Senegal’s new world kickboxing champion Mouhamed Tafsir Ba smashes an uppercut into the punching bag in a dilapidated room in a military barracks. Bare-chested, muscles glistening with sweat, he works on the bag, delivering punches at a dizzying speed.
This is the punishing regime that helped Ba win the -90kg category at the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations (WAKO) World Cup event in Uzbekistan in September, giving Senegal the first world title in its history in a sport that is attracting a growing number of fans in the west African country.
In the women’s competition, his compatriot Ndeye Khady Diallo won a second consecutive silver in the lightweight -60kg class.
Those results show the rapid growth of a discipline that only appeared in Senegal around 30 years ago.
Kickboxing is developing fast in the country, driven by a handful of tireless enthusiasts, despite a lack of resources.
Back at the barracks, coach Phamora Toure is training the national team, demonstrating moves and advising fighters.
The former African champion, who discovered the sport by watching the films of Belgian action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, is one of the pioneers who launched kickboxing in Senegal in the late 1990s.
“Between 2022 and now, we have had a rise in membership of more than 300%,” said Yakhya Diop, the president of the Senegalese kickboxing federation, who estimates the number of fighters at around 6,000 in around 50 clubs.
‘It kept me here’
Coach Toure came across future world champion Ba while attending a classic boxing competition.
“I saw his qualities and his potential if he started to work on his kick,” he said.
In less than three years, the Senegalese-Guinean, from a working-class district of Dakar, has reached the top.
“I wanted to emigrate, to travel to a country like France or the United States because I thought that if I wasn’t there, I could never succeed,” 23-year-old Ba said.
“Since I discovered combat sports, I decided to stay here,” he said.
“By being Senegalese, by training here, you can become a legend, you can become a world champion,” he said.
Before discovering kickboxing, Ba tried his hand at karate, roller skating, circus acts, gymnastics, kung fu and boxing.
Now he only dreams of becoming an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) champion, inspired by the rise of MMA stars like Francis Ngannou, a Cameroonian, Nigerian-New Zealander Israel Adesanya, and South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis.
The Senegalese have a long tradition of combat sports — wrestling remains one of the most popular sports in the country.
However, being a high-level athlete in Senegal has its share of difficulties. One of the fighters’ biggest fears is injury because treatment is expensive, rarely reimbursed and most are uninsured.
As a result, “it’s hard to find sparring partners because they refuse to accept certain hits to avoid getting hurt,” Ba said.
The fighters also suffer from a lack of funding to travel to competitions and even to get to training sessions.
“The cash comes from our pockets,” said Yakhya Diop.
In an attempt to attract new recruits to kickboxing, often from disadvantaged areas, the federation has slashed the price of the license required to take part from 10,000 CFA francs to 3,000 CFA francs (from approximately 15 euros to five euros, or $16 to $5).
But while the number of registered fighters has increased, the federation has to survive on a budget of less than 2,000 euros annually, Diop said.
He is hoping the positive results at the world championships will help the sport to develop “a high performance centre”, attract sponsors, increase revenues, and train a new generation of elite kickboxers.
Amadou Keita, who at 12 years old is one of the bright new hopes, trains alongside his idols.
“When we see them training, never giving up, it’s inspiring. I want to become world champion like them,” he said.