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Asher Virin is a 21-year-old boxer and mma fighter, currently studying mechanical engineering at Birmingham university. His martial arts background dates back to Asher’s early years, and since joining university, he has developed a passion for mma as well as ju-jitsu, which he now hopes to compete more regularly in moving forwards.
Asher had a keen interest in sports from an early age. “I’ve always been into sports, I started kickboxing at 10, and I’ve played sports ever since, mainly football.” However, it wasn’t until starting university that Asher’s martial arts journey really began. “I started boxing in the first year of uni, then mma and ju-jitsu in the second year. Talking to me about his sporting journey up to this point, Asher said, “I didn’t take it too seriously until my first year of university, where I started watching a lot of boxing and fell in love with the sport.”
With limited chances to compete, Asher has put his all into showing his capabilities when the opportunities arise. He was successful in his boxing fight night, picking up his first win, as well as drawing in his most recent muay thai fight. When talking about his first win, Asher said, “I’m always very critical of myself and I wanted to perform better but although it was a tough battle, I definitely won two out of three rounds, it was great!” With this win under his belt, Asher hopes to compete more regularly in boxing, potentially also competing against other universities in the near future.
Asher’s martial arts skills have come on leaps and bounds in the last couple years, and he is determined to continue this upwards trajectory. Next year Asher is considering going to Thailand to focus on his training. When talking to me about potentially making this next step, Asher said, “I would be waking up early morning, going for a run and training hard every day with other people.” Asher believes this disciplined routine may stand him in great stead, if he decides to continue pursuing a career in martial arts “the fighters there live and breathe martial arts which I have a huge admiration for, I think it would be amazing to experience that setting”
Asher’s Jewish heritage is important to him and remains a key aspect of his life, regularly attending JSOC events in Birmingham. His martial arts and Judaism are something that he prefers to keep separate though, and with the intense training programme Asher currently partakes in, martial arts have helped to provide a healthy distraction to much of the unpleasant antisemitism often dominating university campuses. Right now, Asher is happy to keep his sporting and Jewish life separate, but can equally see himself becoming more and more enthusiastic about representing the Jewish community in a sporting context as his career continues to grow.