Packing A Punch: Hattan Alsaif

“It’s like making history,” says 22-year-old Hattan Alsaif, who rose to stardom after signing a contract with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) in January, making her the first Saudi woman to join a global mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion. “If you ask any person who is the first Saudi female in MMA, they will point to me and say my name. This means so much for me; it’s not easy at all. I’m representing my country and all the women in my sport as a role model. It’s a very heavy thing to carry, but I’m also really proud to reach that place.”

MMA, which combines Muay Thai, boxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, Taekwondo, and judo, is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, with anywhere between 449-600 million fans globally.

Alsaif, who has chalked up multiple wins in Muay Thai and boxing, recorded the fastest knockout in PFL MENA in September, knocking out her opponent in just 41 seconds, and thereby earning a Guinness World Record.

“There are Saudi women in boxing, Muay Thai, judo – but no MMA fighters,” notes Alsaif, who is one of three undefeated Saudi MMA fighters in the PFL.

Alsaif says that it was a combination of intrigue at the performative World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and awe of real-world combat sports that first piqued her interest in fighting. “I used to watch WWE when I was growing up, but I was very disappointed when I found out that it’s not real,” she recalls.

She points then to the 2016 death of Muhammad Ali Clay as a turning point for her, which was when she discovered that combat sports weren’t all for show. “When he died, I found out that there is a real sport called boxing,” she says. But it wasn’t until she stumbled on a Taekwondo class at her local gym that she considered doing combat sports herself. And while Taekwondo wasn’t for her, she did start training on her own as a boxer, aided by YouTube videos. “It was just me and the punching bag and YouTube, once or twice a week,” she shares.

Hattan Alsaif is the first female Saudi MMA fighter to sign with a mixed martial arts promotion. All photos courtesy of PFL MENA. 

Algorithms would have it that, because of her endless searches for boxing tutorials, she happened upon Saudi MMA fighter Abdullah Al-Qahtani’s Facebook page in early 2021, which led her to his gym, Fight Club KSA. “The first thing that got in my mind when I went to the gym is that this place suits me,” she recalls. “This place is me, but I never knew it.”

It was there that she discovered Muay Thai and met coach Feras Sadaa, who would take her under his wing, pushing her into sparring after just one week of training. “I was crying, wiping my tears with my boxing gloves, and hitting back,” she remembers. “But he accepted me, and he saw me. He saw a champ in my soul.”

As it so happens, it was her early days of boxing that also created her hunger for victory. “After the first five days of boxing, I went to a championship, and I lost,” she explains. “I didn’t know how to hit or protect myself. After this loss, I went back very aggressive. I knew that nothing is going to come easy; you have to do a lot of work.”

Alsaif has since won the title of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s boxing champion three times. She has also held the Muay Thai World Combat Games title twice, as well as the Saudi Games and the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA) World Championships.

In February 2024, Alsaif was scouted by PFL, the Public Investment Fund-backed MMA promotion that launched a regional league format earlier this year – the first of its kind in the field. She got on board a few weeks after the league had signed Al-Qahtani, Alsaif’s inspiration – as it so happens, the two have since gotten engaged to be married.

“Al-Qahtani was always the one and only MMA guy in our gym,” she says. “I was inspired by him. I take my power from him. We help each other, and we push each other a lot.”

Abdullah Al-Qahtani and Hattan Alsaif, Saudi's top MMA fighters. 

Hitting Hard in KSA

When Inc. Arabia interviewed PFL founder Donn Davis in April, he told us that MMA’s young fan base made it a perfect match for Saudi Arabia and the MENA region’s youth demographic. More importantly, he stressed that Saudi’s current drive is catapulting it to the forefront of the sport.

“The key requirements for the growth of any sport are capital and desire, which Saudi Arabia currently has for MMA,” Davis said. “It’s similar to Las Vegas for boxing in the 1980s. This will drive attention, development of talent, and fanbase over the next decade.”

In the region, the sport has been growing rapidly, aided by the PIF-owned SRJ Sports Investment, which acquired a minority stake in PFL in August 2023 to advance the company’s expansion and help develop its Middle East League. By the end of 2024, the Kingdom will have hosted six MMA games, including two super fights, with the most recent being October’s fight that saw Francis Ngannou face off against Renan Ferreira in the PFL Heavyweight Superfight Championship, “Battle of the Giants.”

On November 29, Saudi Arabia will host the PFL MENA Finals and the PFL World Championship, which, notably, is being held outside of the US for the first time, and will see fighters competing for a US$6 million prize pool. The November PFL MENA Finals will also see both Alsaif and Al-Qahtani back in the cage, with Al-Qahtani competing to be the first-ever PFL MENA Champion in his weight class.

Hattan Alsaif with fans at PFL's "Battle of the Giants" in October. 

