REDA MESSAOUDI

Strong legs inspired this Moroccan fighter’s nickname: The Cobra. He got them doing parkour, acrobatics, and breakdancing in the streets of his town wedge between the sea and the desert. His strength powers a spinning back kick that takes opponents by surprise. “Sometimes I stay stable, stable stable,” he says. “Then I go off--it’s like a cobra.” Reda, who hasrepresented Morocco all over the world, likes to train in the desert. “There I can work against the heat, and absorb the immense power of the dunes.”