The last time we saw Ammar “The Rock” Tchalabi was in September, 2012 when he fought against the Egyptian Amr Wahmann, winning the bout by decision. Since then however we haven’t heard much from the Muay Thai specialist! ArabsMMA reached out to the Syrian fighter to catch up and ask him when we will next see him inside the cage!
Ammar, its been almost one year since we’ve last seen you in the cage. Why the long disappearance and what have you been up to?
It’s been a long time since I’ve fought in the cage, and I really miss it! I would love to come back and get into the fight game but unfortunately I had to step back a little bit due to immigration issues that prevented me from traveling. That’s not to say that I haven’t been busy, I’ve used that time to concentrate on training and have focused on improving all sides of my game.
The last time we saw you inside the cage was during your decision win against Amr Wahmann when Ashraf Chechani cornered you. Apart from a fascination with crazy facial hair and ass kicking how did that partnership come about?
That was a great fight! I prepared for that fight almost alone. I had three training partners who were also very busy and could only train with me a few times a week. None of them could come to fight to corner me either. Ashraf and I know each other for quite some time so he cornered me during that fight and that surely made a difference in my performance.
That was a memorable fight. The decision I thought was fare and square. I landed more significant strikes, take downs and had a couple of submission attempts.
Did you watch the title fight between Aniss Hajjajy and Amr Wahman?
I did. That was the fight of the night for me. Not just because it was in my weight division or because I fought Amr, but because it was very technical and wouldn’t have been out of place in a major organization. They both did a great job!
Would you like to test your skills against Aniss Hajjajy?
I think Aniss is a great fighter, but he depends largely on his ground game which will get him in trouble if he fights a guy who can wrestle and strike. I think I can dethrone him, I would need a proper fight camp and then anything is possible.
Some fans were surprised not to see you get to the final (or face Gabriel in place of Amr). Can you shed some light on what happened?
We had a disagreement after my last fight. And after that I had my immigration issues so it never moved forward.
What’s next for the rock?
Well, I have now dropped down to 70 KG’s so I will be fighting as a lightweight. I hope to comeback around the tail end of 2013 or early 2014. Keep an eye out since I plan on coming back on a completely different level
