Courtesy of Hatef Moeil

In an extreme situation, there is no longer time for lengthy reflection; one must act entirely on instinct

How does Moeil actually prepare for his fights? In answering this question, the athlete gives us a deep insight into his mindset. As soon as he steps into the ring, the only thing that matters to him is winning the match. At that moment, he switches his mind off completely and draws solely on what he does best. In such an extreme situation, there is no time for lengthy deliberation; one must act purely on instinct.

In the cage, you have to adopt an iron-willed, ruthless toughness and charge forward at full throttle with an extreme physical presence

Does he feel pain? He doesn’t feel any physical pain at all in the ring whilst under the influence of adrenaline. In the cage, you have to adopt an iron-willed, ruthless toughness and charge forward at full throttle with an extreme physical presence. You just look straight ahead and do everything in your power to completely dominate and eliminate your opponent, purely in sporting terms.

Does he see himself as a role model for young people? Moeil offers some unequivocal advice to the next generation. He himself always steps into the ring with the firm conviction that he will win the fight, yet behind this self-confidence lies an extremely intense focus. Moeil trains every single day at the gym; you must never step into a cage with thoughts of defeat. Anyone who harbours such doubts shouldn’t even bother competing in the first place.

Finish school first and secure your future

His most important advice to young people, however, breaks with the usual clichés of martial arts, as for him, school and learning always come first. That is his absolute priority. Only once one has successfully completed one’s education and secured one’s future should one use the remaining free time in the evenings for training.

In terms of its philosophy, martial arts is first and foremost an excellent school of discipline, which can also keep young people off the streets. You need this structure to avoid going off the rails. Moeil advises young people today to focus on their education first. If, after that, you pursue a genuine sporting goal in MMA, you have to train consistently and with intense focus every day. That is the only way to achieve success. He himself trained for over ten years to reach the point where he has been unbeatable for years now. In doing so, he completely ignores what other people say about him behind his back. Anyone who mustered this iron discipline could, one day, stand at the very top of the world rankings as a champion, just like him.

What does his own daily training routine look like? He does two hours of training every morning and another two hours in the evening, every single day, says Moeil. During the week, he allows himself just a single day off to recover, as it would otherwise be impossible to maintain this level in professional sport. Anyone who wants to be a true professional must consistently follow this lifestyle every day. Many people simply grab their bag, go to the gym, do a quick warm-up and then rush straight back home, but for him, that’s just the easy way to do sport.

Moeil’s philosophy: intense focus and a strategic plan in mind

You have to be intensely focused and have a clear strategic plan in mind. If you act wisely, analyse your opponents’ tactics in detail and commit them to memory, you can make perfect use of what you’ve learnt in the fight. With a good diet, daily double training sessions and the right sporting fighting spirit, you are guaranteed to emerge from the ring as the victor. Inside the cage itself, you are ultimately entirely on your own, as there is only the athlete and their opponent. Despite the extreme physical rigour of the sport, fundamental respect for one’s opponent is absolutely sacrosanct to him. One must never personally insult an opponent or make unfair gestures, but must instead embody absolute dominance in the fight in a purely sporting manner.

Mixed Martial Arts is also a show

In Mixed Martial Arts, the media spectacle also plays a very special role. As soon as a federation schedules a fight for two months’ time, the business side of things and the promotion begin. To capture the attention of the masses, dominate press conferences and single-handedly sell out an arena with twenty thousand spectators, you have to put on a show, says Moeil. In front of the cameras and during video shoots, one sometimes has to behave in a deliberately provocative manner, as nobody on the international market – particularly in America – wants to see a calm and unassuming demeanour. Only through a high-profile performance can tickets be sold and sponsorship partners secured. The fact that there is a formidable sporting reality behind this marketing is demonstrated by his own record: Moeil was champion at OKTAGON MMA and is currently the reigning heavyweight champion at the Croatian Fight Nation Championship. In total, he has already won five championship belts from various European organisations over the course of his career.

The press conference in question

With regard to his move from Oktagon MMA to Fight Nation Championship, Moeil recounts in an interview the background to a much-discussed escalation during an official press conference. He claims the promotion had demanded in advance that he generate media attention and put on a show. However, during the event, the situation turned serious as his opponent at the time had hurled severe personal insults at him. Whilst such verbal exchanges are part and parcel of business-as-usual promotion in combat sports – designed to boost ticket sales – and do not usually stem from genuine personal animosity, in this instance the opponent had crossed every line, leading to a physical scuffle as he stood up. Whilst attempting to grab the attacker, the heavy championship belt had unfortunately flown through the air in the thick of the melee and struck the Octagon President, who was sitting next to them, on the head. He sustained a minor graze and was, understandably, very annoyed. Whilst such a scenario is a calculable risk in the heavyweight division due to the enormous physical strength involved, in the international market – particularly in the USA – such highly emotional escalations are a tried-and-tested marketing tool.

