Back in the ring at 46

“It’s an honor to be called a legend”

Fadi Merza (right) gets back in the ring.(Bild: www.rolandgrand.com)

A week ago, Fadi Merza dropped the bombshell. After ten years without a fight, the martial arts legend is back in the ring. But not as a six-time world champion in Thai boxing, but as a boxer! What his wife thinks about it and why he is actually doing this to himself at the age of 46.

"I read everywhere: 'Legend Fadi Merza'. It's given me mixed feelings," he says in his usual humorous interview with the "Krone". "Of course it's an honor to be called a legend, you have to work for it and it makes me proud and grateful. But on the other hand, it also means that you're already old," laughs Fadi. "And I'm not that old yet, at least I don't feel that way."

Even at 46, Fadi hasn't lost his focus.(Bild: Andreas TISCHLER)

At 74 kilograms, he is already close to his target fighting weight of 72.5 kg for the Bounce Fight Night on April 6. "I flew to Thailand at the end of last year, I wanted to come down, train and lose a few kilos. I trained in a gym there twice a day, slept there, lived with the fighters. That showed me where I came from and that it's still in me."

My wife knows that when I set my mind to something, I go all the way with it.

Fadi Merza

Physically, Fadi is on the way back to his old strength. "Mentally, I'm much more mature than I was at 26 or 36. If I had been as mentally ready back then as I am now, then I could have won one or two more fights.

When Fadi fought the last of his 164 professional Thai boxing matches ten years ago, his son Michel had not yet been born: "Now I want to show him what his dad used to do." His wife and mother Ines is nervous: "She's so worried, she says I should take care of myself and not hurt myself. But she knows that if I set my mind to something, I'll go all the way." That's the only way to become a legend ...