Shemsi Beqiri  Shemsi Beqiri (born 3 May 1986) is a Swiss kickboxer who competes in the middleweight division. Born in Yugoslavia, Beqiri relocated to Switzerland as a child and started practicing kickboxing and Muay Thai at sixteen years old. He began his career fighting as a lightweight and welterweight before eventually moving up to middleweight, winning a host of national, European and world titles at the various weight classes to establish himself as a veteran in the sport at a young age. A Swiss Albanian, Beqiri was born to Kosovar Albanian parents in Vitina, SFR Yugoslavia (now Kosovo) on May 3, 1986 and, at the age of five, he emigrated with his family to Basel, Switzerland where he soon began training in karate and taekwondo. He took up kickboxing and Muay Thai when he was sixteen. He was naturalized as a Swiss citizen. His three brothers, Hysni, Ilir and Sabedin are also professional kickboxers. Shemsi Beqiri began his career at Super Pro Basel and moved to Superpro Sportcenter Basel in 2002, fighting as a lightweight. Two years after beginning fighting, he won his first title by defeating Jetmir Sula via decision to win the World Professional Kickboxing Council (WPKC) Swiss -63.5 kg/140 lb Muay Thai Championship in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland on May 8, 2004. He then travelled to Novara, Italy just three weeks later to challenge Alessandro Conca for the WPKC European -63.5 kg/140 lb International Kickboxing title, and beat the local fighter on points after seven, two-minute rounds to become the European champion. Beqiri ended 2004 by becoming the Swiss champion for the second time, knocking out Dardan Zeqiri in round three to take the Schweizerische Kick-Boxing Verbände (SKBV) Swiss -63.5 kg/140 lb Kickboxing belt on November 13, 2004. After accumulating an undefeated record fighting on the European kickboxing and Muay Thai circuit, his first loss came at the hands of Giorgio Petrosyan in an Muay Thai Association (MTA) European -65 kg/143 lb title fight in Gorizia, Italy on February 26, 2005. On February 18, 2006, Beqiri entered the S-1 Muay Thai tournament held in Basel.