[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Since he was a little baby, he loved to punch.
RESHAT: When I get in the ring, I see a guy in front of me, I just keep going.
I don't stop.
Even if it hurts, I don't stop.
ADRIAN: Reshat is ranked number one in boxing and number one in the world in kickboxing.
He's undefeated in MMA, he's undefeated in muay thai.
He has like twenty two championship belts.
RESHAT: Right now, I'm five two, one hundred and three pounds.
SOSA: The kid is only thirteen years old and he's so good that sometimes it's very hard
to get him a fight.
Nobody really wants to fight him.
[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Reshat trains like five day a week, two and a half hours a day.
He goes to school, comes home, does his homework, eat, then we head out to the boxing gym.
SOSA: I tell my kids this is a very physical hard sport.
You gotta train your body so when you get hit it won't hurt as much.
I've known Reshat two years, but he's been doing kickboxing and jiu jitsu before that.
ADRIAN: Since he was a little baby, he loved to punch.
At age five, Reshat started competing with jiu jitsu and submission grappling and he
basically won every competition he competed in.
As he got a little bit older, the kickboxing matches started coming in and MMA fights started
coming in.
He liked the most MMA, a combination of all mixed martial arts, but in New York it's not
allowed for kids, even for adults so we had to travel all over the country to find him
fights.
It's easier to find boxing in New York so if you cannot get any other fights, we started
doing boxing.
Now, he's a four years in a row world kickboxing champion.
He's a junior olympic boxing champion.
He's a North American submission grappling champion and Grapplers Quest jiu jitsu champion.
He's undefeated in MMA, he's undefeated in muay thai.
He's ranked number one in the world in kickboxing and he's ranked number one in boxing in the
United States hundred pound division.
SOSA: What makes Reshat special?
He's willing to mix it up.
He don't run, he wants to fight and that's what makes him special.
He stays, he's not afraid to get hit.
RESHAT: I can fight different ways.
If they can brawl, I'll brawl with them.
If they'll try to fight technical, I'll fight technical back.
They call me Albanian Bear.
SOSA: His sparring partner which is Harley Medros, he's also a Silver Glove National
Champion so it'll be a good spar.
He'll be sparring maybe six, seven hours with him.
RESHAT: Amazing fighter.
Really really talented.
Me and him both won the Silver Gloves this year.
Hopefully, we're gonna back this year and win it again.
ADRIAN: My father was a boxer and he taught boxing to me.
I have a son, I teach it to my son, but it's a lot of frustration coaching your own kid.
You expect way more than any other kid.
RESHAT: My father teaches me like how to punch, what to do when the situation.
Also, he cares about me.
He's always taking care of me, you know.
SOSA: Reshat does get a little nervous before a fight, but it's not cause he knows he's
going to lose or he knows he's gonna do bad.
He don't wanna look bad in front of his dad.
RESHAT: When I'm with my father and he goes, "stop, you get hit too much.
Pick your hands up!" that's the kind of things that I get kind of intimidated, like scared
of, because I want to prove to my father I'm good enough to box.
[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Reshat.
[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Reshat.
ADRIAN: Every time he goes to a fight, to a ring, I worry he's gonna get hurt and also
I don't want anybody else to get hurt, you know?
Because they're kids.
It is a hard sport, but it's been there since the beginning of time.
Any contact sport, you get injuries.
Accidents happen.
RESHAT: I don't think of like having like brain trauma I think if you keep getting hit
in the head.
What I need to do is keep my hands up so I don't have to worry about that happening.
If I don't keep my hands up, it's my problem.
ADRIAN: Nobody wants to see his kid get hit so I try to make him not to be an easy target.
If I see that my son is getting hit hard or he's losing the fight badly, I'm stopping
the fight.
There's no need to get to a point that he gets hurt.
[WHISTLE BLOWS]
[CLAPPING]
ADRIAN: From a boxing gym from Flatbush we're going to a kickboxing gym which is in Staten
Island to continue our training, so that's long hours and that's five days a week actually.
RESHAT: If I keep working on it, you know, in my heart and in my head I know that I can
end up being on top.
ADRIAN: Everybody has his dreams.
You wanna be the best?
You gotta put up your time.
[MUSIC]
[WHISTLE]
Here we go!
[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Akmal who teaches kickboxing is from Uzbekistan and is a two-time world champion
at kickboxing.
In the beginning he was doing it old school and he was putting these kids through torture,
but they told him in America it's called child abuse so he had to switch the training a little
bit.
It became way softer.
In the beginning it was hard, that's what I liked and that's why I enrolled Reshat in
it.
RESHAT: I have to train, I have to train hard every single day.
I've got mostly all my life trying to be on top.
If I keep going with that I could end up getting famous off of what I want to do most and it's
boxing and MMA.
[MUSIC]
ADRIAN: Reshat can't wait until he becomes fifteen, sixteen so he can advance to that
Olympic trials and make it to the USA team.
If you're an amateur fighter, Olympics is the top championship.
After that, it's the pros.
RESHAT: I want to become a fighter, you know.
A pro boxer or a pro MMA fighter.
Maybe both.
You just have to stay focused.
ADRIAN: I'm hoping to be the best he can be.
It doesn't matter where.
Boxing, MMA, kickboxing or whatever he decides to do.
SOSA: Good kid.
Very good boxer, very good kickboxer, and I believe he will be a great great professional
fighter.
ADRIAN: As a fighter you want to be a champion and Reshat was a fighter from the beginning.
I didn't make him a fighter.
He was born a fighter.
RESHAT: Subscribe to THNKR or I'll knock you out!