Tarik Solak

Tarik Solak (born 1964 in Ankara, Turkey) is a Turkish Australian kickboxing promoter.

Solak was born in Ankara to a working class family hailing from Yozgat. His family emigrated to Australia when he was five and Solak grew up in the North Melbourne suburb of Brunswick among the Turkish community and in a crowded family. He started his martial arts training in taekwondo under Jemal Hasan and achieved the rank of 4th dan. He later pursued a career in kickboxing and became a gym manager.

Solak started his career as a kickboxing promoter in 1993 with an event where Turkish fighters and Turkish Australian fighters trained by Jemal Hasan such as Tibet Hamza, Gerald Ilhan, Recep Saka, and Gürkan Özkan were featured. In the following year, Solak staged another show where Tibet Hamza vs. Gürkan Özkan bout was the main event. Major Australian sports broadcaster Fox Sports began covering Solak's promotions and by 1998, Solak organised a major event at the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex.

In 1999, Solak met K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii in Japan. After becoming the CEO for K-1's Oceania region, Solak promoted the first K-1 World Grand Prix event in Melbourne in 2001. Later K-1 stars Mike Zambidis and Mark Hunt got their main exposure at K-1 events promoted by Solak.

In 2003, Solak left K-1 and, by 2004, founded his new promotion A-1 World Combat Cup. A-1 was created with a show business concept that blended kickboxing with various spectacles. After several events in Australia, in 2005, A-1 held its first event in İstanbul and Solak bolstered his ties with the European kickboxing scene through his partnership with French co-promoter Kader Marouf. A-1 was well received by the Turkish public in following years and events promoted by Solak had serious representation in Turkish media. By 2006 and later, the show business aspect of A-1 was even furthered by Solak with the tournament A-1 Model Boxing that featured female fashion models. Turkish edition of Forbes magazine asserted in 2008 that the success of A-1 in Turkey resulted in a 'kickboxing economy' with very significant dimensions.

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