A lovely story has come out of Makwan Amirkhani's first week training with the SBG team in Dublin, as he had explained that a moment of kindness in the queue of a shop is something he would have never seen in his homeland.
The Finnish fighter shot to popularity last year after he recorded the fastest KO in UFC history over Englishman Andy Ogle on his UFC debut, and then had the press in stitches with his post fight press conference, but back in December he explained that he would love to train at SBG if he got the green light from the Irish government.
With a little help from John Kavanagh, Amirkhani upped sticks and headed to Dublin, and speaking to Paul Dollery of the42.ie, he told of a little story that has made a big impression on him already:
I don’t know is it just because I look like a visitor, but I was in a store the other day to buy a razor for shaving. There were several people in front of me: a woman with her daughter, an older lady and a couple with their baby.
The woman and her daughter said to me: ‘You go ahead of us, you only have item’. I thanked them, and then the older lady did the same. I didn’t want to go ahead of an elderly person but she insisted. She also told me that I shouldn’t shave my beard. Of course, the couple then also let me go in front of them. That would never happen in Finland. But that’s the kindness of Irish people.
Ah bless.
Although clearly he's never been to Aldi on a Saturday morning.
It's great to have another talented fighter training with SBG, and we're sure he'll have the Irish crowd behind him wherever he fights just like Gunnar Nelson.
Next up for Amirkhani is another Englishman in the form of Mike Wilkinson, who he will meet in the octagon at UFC Fight Night 83 in London on February 27th. Best of luck Makwan.
