Q&A with Suleyman Mammadli: My books are stored in the World Taekwondo Museum
Suleyman Mammadli is a professor of martial arts and their philosophy, doctor, international instructor and judge, founder of Turan Do martial arts. He brought many types of martial arts to Azerbaijan. For example, he is a creator of taekwondo, hapkido, tachycardia, kickboxing, suboxone tattoo, Chun Kung, Tae Cook Mu Sul, Cit Kun Do, Dong Ku Yudo Kwan and others in Azerbaijan. Mammadli is the World Champion in Combat Hapkido (2004), the World Taekwondo World Cup (2005), the European Champion in Martial Arts (2006), the World Champion (2007, 2010), the Full Contact World Champion (2007), the Combat and Complex. Double winner of World Cup (2007), double winner of Mudo World Cup — Complex and martial arts (2008), winner of the European Cup in martial arts (2009), one gold and two silver medals in various types of Hapkido ( 2010), BUDO World Champion (2011), Chinese Martial Arts Champion (2011), Fight Cup Champion of Mixed Martial Arts (2011), European Champion in Mixed Martial Arts (2011).
How many years have you been doing sports?
During my school years, I was involved in weightlifting. Later I was involved in sambo wrestling. I have over 400 certificates. Since 1978 I have been allowed to hold karate competitions in the USSR, and since then I have been practicing karate until 1984. In 1983 I went to Hungary to take an international degree in karate. Only then I knew that the race was on taekwondo, not karate. Since that time I started taekwondo.
You are 70 years old and still participate in the competitions. How old are your competitors?
Sometimes I am presented as a veteran athlete. But I acted as a veteran only 2 times, the other competitions were with young people. My opponents were black belt holders from 8th-9th dan. After that, I tried two types of strength at the Chinese Martial Arts Championships in Orlando, USA, between 12–14th of July and became the first in both. The competition was attended by 950 athletes and lasted from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The last time I competed in Italy in November. I have performed on 8 martial arts. I have won 5 world titles and 3 silver medals.
You are also the founder of Turan Do martial arts. Are Turan Do competitions being held?
I created this sport in 2004 in Azerbaijan. Other martial arts refer to the time when movements of some kind occur and do not meet the requirements. But Turan Do is a modern, universal, and real battle. The militant Turan Do is superior to all sports. This kind of martial arts is not a competition but is taught to special division. I am the president of the World Turan Do Association. The organization includes more than 30 countries, organize seminars and give degrees. When our athlete's train, we mainly use Turan Do elements.
For some reason, you don’t want to appear on TV or in the press…
For two reasons. First, there are very few people interested in me in Azerbaijan. In foreign countries, the attitude of people to me is quite different. On many occasions, when I was traveling abroad with my students, they were surprised to see how I was welcomed abroad. I teach martial arts to special division in America and in Russia. I would like to do this also in our country. Unfortunately, no one in our country is interested in it. The second reason is that I am a modest person and I don’t like to show my success. For example, very few people know that several books I have written about taekwondo are translated into English and are taught abroad. These books are now stored in the World Taekwondo Museum in Seoul, Korea.
