Azem Maksutaj

His father moved to Switzerland as a guest worker in the late 1970s, so he saw his father only sparingly while growing up.

Azem Maksutaj (born July 8, 1975) is a Swiss former kickboxer who had competed in the lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.

Originally from the Kosovo, he relocated to Switzerland at an early age where he began training in Muay Thai at fifteen.

Maksutaj, a Kosovar Albanian, was born the second of four children in Deqan, SFR Yugoslavia (now Kosovo) in 1975.

The late 1990s saw him move between light heavyweight and cruiserweight, taking five world titles in those divisions, before eventually making the jump to heavyweight in 2001 where he spent the remainder of his career, acting as a journeyman in the K-1 promotion while also winning four other world titles.

Despite spending much of his career as an undersized heavyweight, Maksutaj was known for his toughness as well as his technical skill, Muay Thai.

In 1990, at the age of fifteen, Maksutaj and the rest of his family joined up with his father in Winterthur, Switzerland during the wave of Yugoslav immigration to the country.

Unable to speak the language and struggling to integrate, he soon began training in Muay Thai at the Wing Thai Gym as a way to escape his troubles.

After capturing the Swiss national title at lightweight during his first year of competitions in 1992, he then went on to win European and world honours in 1994 while fighting around the 77 kg super middleweight mark.

After just twelve months of training and his first year of competition, Maksutaj won the Swiss national Muay Thai -63.5 kg title in 1992 by beating Jesus Perez who was eleven years his senior by knockout in the second round.

Still just eighteen years old, he knocked out Thomas Rasmussen of Sweden on May 7, 1994, to win the European -72.5 kg Muay Thai title in his home town of Winterthur, before travelling to Milan, Italy later that year and defeating local fighter Sergio Bertalozzi by fifth-round KO to win the World Muay Thai Association World Middleweight (-76.2 kg) Championship.

He lost his world title to Perry Ubeda the following year when he visited the canvas three times in the first round in Nijmegen, Netherlands on March 19, 1995.

As a rising star of Swiss kickboxing, Maksutaj was invited to fight at Japan's K-1 Fight Night, the first-ever event held by the K-1 promotion outside Japan, on June 10, 1995, in Zürich, Switzerland.

There he lost to Surinamese veteran Orlando Wiet via a second-round KO.

Returning to K-1 a year later at K-1 Fight Night II on June 2, 1996, he gave a "Fight of the Night" performance in a losing effort against Seido karate stylist Taiei Kin.

He was knocked down in round two and lost by a unanimous decision after a five-round war.

Despite failing to earn a victory on kickboxing's biggest stage, he continued to improve and ended that year's campaign with a knockout of Faizal Reding on November 2, 1996, in Zürich, to take the International Sport Karate Association World Super Middleweight (78.1 kg) strap.

He made the first defence of his ISKA world title against Moussa Sissoko, stopping the Frenchman inside three rounds in Winterthur on November 7, 1998.

Following this, Maksutaj began to move up in weight to the light heavyweight class and established himself as one of the division's elite by making a successful return to K-1 and then winning three world titles in the space of five months in 1999.

After his comeback to K-1 on June 5, 1999, at K-1 Fight Night '99, where he earned his first victory in the promotion by flooring Winston Walker three times in the third round en route to a technical knockout win, he headed to Pula, Croatia a month later to challenge double world champion Igor Ivošević.

He was able to knock his opponent out in round four and came away with both the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations' Pro World Light Heavyweight (81.4 kg) and the WKA World Super Light Heavyweight (83.2 kg) belts.

Maksutaj then closed the year out with a fifth world championship win, outpointing his Surinamese opponent Ashwin Balrak for the World Professional Kickboxing League (WPKL) World Light Heavyweight (-79 kg) title in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 11, 1999.

In 2000, Maksutaj moved briefly back down to super middleweight to successfully challenge for the WKA World Super Middleweight (-76 kg) Championship, winning on points over Ivica Sukošić in Pristina in his birth country of Kosovo.

He would then return to light heavyweight and KO Aurélien Duarte in a World Professional Kickboxing Council (WPKC) World Light Heavyweight (-79 kg) title bout in Pavia, Italy before moving up in weight once again to cruiserweight where he knocked out Eddy Corremans in round three to be crowned the WPKC World Cruiserweight (-86 kg) Champion in Winterthur.

A rematch between Maksutaj and Faizal Reding took place at K-1 Fight Night 2000 on June 3, 2000, and the Albanian came out on top again by way of TKO in round two.

2001 saw Maksutaj make the transition to the heavyweight division, kicking off his career at the weight by winning the WPKC World Super Heavyweight (+95 kg) Muay Thai Championship.

Following this up with a defence of his WPKC Cruiserweight title against Hubert Lisovski in Winterthur, he then earned the biggest victory of his career at that point when he dismantled Canada's Clifton Brown inside one round in front of over 100,000 spectators at the 2001 King's Cup at Sanam Luang in Bangkok, Thailand on December 6.

He would go on to compete in eight one-night tournaments in K-1's heavyweight division over the next five years and made his debut in the Grand Prix format at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 Preliminary Marseilles on January 25.

Having scored two quick first-round KOs over Abdel Lamidi and Ferenc Gasztany in the run-up, Maksutaj lost a majority decision to Grégory Tony in the final.

On April 13, 2002, Maksutaj had a re-match with Vitali Akhramenko at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 Preliminary Croatia in Zagreb.

The pair had previously fought to a draw five years earlier and did so again as the judges could not pick a winner after five rounds.

He was granted a chance at revenge against Gregory Tony the following month at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 in Paris, but the tall Frenchman came out on top once again by winning a five-round majority decision.

The fight was close but Tony was able to floor Maksutaj with a right hand late in the final round to seal the deal.

Outside of K-1, Maksutaj picked up the WKA World Cruiserweight (-85.9 kg) belt from Chino Mordillo in Zürich.

He forced two standing eight counts on the Spaniard, initially by damaging his arm with a blocked roundhouse kick, before finishing him off with a high kick in round two.

He would finish the year on a low note, however, as he was handed his first stoppage loss in seven years by Peter Varga in Padua, Italy on November 30, 2002, to lose his WPKC Super Heavyweight Muay Thai strap.

Maksutaj returned to Marseille to compete in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Preliminary France on January 24, 2003.

He knocked out Rob Lloyd in the quarter-finals and outpointed Miloš Kopták in the semis, before losing to his rival Gregory Tony for the third time in the final by unanimous decision.

With K-1 heading back to Switzerland with the K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 in Basel tournament on May 30, 2003, Maksutaj was invited as a participant along with seven other European heavyweight prospects.

He won a total of fourteen world titles in various weight divisions before retiring in 2010 with a hundred professional contests under his belt.