Background
He grew up in Neumarkt district of Bavaria where he was attracted to kickboxing and Muay Thai boxing also practicing break dancing passionately, before turning exclusively into sports.
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Valdet Gashi
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Career
He died in unclear circumstances after joining Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Syria. Gashi arrived in Germany as a six-year-old Albanian refugee. He found most success as a Muay Thai kickboxer and traveled to Thailand to train and fight in sports events.
He regularly trained at the Elite Fight Club in Bangkok as a respected "foreign fighter" in this Thai sports art form becoming a role model and media star.
EliteBoxing television put a 45-minute reality show / documentary release featuring Valdet Gashi. He reportedly fought in more than 106 events in Thailand in 4 1/2 years.
He also fought competitively in other countries like Malaysia, South of Korea, China, Iran. They had two daughters.
The family resided in Singen, Germany.
Gashi turned professional in 2009 losing his debut pro boxing fight to Laszlo Robert Balogh with a KO. Media also reported the ensuing death near Kobani, Syria of the 20-year-old Hajan, also known as Ibn Muhamad al-Kurdi, one of the camp"s students who had fled to Syria. In January 2015, Gashi left Germany to join up with Islamic State militants in Syria. To cover his whereabouts, he claimed he was headed to Thailand on a sports mission.
He later revealed that he had joined ISIS and was helping in patrolling in the Manbij area and the Euphrates River near the Syrian-Turkish border looking for smugglers trading in cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, all forbidden in ISIS-controlled areas.
His father Enver Gashi pleaded with him through the media to return to his family, but to no avail.
Achievements
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He was promoted and sponsored in Thailand by Bjoern Schaufler, founder of "Thai 4 More" sports promotion company. But he went on to win subsequent fights against Chainoi Suksumrit in 2009, Krisztian Zambo and Ibragim Zeliev in 2010 and Victor Sanicki in 2011. He won the European title and later became two times world title holder in kickboxing.
Membership
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
