Kings Academy’s Hayellom Tesfay will fight Angel Ribas this Saturday night for the WKBF New Zealand 72.3kg K1 title, at TMT Presents: To the Top in Hamilton.

21-year-old Tesfay is known for his lightning-fast striking and high pace, most recently fighting on the Born to Fight 8 card on November 28, defeating Connor Rei to win the Oceania K1 title.

Two weeks later, he steps back into the ring to face Red Dragon’s Angel Ribas, an experienced fighter coming off a long layoff.

Tesfay has only been training since 2018, since then amassing a record of 10-1-1 as well as a WKN World amateur title, WKN Oceania title, and IKBF North Island welterweight title.

Fight News caught up with Hayellom Tesfay in his preparation for the weekend’s fight.

Hi Hayellom. Congrats on the Oceania title at Born to Fight 8. Can you tell me how the fight went?

“Leading up to that fight, I knew that I was fighting my boy from Strikeforce, Connor. Knowing Strikeforce they always come in hard and bring their A-game.

“They’ve got a good trainer, Aaron Boyes. I was training really hard and my gameplan was to just stay calm and pick him apart.

“I went in there and he came out real strong, he was pressuring me. I was finding my rhythm in the first round. Eventually I got to it and was picking my shots.

“It was a hard fight, I had to dig deep for the last couple of rounds, but I got there. It was great fun. Big ups to Connor.”

How quickly were you back in the gym, with your next title fight 2 weeks later?

“Yeah, it was an intense fight, I took a lot of damage. I took two days off just to rest and then pushed myself straight back into it. I was letting my legs rest and just mostly using my hands.”

I read an article about you and Zak Kezo which said you only started training in 2018. How have you managed to get so good, so fast?

“I came in at the start just for training purposes, to have fun, you know. But I started taking it to the next level and I’ve been training hard ever since.

“I’ve taken every fight I can to gain experience.”

Do you come from a different sporting background?

“Actually no, I didn’t really play any sports, I just came into fighting. I was a bit gumby when I came in, haha.”

Tesfay lands a punch on Jordan Smart on the undercard of King in the Ring in July 2020 (photo: Calden Jamieson).

Did you have any interest in martial arts before you saw Adesanya fight?

“I was interested, I used to watch a lot of martial arts. Mostly boxing. But yeah, that fight kinda inspired me. I was like, if they can do it, why not give it a go?”

I believe Hayellom is an Ethiopian name. Did your parents migrate to New Zealand?

“Yeah, my parents did migrate to New Zealand. I came here when I was about three.”

Is Vahid Unesi your main coach? Tell me about training at Kings Academy.

“Yeah I’m training under Vahid at Kings Academy. We do a lot of cardio stuff, we like to keep our fighters really fit. We do technical stuff too obviously, but there's a focus on fitness. It's a great place to train."

Have you had any Muay Thai fights or just K1?

“I’ve had one mod Thai fight, but the rest were K1 rules.”

Vahid told me that you plan to enter the 68kg King in the Ring alongside your teammate Arshia next year. How do you feel about potentially fighting your training partner?

“Aw man, that’s a hard one. [Arshia and I] train real hard together and we’ve got good chemistry. I dunno man, it’s not something I really wanna think about at the moment.”

Do you know much about your opponent Angel Ribas?

“I don’t actually know much about him. I hear he hasn’t had a fight in a while. They couldn’t find him a fight, they couldn’t match him.

“I was kinda expecting my last fight to be more calm, but it was the complete opposite! I’m gonna try to fight smart for this fight against Angel, try not to take too much damage."

Have you got anything booked for 2021?

“I’m just gonna keep training and stay active, stay hungry. When King in the Ring comes up I wanna walk in there and be in my zone and do what I do best.”

Anyone you want to shout out to?

“Yeah, I wanna give a shout out to Zak Kezo, who’s making a comeback soon. Everyone needs to watch out.”

Thanks for the interview Hayellom. All the best for Saturday’s title fight.

You can follow Hayellom Tesfay on his Instagram: @hayellom.tesfay. His title fight on Saturday is fight number 14 on the TMT Presents: To the Top fight card in Hamilton. The first fight is scheduled to begin at 6:30pm.

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