The first Muslim woman to take part in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships has won her debut bout.
Melanie Shah, who hails from Birmingham became only the second UK female, to fight bare knuckle professionally in the UK.
Melanie who became Muslim in 2003 said: “I absolutely loved every moment of the fight from the weigh in to the fight night, my opponent was tough but I kept the pressure on every round she was on the back foot.
"I just want to focus on my next opponent don’t care who it is.
“I want to give a big huge thank you to BKFC UK Andrew Bakewel and his team for the support and a massive thanks to BKFC president David Feldman for the opportunity he is an awesome guy.
“Lastly I want to thank my amazing husband, trainer and nutritionist Habib shah for his continued support, without him it wouldn’t have been possible.”
She had earlier told of wanting to change the perception of Muslim women.
She said: "There’s a perception that Muslim women and women in general should not do combat sports however I want to change that, now since I’m fighting for BKFC UK more Muslim women are looking out for the sport as they had never heard of it and never thought women could do the sport.
"A lot of women assumed it was a male only sport. Some of my friends will be downloading the app to watch live. I will shock a lot of people on fight night for sure.”
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