Fidaah grew up in Woodstock, Cape Town. During his childhood he battled with depression for a long while. In realizing this, he took it upon himself to find help, heal and empower himself. Through reading books, listening to podcasts and watching videos on psychology, he not only overcame depression but also strengthened his mind to a point where he would now seek to help others. At the age of seventeen he became a confident motivational public speaker. Today he is known to be invited on radio speaking about men’s health; mental health; life motivation and purposeful living; goal achievement; peak performance in sports and personal life.

He also appeared on the Morning Expresso show and Hectic 9-9 promoting martial arts and wellness.

His late father, Abdullah Edries and mother Fouzia Edries, were both involved in community work with a passion for assisting the less fortunate. Fidaah’s active involvement in this only piqued his interest in humanitarian work. Fidaah then went on to obtain his Honors in Psychology and then became a qualified registered counsellor, he has dedicated the past twenty years to youth and childhood development.

He also volunteered for various NGO’s as a student at; orphanages for abused children, – NICRO (National Institute for crime prevention and reintegration of offenders – for 5 years), Brawam Siswam (An NGO on campus teaching life skills in impoverished communities), pioneered the establishment of an NGO on campus in honours’ year, named Students for Positive Social Change. He became the Chairman of this NGO and went on to initiate a lifeskills/mentorship program at the School of Sports.

Fidaah’s first job fresh out of university, was at the Mustadafin Foundation where he worked as the Youth Development and Community Mental Health Manager for five years. During his time in this role, he designed and implemented various interventions in 7 areas around the Cape Flats and township communities. Some of the programs he designed and implemented was Life skills programs, Mentorship programs, Youth leadership camps, Arts and crafts classes, June 16 programs, Reading classes, Sports intervention programs, Positive Parenting training. He would source, train and manage 50 plus volunteers to implement the above programs in the communities. He also initiated social responsibility programs in which the youth in the areas work on the upliftment of their communities. In Khayelitsha he trained a group of youth to establish their own NGO successfully, Ikhamvalakasi. He was also the community-based counsellor at the same NGO.

Growing up, Fidaah always has an affinity with sport which moulded him into an adaptable athlete. His father introduced him to boxing at the age of ten by spending time together watching boxing matches.

In order to broaden his repertoire in Martial Arts, Fidaah trained at four different in his time to broaden his knowledge in the respective disciplines.

Whilst working at the Mustadafin Foundation in 2014 as the Youth and Mental Health Manager, Fidaah was called to take on the role of teacher when asked to relay his knowledge of kickboxing to the children at the centre. This incident led to the inception of Fighterz Inc. as Fidaah realised that Kickboxing and martial arts could be instrumental to the empowerment of troubled youths.

The goal of the academy is to provide a source of healing and inspiration to the community.

Much like the start-ups of Apple, Disney and Amazon, Fighter Inc.’s first classes were held in Fidaah’s garage.

“When I started out, we didn’t have much and many of the student’s I trained could not afford to purchase their own equipment,” Fidaah explains.

In order to overcome this issue, Fidaah hosted a fundraising bootcamp. The event was a huge success with over eighty individuals attending. Of these, four youngsters requested to enter a tournament and, with minimal equipment but effective training, all four of the youngsters successfully won their matches. This provided Fidaah with the momentum needed to take on coaching full time and cemented confidence in his ability to produce champions. The foundation on which Fidaah’s dojo was built consists of these –

Respect, Discipline and Commitment.

God first, Believe in yourself, Never doubt.

Hard work, Dedication, Relentlessness.

These affirmations form the gym’s motto and members are required to repeat them after each class, thus reinforcing the gym’s core principles.

‘Sensei Fidaah makes one feel welcome to the gym no matter your background or sports experience and he always motivates us to look after our mental health and guides us on how to do that. He is more than just a coach, he is a mentor and role model.’ (Anonymous, gym member)

While the gym has certainly churned out its fair share of champions, it isn’t all tournaments and belts at Fighterz Inc. The gym hosts a variety of programs ranging from therapy, life coaching, personal growth towards personal excellence courses, its kids MMA anti-bullying classes to the self-defence classes for women and yoga and meditation classes.

Fidaah designed a sports peak performance program which he implements at the gym for clients and for his fighters to perform on a high level in their given sports. This peak performance training has and is playing a major role in the immense success of athletes and clients at the gym, ‘as the mind always leads the body.’

“Our ultimate goal is to develop better human beings”. Coach Fidaah Edries

Fidaah’s achievements:

• South Africa 40 under 40 finalist 2024
• Developed an EFC Worldwide MMA Champion
• Developed two MMA amateur champions
• Developed a South African Kickboxing Champion

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• ADCC All Africa Jiujitsu Champion
• Developed various western province kickboxing champions
• Developed a female Silver medallist at the SA National Boxing Championships
• Developed Cape Town local boxing tournament Champions
• Youth development specialist
• Registered Counsellor
• Motivational Speaker
• Life Coach/Peak Performance Coach
• 2nd Dan black belt Sensei in Kickboxing
• Qualified Muay Thai coach/ Kru
• Qualified MMA coach
• Purple belt jiujitsu