Ahmed Khaddour

Ahmed "Babyface" Khaddour (b. January 1, 1982, Lebanon) is a professional boxer.

Personal life

Originally Lebanese, he grew up in Denmark and now lives in America - his multi-cultural background has contributed to him being able to speak five languages.

Kaddour is, by his own admissions, very good looking - he aims to become a model and a world champion boxer one day. In the series premiere of "The Contender", the reality television series on which he appeared, he prompted Sylvester Stallone to say, "I thought I was from Hollywood - you got us beat", as Khaddour was wearing a particularly flashy jacket.

Boxing career

Khaddour started his career in Europe, fighting in Denmark, Wales, Hungary, Finland, Italy and Germany including a fight against Alessio Furlan at Braunschweig, Germany. The fight went the full distance with Kaddour winning narrowly on points to inflict Furlan with the first defeat of his professional career. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioge-5VakeM Video clip from the Ahmed Kaddour vs Alessio Furlan fight] ] Soon after Khaddour moved to America to further his career.

He was a contestant on reality TV show "The Contender", and was placed on the East Coast team. While on the team, he got involved in a feud with Ishe Smith that Ishe started, whom he eventually lost to - Smith calling him "his cancer". However, after the show, Ahmed [http://realitytv.about.com/od/thecontender/a/IsheandAhmed_2.htm revealed that] it was Ishe who started the feud. He was voted back into the quarterfinals after Juan de la Rosa pulled out - a tactic by a few boxers designed to get under Smith's skin as Ahmed came out of the Ishe fight unscathed (unlike Ishe), making Ishe feel nervous about a possible rematch. The week after Smith was eliminated, Ahmed was beaten by Alfonso Gomez, although Gomez was the more visibly battered fighter which in end meant nothing. Khaddour, who walked out with minor visual bruising and a broken ego, claimed that he would be back and wished Alfonso the best.

The first of the Contender contestants to fight again after the show's finale, Kaddour dominated through an 8-round unanimous decision against Maxell Taylor on July 22, 2005.Months later he fought Jesus Felipe Valverde , to a draw , due to a recurring stamina problem. Two months after this, in November 2006, Ahmed had a rematch against Valverde, which he subsequently won.

References

* [http://realitytv.about.com/od/thecontender/a/IsheandAhmed_2.htm Interview with About.com]

External links

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* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050316052257/http://www.ahmedkaddour.com Fanclub]
* [http://www.eightbit.com/contenderjihad.php The Contender Jihad]