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 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.
Early life
Maksutaj, a Kosovar Albanian, was born in 1975 in Deçan, SFR Yugoslavia (now Kosovo), as the second of four children. His father moved to Switzerland as a guest worker in the late 1970s, so Maksutaj saw him only sparingly while growing up. In 1990, at fifteen, Maksutaj and the rest of his family reunited with his father in Winterthur, Switzerland, during the wave of Yugoslav immigration to the country. Unable to speak the language and struggling to integrate, he soon began training in Muay Thai at the Wing Thai Gym to escape his troubles.
Career
Career beginnings (1992–1997)
After twelve months of training and his first year of competition, Maksutaj won the Swiss national Muay Thai - title in 1992 by beating Jesus Perez, who was eleven years his senior by knockout in the second round.
On 10 June 1995, Maksutaj was invited to fight at Japan's K-1 Fight Night, the first event held by the K-1 promotion outside Japan, in Zurich, Switzerland. There, he lost to Surinamese veteran Orlando Wiet via a second-round knockout. Returning to K-1 a year later at K-1 Fight Night II on 2 June 1996, he lost against Seido karate stylist Taiei Kin. He was knocked down in round two and lost by a unanimous decision after a five-round tussle. He fared no better in his next match when he took on Jörgen Kruth at the K-1 World MAX North European Qualification 2007 in Stockholm on 24 November 2006, as he lost by KO from a knee midway through the opening round. In his next outing on May 19, 2007, he lost by technical knockout against Nathan Corbett, the eventual tournament champion, in the quarter-finals of the K-1 Fighting Network Scandinavian Qualification 2007 in Stockholm.
Maksutaj returned to the local circuit to stop his losing streak and took several wins including a points victory over Erhan Deniz in Bratislava, Slovakia on 7 September 2007, before returning to K-1 at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Amsterdam on 26 April 2008, to face an up-and-coming Tyrone Spong. He got dropped from a knee to the body early in the opening stanza and was knocked down again with punches at the end of the round. The second knockdown did not count as he was saved by the bell, but Spong soon finished him with another knee strike to the body in the second, bringing Maksutaj's losing streak in K-1 to five.