Now they notice me.”

White made that known right outside the octagon.

“He was super happy with the performance,” Lazzez said. “I said to him ‘Just keep an eye on us’. It’s been a long journey to get the attention of the UFC matchmakers, finally I get it and I used it. And I’m happy with that.”

And so he should be. Lazzez, who fights out of Team Nogueira Dubai, entered the press conference chatting on his phone with his wife and his young son. His other half was simply checking in to see if he was happy and healthy, he said. Both, it appears.

“It made me appreciate the moment even more; it humbled me,” Lazzez said. “This is the dream. I do it for myself and my family, so I’m super happy about it. That’s why you saw that smile on my face.”

As for the planned victory celebrations, he said: “We will go back to the hotel with my guys. Sean has been torturing me - he doesn’t want me to drink my 7Up, so I think I will get 10 cans of 7Up and we’ll order pizza from there. Then we’ll get some media obligations and we’ll head back to Dubai.”

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Age: 33

Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill

Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.

Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?

Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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Five famous companies founded by teens

There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.

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UFC Fight Island: Mounir Lazzez all smiles after making UFC 'take notice' with sparkling debut

The Tunisian defeated Abdul Razak Alhassan by unanimous decision and collected the Fight of the Night Bonus

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UFC Fight Island 1 in pictures

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