The Telegraph has prepared a feature about Gegard Mousasi, a mixed martial artist of Armenian origin ahead of his Bellator MMA debut against Russia's Alexander Schlemenko on Friday, October 20.

Mousasi was born in Iran to Christian Armenian parents at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, his family name having been changed long before his birth from Mofsesian to Mousasi.

Detailing the turmoil of war, The Telegraph says Mousasi’s family – parents, brother Gewik and sister Angineh – tripped over the border a few years after the Iran-Iraq war and headed to Holland. Gegard was 8 years old.

‘My mum and dad were born in Iran. There’s a small community of Armenians there, but slowly everyone is leaving. I think there were 200,000 of us there at one time, and it’s fallen to around 50,000 now,’ explains Mousasi softly.

It was a life-changer in Holland. He began by dreaming of being a boxing world champion, watching Oscar De La Hoya, and the heavyweight careers of Mike Tyson, and then Lennox Lewis. He tested himself in an array of combat sports, and found solace. Judo was his first sport. Then he took up boxing.

By the age of 16, he was a national amateur champion in his adopted country. As a teenager, he was also drawn to kickboxing, and then, he walked into an MMA gym.

Mousasi’s aspirations are like every other fighter in mixed martial arts today: title ownership. Now, his aspirations are to win the Bellator middleweight crown, and then take on all-comers.

Mousasi is the former DREAM Light Heavyweight Champion, former DREAM Middleweight Champion, former Cage Warriors World Middleweight Champion and the former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, thus making himself a four-time World Champion.