User:Edgars2007/Mārtiņš Egle

Mārtiņš Egle (born January 9, 1980 in Tukums) is a Latvian mixed martial artist who competes in the heavyweight division of various European mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions. He is current Baltic WFCA light heavyweight champion.

Biography
Mārtiņš Egle grew up in Kandava and went to local school. He started to train mixed martial arts in Jelgava at the age of 22 and made his MMA debut after three months of training for a fight against a future UFC and PRIDE veteran David Baron. His first trainer was a well known Latvian MMA fighter by the name of Edmunds Kirsis, who holds a victory over Badr Hari in MMA. He also lived and trained two years in Holland. His training partner was the famous K-1 fighter Ashwin Balrak. In 2008 Mārtiņš participated in 2008 World Sambo Championships, in St. Petersburg, Russia where he got 7th place. He initially was going to fight for the bronze medal with Zarif Rasulov of Uzbekistan, but there was some mistake and Egle was disqualified from the bronze medal fight.

Career
Egle made his professional debut in the World Full Contact Association (WFCA), fighting against Nick Struve at "Latvia vs. Holland", where he suffered his second loss. Egle currently is ranked as the #1 Latvian Heavyweight Mixed Martial Artist by WFCA ratings. On the 21st of November, 2009 Egle was scheduled to meet with UFC veteran Mario Neto, but the fight was canceled one hour before the actual fight, because Mario sustained an injury. Last fight Mārtiņš had in fight show "WFCA-Fight Club vol.10" in Tukums where he fought to a draw with Lithuania's Tomas Pakutinskas.

Personal life
In 2010 Egle married a Latvian model by the name of Agnese Upite.