Israel's 11-0 Kickboxer, 19, Comes Home to Flags at Ben Gurion

Ahavat Hashem Gordon, a 19-year-old Israeli kickboxer, arrived back at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday to a crowd that stretched across the terminal, less than two days after winning a fight in Lithuania. Supporters cheered, waved Israeli flags and filmed him as he came off the plane. His record now stands at 11 wins and no defeats.

The bout took place on Saturday night in Kaunas, Lithuania, under Muay Thai rules with mixed martial arts gloves, in the 63.5 kilogram weight class. Gordon's opponent was the Turkish fighter Ali Koyuncu, who had repeatedly taunted him on social media in the preceding days with anti-Israel and antisemitic remarks. Tensions carried into the pre-fight weigh-in, where Koyuncu lunged at Gordon and tried to grab him by the throat, and struck him with a kick to the stomach before officials separated them. The fight ended in a technical knockout in the second round after Koyuncu suffered a leg injury.

What Gordon said

"This is the moment I've been waiting for my whole life," Gordon told a press conference shortly after landing. "It's all from God. If I had let everything that was happening get into my head, it would have thrown me off balance, and I would have stopped this fight."

He said the provocations had made the win matter more. "Once he brought politics into sports, there's no going back," he said. "I'm proud to have shown the world that the Israeli people are strong. I gave strength and showed that an Israeli Jew can fight openly, with a kippa [skullcap] and tzitzit [ritual tassels worn on the four corners of a Jewish prayer shawl or garment], without hiding who he is."

Gordon acknowledged that the run-up had been tense. "Did I receive antisemitic comments? Yes, I did. Not only me, my family did too. But we do what we have to do, and we do the right thing," he said. Messages from Israel Defense Forces soldiers who had watched the fight moved him most: "It touched me almost to tears." Of confronting Koyuncu afterwards, he said: "Yes, there was anger. I asked him why he wrote what he wrote and told him not to do it again. I respect him for stepping into the arena (it takes courage), but other than that, I don't respect him." Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called the result "another brilliant victory for our Israeli fighter".

The rules he was fighting under

Muay Thai is a Thai striking art nicknamed the "art of eight limbs", because it permits fists, elbows, knees and shins, along with clinching, sweeps and foot-thrusts. That makes it the most permissive of the striking codes: standard kickboxing, by contrast, allows punches, kicks and knees to the body but bars elbows and permits little or no clinch work. The International Federation of Muaythai Associations was recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 2021, and the sport has been on the World Games programme since 2017, with three men's and three women's weight classes.

A sport, and a wider argument

Israeli athletes competing abroad since October 2023 have repeatedly found the politics of the region waiting for them at the venue. The cycling team founded in Israel, formerly Israel-Premier Tech, needed police guarding its team bus at the Tour de France and was disrupted by protesters at the Vuelta a España, and had a markedly quieter race in July 2026 after a rebrand that dropped Israel from its name, according to the Times of Israel. Gordon's response was the opposite approach: fighting visibly as an observant Jew, and saying so.

His family, and what comes next

Gordon has seven siblings, six of whom also practise Thai boxing. His mother, Haninat, was born in Hong Kong, is of Thai and Philippine ancestry, and converted to Judaism; his late father, the Israeli-American Azriel Gordon, died four years ago. His older brother, Ruach Hashem, won a silver medal for Israel at the Muay Thai World Games in China last year. "My message to young people who want to succeed is that if you have a dream, don't let anyone bring you down," Gordon said. "Be focused and believe."

What is still unclear

The account did not say which promotion staged the card, whether the governing body took any disciplinary action over Koyuncu's remarks or the weigh-in incident, or whether Koyuncu responded to the allegations. It also gave no indication of Gordon's next scheduled fight.