5 million views overnight

Moeil cites UFC fighter Conor McGregor as a prominent example, noting that he has generated earnings in the tens of millions through such stunts, as the show element plays a fundamental role in the modern MMA business. A video clip of the incident that he posted on Instagram garnered over five million views within twenty-four hours.

Despite the enormous media interest, the organisation imposed severe financial penalties on the athlete the following day. An official letter demanded a contractual penalty amounting to fifty per cent of his total fight purse. After deducting this massive contractual penalty, as well as the standard tax deductions and management fees, Moeil concludes that he was left with virtually nothing from the fight’s earnings. As a result of this unfair treatment, he terminated his contract with the organisation with immediate effect, switched off his mobile phone and drove home. The organisation subsequently waged a targeted campaign against him via the press and spread falsehoods in order to damage his sporting reputation. This move ultimately sealed his switch to the Croatian promotion FNC, where he went on to win the world heavyweight title.

The path to the USA has so far remained closed to him

From a sporting perspective, winning this title marked his rise to the top of the European rankings, yet Moeil is still unable to take the planned step onto the global stage in the United States. Since 2019, he has had a contract from the US Professional Fighters League ready for signing, offering a guaranteed fee of one million dollars. To apply for the necessary work visa, he is said to have appeared in person at the US Consulate at least four times, but the US authorities ultimately rejected his application.

The main reason for this refusal lies in his long-standing bureaucratic situation in Germany. Although he has now been living in Germany for almost seventeen years, pays tax here and has represented the German flag in the ring on numerous occasions, the local authorities are refusing to grant him citizenship. To this day, Moeil holds only the blue travel document for refugees. Whilst this document allows him to travel visa-free within the European Union, he is obliged to obtain a regular visa for international travel to the US, Dubai or other regions. Without a German passport, the US Consulate has blocked the application process due to strict security requirements. He finds it hard to understand why newly arrived migrants are often granted a German passport after just a few years, whilst he, as a top international sportsman, is denied access to one. The case officers at the relevant immigration authority justified the refusal on the grounds that there were police reports in his file.

The occupational risks faced by a Düsseldorf security guard

These entries apparently relate to old incidents stemming from his previous work as a security guard in the nightlife sector. It should be generally clear that working in the security industry at weekends carries an unavoidable occupational risk for a security guard, similar to the situations faced by bodyguards or even police officers.

Düsseldorf champion fights to clear his name

Moeil himself leads a disciplined life, does not drink alcohol and describes himself as a peace-loving person. However, at the club entrance at three or four o’clock in the morning, one is inevitably confronted with heavily intoxicated individuals who flout the venue’s rules and seek verbal confrontations. If, in such situations, one is required to intervene physically or defend oneself as part of one’s duties, the aggressive guests often file counter-complaints for assault once the police arrive. Every member of the security sector is familiar with this dynamic. Although all the proceedings against Moeil in his case were either dropped or resulted in acquittals, the mere existence of these records with the authorities continues to block his naturalisation process to this day. When assessing his visa application, the US authorities refer to these national records and, on the basis of the documented allegations from his past as a bouncer, refuse him entry without taking into account the actual professional context of the complaints.

The 2015 assassination attempt on Moeil

His fighter’s instinct saved him

The unpredictable occupational risk of working as a club doorman came to a head for him in 2015 in a life-altering shooting incident, which he narrowly survived. Following an altercation in a nightclub, he walked to his car in the car park with his partner at the time after finishing his shift. Immediately after he started the engine, an attacker opened fire on the car. Four bullets struck Moeil, seriously injuring his legs.

In moving words, Moeil describes how, in this life-threatening emergency, he initially felt no pain at all due to the shock, but was only aware of the deafening volume of the gunshots. He attributes his survival to the fact that the vehicle had already been running. He says he instinctively drove off and lost consciousness shortly afterwards, only to wake up again in the hospital’s intensive care unit. The incident caused a major stir in the press at the time. The athlete firmly rejects rumours circulating online that he had been intimidated by this traumatic event. He says he used this profound life experience to channel all his remaining energy into his professional sporting career. His record over the following eight years in the ring, during which he remained undefeated throughout Europe, proves the truth of Moeil’s words.