In an op-ed published in Arab News in October, Abdullah Al-Hazza, CEO of the Saudi Mixed Martial Arts Federation, wrote how Saudi Arabia is “reinforcing its role as a leading destination for major MMA competitions.” The aim, he said, is to attract investment, connect with global communities, create jobs, and encourage healthier lifestyles.

“There has been a 21 percent increase in MMA participation this year from last year across Saudi Arabia — which includes not just fighters and athletes of various ages, but also coaches, referees and judges,” Al-Hazza pointed out, lauding the Kingdom’s efforts in “utilizing the sports industry as a catalyst for economic and social development.”

Al-Hazza also believes that it’s only a matter of time before an elite Saudi fighter the likes of Francis Ngannou will emerge from the Kingdom – a sentiment that Davis had shared with us previously.

According to Al-Hazza, the forthcoming PFL MENA Championship Finals will see the federation, ministry, and global PFL organization come together to organize the event. But it is the participation of fighters like Alsaif that is creating excitement among Saudi fans.

“For us as Saudi Arabia citizens, however, perhaps the most exciting part is the inaugural Middle East and North Africa PFL finals, where Alsaif will make history as the first woman from this nation to compete in a global PFL event,” Al-Hazza wrote, noting how she is already inspiring other women in the sport. Indeed, he predicts that she is the first of many female Saudi MMA fighters to come.

Alsaif, who entered combat sports just three years ago, claims to have left everything behind, including her job at a local bakery, to focus on MMA. “I see MMA as the hardest sport,” she says. “I thought it was too early to jump into MMA, and I wasn’t sure that I was good enough.”

But her coaches and gym mates encouraged her to take the chance. “My coach told me, ‘You are ready for whatever it is. All the team believes in you, Hattan,’” she shares. “They really encouraged me.”

Alsaif, who lost her parents at a young age, believes that the family she has built through MMA has helped her regain trust and confidence in herself, and given her the support she needs to be a pro fighter.

“I see the future as very open and welcoming, because I do trust Allah first more than anything else,” Alsaif says. “I have lost everything in my life, and I think I have lost enough to [now] take more than what I lost.”

“It’s like all my life is about the sport now. Like literally everything – I wake up, I sleep, I eat, and all my mind is about my dream, and the goal that I want to reach.”

At the end of November, Alsaif will compete in a showcase fight at the PFL MENA Championship Finals. “I want history, legacy, and everything that would come on my way to be mine, and to win it,” she declares.

Hattan Alsaif making an entrance at PFL MENA. 

Hattan Alsaif shares her tips for aspiring MMA fighters:

1. Pick your community “Your community is one of the things that can push you up or push you down. Combat sports are harder than other sports, and you need a lot of support. You don’t need people asking you why you can’t stay up late, or eat this or that, or smoke. If your community sleeps early, you won’t have anyone to talk to, so you’ll sleep early. If you’re having lunch, they will order good food, so you will have to order good food like them. They will talk about sports, so you will think about sports too, not cars, or jewelry, or other unimportant stuff.”

2. Fall back on family “I don’t have it, and not everyone has it, but if you have a good family, you are lucky. I don’t have a real family, but my gym family feels like a real family. In this sport, if you can’t trust your coach or your teammates, that’s not good. If you have people around you to trust like a family, and you’re all really close and can show each other the love, then you need to thank your God.”

3. Be confident “I had a crack in my self-confidence before, but martial arts helped me to get my self-confidence way better and bigger. So, always try to develop your confidence in your level, in your body, and in your power. If you don’t feel confident, your opponent will see it. It’s something you can smell and see in the eyes. If you don’t have it, you will lose. If you do have it, you will have a big aura around, and everyone will feel it, and get scared from it.”

4. Believe in something bigger than yourself “I would say that my Islam and my religion have helped me trust in myself, and trust in God first. I always tell myself, ‘I got this injury, Alhamdulillah, maybe I got injured on my left leg, because God wants me to work on my right leg. Maybe God doesn’t want me to play this championship, because I will lose.’ You will have a lot of cracks and injuries, and a lot of bad luck in this sport, but if you believe that your God will do what’s best for you, that will help a lot.”

5. Be authentic “I’ve become a real role model here in KSA, and it’s scary. People watch everything I do – my clothes, the way I speak, the way I eat. I got scared in the beginning, and I was so annoyed, because I’m the type of person who loves to be free. I go to the gym wearing mismatched clothes, my hair is messy and curly, I laugh loudly. But after a while, I thought maybe I don’t need to change myself – people are taking me as a role model as I am. When I found people talking about me like that, I thought, ‘I’m a good person, even if my hair is always messy.’ This is me, this is who I am, and thank God everyone loves me and takes me as a role model in martial arts.”

This article first appeared in the November issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.