Azem Maksutaj

Azem Maksutaj (born 8 July 1975) is a Swiss former kickboxer of Kosovar Albanian origin. He competed in lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight, and heavyweight divisions. Originally from Kosovo (then part of SFR Yugoslavia), he relocated to Switzerland and began training in Muay Thai at fifteen. After winning the Swiss national title as a lightweight in his first year of competitions in 1992, he won the European and world honors in 1994 while fighting around the 77 kg (170 lb; 12 st 2 lb) super middleweight mark. In the late 1990s, he moved between light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions, taking five world titles. He eventually moved to heavyweight in 2001, where he spent the remainder of his career, acting as a journeyman in the K-1 promotion and winning four other world titles. He won fourteen world titles in various weight divisions before retiring in 2010 with a hundred professional contests.