Despite these international successes in front of over twenty thousand spectators in the sold-out arenas of Zagreb and Belgrade, the global martial arts stage overseas remains out of reach for him due to passport issues. In this context, Moeil criticises the fact that management and marketing in the martial arts sector are often not based on actual sporting achievements. In his view, there are numerous figures who have ‘bought’ their sporting successes through arranged fights against unprofessional opponents, only to subsequently use social media to promote themselves in order to secure sponsorship money. He sees himself as a genuine competitive athlete and the undisputed number one in the European heavyweight division, a view underpinned by the constant response he receives from fans in everyday life and at international airports. Nevertheless, he often encounters a noticeable distancing from potential sponsors and partners in Germany as soon as the conversation turns to his Iranian heritage or his past as a bouncer. Parts of the business community fail to assess his genuine sporting integrity and the person behind the old headlines impartially.

His business partner Denis V. expressly supports this view. From the management’s perspective, the athlete is often wrongly reduced in the public eye to nothing more than his physical toughness in the sporting cage. In private, however, and away from the cameras, Moeil comes across as a deeply disciplined, polite and respectful person. The incidents in nightlife stemmed exclusively from the pursuit of a legitimate profession, in which he simply had a duty to protect his team, his colleagues and the safety of club guests from drunken hooligans.

Moeil emphasises that it is important to him to always treat people he meets on the street with the utmost respect. As a professional fighter, he possesses precise knowledge of how to inflict serious physical injury, but he would never use this in everyday life. Later in the interview, Moeil appears keen to distance himself from the ‘cowardly criminality’ on the streets, where people, lacking sporting discipline and technical skill, resort to knives or weapons to harm innocent people. He maintains that his own intimidating appearance and aggressive presence are purely tools for professional sport.

His aim was to establish the German flag and the historic Persian lion flag at the very top of the UFC worldwide

Moeil is now thirty-eight years old and looks back on his sporting heyday between the ages of twenty-nine and thirty-one. Moeil regards the fact that he was unable to capitalise on this peak in the USA due to the German naturalisation blockade as a serious mistake on the part of the local bureaucracy, as he would otherwise have established the German flag and the historic Persian lion flag at the very top of the UFC worldwide. He has been living in the country for sixteen years, having arrived here at the age of twenty-three, and identifies fully with his German heritage. However, the bureaucratic hurdles continue to hamper his career. For instance, he recently had to turn down a high-profile fight offer in Dubai because the authorities there required a valid national passport from the Islamic Republic in order to issue a work visa. However, he categorically refuses to cooperate with the current regime in Tehran on ‘ethical grounds’, which is why he preferred to forego the fight purse. Despite all the bureaucratic obstacles, the “indisputable sporting truth” remains for Moeil: that he has fought his way to the top of the European rankings through his own efforts and remains the undisputed number one in the heavyweight division.

His business partner Denis V. emphasises that Moeil has never built his career on criminal networks, but works exclusively with people of integrity and good sense. Moeil himself adds that, whilst he would certainly be physically capable of winning any physical confrontation on the street, he would never do so. For him, the only things that matter in everyday life are mutual respect and love for his fellow human beings. Whilst one might put on an aggressive, media-friendly show in the sporting ring, he says, one must always treat people as equals in real life. He needs his dangerous, intimidating appearance solely for the spectacle of sport; on a private level, he is a completely down-to-earth, different person.

A global following

Young people flock to watch Moeil’s performances. His reach on Instagram, which now stands at over half a million followers, grows with every new sporting success. Moeil admits that he really ought to be much more active on platforms such as Instagram, but he hardly has the motivation for social media anymore. He refuses to use his channel for daily posts, as many others in the scene do, because he sees himself as a genuine, focused competitor. He cites UFC legend Jon Jones as his sporting role model. If you analyse his official profile, you’ll notice that he’s hardly active there and keeps his private life completely under wraps – even though Jones has been dominating the world heavyweight division as the undisputed champion for twenty years now. Just like his American idol, his own focus lies exclusively on real, measurable sporting performance in the ring, and this sporting truth remains unshakeable for his future in Düsseldorf.

——-

A Düsseldorf champion caught between two worlds

Hatef Moeil’s journey illustrates the stark reality of a career straddling two systems. Sixteen years ago, at the age of twenty-three, he came to Düsseldorf from Iran to build a life for himself through wrestling and the security industry. Today, as the reigning heavyweight champion in the ring, he stands up for a country that bureaucratically denies him citizenship, whilst at the same time refusing to recognise the repressive regime in Tehran. Regardless of missed US contracts worth millions and the lack of visas, his sporting record at the very top of European wrestling remains an indisputable fact. He represents Düsseldorf on the international stage as an ambassador in his own way: through the principles of respect he learnt in Iran and an ironclad discipline in his daily life. His sporting integrity needs no staging – it speaks for itself.

————

M.R.E.F.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED?