Abdul Azim Badakhshi will not be making his UFC debut next month. The Afghan fighter was unable to obtain a visa in time ahead of the featherweight tournament which gets underway next month.
Badakhshi had been scheduled to face Yi Zha in the opening round of the Road to China featherweight tournament. The Afghan is based in India and made his name competing on Matrix Fight Night cards.
He has been banned by Matrix Fight Night but was set to compete in the octagon. That fight won’t be happening with Badakhshi sharing the bad news on Instagram just now:
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No time
Badakhshi explained the situation in flawless English,
Unfortunately, my fight scheduled for the second season of Road to UFC at the end of this month had to be cancelled due to the fact that I’m unable to get my visa approved on time.
Badakhshi is banned from ever competing on Matrix Fight Night cards again. He allegedly led a mob of angry Afghans and assaulted Srikant Sekhar at MFN 9.
In the aftermath of that the promotion took the unusual step of banning all Afghan fighters from competing on its cards. As a result Badakhshi has been out of action for over a year.
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High places
But Badakhshi has friends in high places in India. He is in a relationship with Matrix Fight Night promoter Krishna Shroff and she left a supportive message under his Instagram post.
His brother is also a promising prospect although he doesn’t have a celebrity girlfriend in his corner. Abdul Karim Badakhshi recently moved up to 7-0 with a split decision win in Russia.
The 25 year old competes in the flyweight division and has beaten some solid opponents. But it remains to be seen when his older brother will be back in action after suffering the latest setback in a career which appears to have stalled.
