![Duke Didier will face Jasur Mirzamukhamedov in a ONE Championship match. [ONE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/03/26/ab60935a-29ec-4c16-bfbb-9ceb76c7b5b4.jpg)
Duke Didier will face Jasur Mirzamukhamedov in a ONE Championship match. [ONE]
Australian star Duke “The Duke of Canberra” Didier always seemed destined to become an elite athlete.
The towering 6-foot-4 heavyweight is set to face Ben “Vanilla Thunder” Tynan in a huge clash on Prime Video’s “ONE Fight Night 21: Eersel vs. Nicolas,” but his overall His transition to martial arts was relatively slow.
Didier faces Canada on April 5 at Lumphini Boxing Stadium and has a chance to be named one of the top contenders in the division, but he could have been on a very different trajectory if he had gone any other way.
Didier was born in Canberra, the capital of Australia, where much of his childhood was devoted to sports.
His father, Geoff, was a local ACT Brumbies legend and decorated rugby union player who represented the Australian national team.
“I come from a sporting background and have had a very good life. My father was an elite rugby player, so that's how I got into the sport. I started playing rugby when I was nine years old. I started,” Didier said.
His father was his biggest role model and biggest supporter, and he had the genes to match that motivation and achieved great results as a rugby player.
“My father has always been a huge influence on me. He has never forced me into a particular sport. He has always been a great role model and very supportive of anything I choose to do. ” said Didier. [success] Because I have seen that it is possible and not out of reach. ”
Didier's turn to martial arts supplemented his rugby career, but was ultimately replaced by his first love.
He started judo at the age of nine to help with tackles, but he had a natural affinity for the sport. He continued to practice martial arts alongside rugby for a long time, but deep down he always preferred martial arts.
“I started judo because I was told at school that it would help with tackling in rugby.The school I went to happened to have a judo program, one of the most elite in the country, with several Olympians. It was.
While Didier was still obsessed with his judo career, he discovered mixed martial arts in the late 2000s and there was something about it that appealed to him.
He began cross-training mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and competed in the new style alongside judo, but after missing out on the 2016 Olympics, he turned his full attention to fighting. I did.
“I traveled all over the world for judo. Then I started wanting to take my talents elsewhere. That’s what led me to mixed martial arts, but there was a bit There was a period of overlap,” Didier said. “The last time I took up judo was in 2016. I quit my job and worked to qualify for the Olympics. And I finished judo.” I was in the shadow squad [ranked] In order to be selected for the Olympics, you had to be 22 years old in the world, although in the world you are 23 or 24 years old.
“For the previous 20 cycles, I was Oceania Champion, so that would have been enough to qualify for the Olympics. I mean, this is the hardest qualification criterion and I was almost on the verge of qualifying. I did. It was pretty heartbreaking.”
It was a huge blow for Didier to come so close and fall short, but looking back, he believes it was an important catalyst in his success in mixed martial arts. ing.
“That was probably the biggest setback for me and the saddest thing. “I felt really defeated because I had given my all to something. “I main evented at the AIC Arena and won the Australian title in mixed martial arts. I stuck to my guns,” he said. That's what I always do.
“At the end of the day, it just lit a fire inside me that might not have lit as much if I had achieved that goal.”
Written by Jay Furness [kjdsports@joongang.co.kr]
