News from Ray
Training With Adel Altamimi at Humble Warrior Before BKB 60
By Ray Diaz · October 2026
On October 10, my friend Adel Altamimi walks into the BKB Trigon at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, England for BKB 60. He is 3 and 0 in bare knuckle with three knockouts. For most of this year I have been training in his gym, and since Miami I have been there more than ever.
Who Adel Altamimi is
Adel was born and raised in Baghdad. He started with Kyokushin karate as a kid, added jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts, and built a pro MMA career in promotions including Bellator. DAZN has made two films about how he got here, and Arab News profiled him ahead of this fight. What he survived before he ever fought professionally is his story to tell, and those films tell it better than I can.
In bare knuckle he has been perfect. He knocked out Jay Eggleston in the first round in his BKB arrival, then stopped Eduardo Perez de la Paz in the fourth round at BKB 56 in Los Angeles. I was ringside for that one. That is the night I wrote about here before.
For BKB 60, Liam Howell was originally announced as his opponent. After a late change, Tom Mowbray stepped in on short notice. The card airs on VICE TV and Telemundo in the United States and on talkSPORT in the UK and Ireland.
Humble Warrior, Beverly Hills
Adel owns and runs Humble Warrior Gym on North Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. It is not a boutique studio with a boxing corner. It is boxing, MMA, jiu jitsu and Muay Thai on a floor built for people who intend to compete, with a sauna and an ice bath for recovery.
I started training there at the beginning of 2026. At first it was on and off, around work and family. After BKB 58 in Miami, I started showing up a lot more often.
What changed
I have been in shape most of my adult life. Eleven years of football, a marine construction crew, eighteen national commercials and a fitness career taught me how to look the part. Training with Adel is different. It is not about looking the part. It is fight conditioning, and the body follows the work.
You do not need more discipline. You need a better room. Humble Warrior is that room for me.
What I value most is that Adel teaches. He shows you the technique, explains why it works, and lets you learn around him. A lot of people at his level guard what they know. He hands it to you.
October 10
When Adel fights in Newcastle, I will be watching. Win or lose, he has already shown me the standard. If you train in Los Angeles and want to know what that standard feels like, go find out at Humble Warrior.