The Unbeatable Aussie Boxer Who Converted To Radical Islam Is About To Get Out Of Jail

They called him "Trigger." Ahmed Elomar and his brother Mohamed "Sugar" Elomar were once the fresh princes of Australian boxing. The sons of a hard-working Lebanese migrant who arrived in Australia in the 70s fleeing civil war, the pair grew up in the sometimes mean, always multicultural streets of Western Sydney. In the ring, they were a mirror image of one another—fast hands, passable footwork, but mostly grit.

"[There was] nothing special about them when it comes to natural gifts, but they work very hard in the gym," said renowned boxer and trainer Billy Hussein to secondsout.com back in 2005.

At one point, the brothers were the toast of Australian boxing. Ahmed claimed an IBO Asia Pacific Featherweight belt in 2005 while Mohamed would become an Australian Super Featherweight, the pair fighting numerous times as undercards for former world champion and Islamic-convert, Anthony Mundine's fights.

Away from the ring, the brothers would follow their faith into an infamous prayer centre in south-west Sydney called the Global Islamic Youth Centre where a cleric by the name of Sheik Feiz was peddling a poisonous brand of Islam. Ahmed and Mohamed's father hated the man.

"Sheiks like Feiz ruin people," he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007.

"He is not a sheik; he is brainwashing all these children. I know my religion, so I can tell him when he is wrong, but these kids believe everything he says and think it's their religion. Someone needs to stop him.

But it wasn't just the sheik getting inside their heads. Although their father had made good with his Australian integration and was now running a multi-million dollar construction business, their uncle was less at ease with his new homeland. Mohamed Ali Elomar is today one of Australia's most infamous terrorists. He was picked up during the Pendennis terror raids, the largest anti-terror operation in Australian history, and charged with being a ringleader of the Pendennis terror plot. He is currently being held in Goulburn Supermax prison.

In 2007, while on a trip to Lebanon with his wife and two children, Ahmed 'Trigger' Elomar was arrested along with two other men on suspicion of having links to a terrorist cell. They were badly beaten and allegedly tortured during their interrogation before being allowed to return to Australia. Still at the peak of his powers as a boxer, Ahmed continued destroying opponents in the ring. In 2008 he knocked out 21 year old Willie Kickett at the Central Coast Leagues Club in Gosford. While Kickett was being tended to on the canvas, Elomar's entourage entered the ring in what was the beginning of a wild brawl. His brother Mohamed, who was there on the night, would claim they were acting in self defence. In any case, chairs were thrown into the ring, the police were called, and Fox Sports were forced to abandon their live coverage of the event.

Mohamed's career was also tainted by wild ringside brawls and claims of poor sportsmanship. In 2007, Mohamed was disqualified for repeated low blows on his opponent Matt Powell, a decision which also led to an ugly melee in the ring. Elomar was forced to lock himself in the change rooms for 45 minutes after the fight while the crowd was dispersed. He later told reporters: "They were throwing ice cubes at me and calling me a terrorist. I will never fight in Brisbane again. It's full of rednecks."

Mohamed Elomar was one of Australia's best fighters at the time, having lost just one of his 21 fights on his way to becoming the Australian Super Featherweight champion. But both he and his brother were banned for life from Australian boxing for their role in the brawl at the Central Coast Leagues Club that night.

Five years later and Mohamed was in Syria fighting for ISIS. He made national headlines after a photo of him holding two decapitated heads was posted to social media. He also took pleasure in taunting ASIO over twitter and warned Australia would soon be beset by a wave of terrorist attacks. Mohamed was killed while fighting for ISIS in 2015.

Ahmed 'Trigger' Elomar is currently serving four years and eight months in Goulburn Prison after he bashed a policeman with a pole during the 2012 Hyde Park protests over the YouTube clip, The Innocence of Muslims. Elomar received a reference from former world champion boxer Anthony Mundine for the court case, in which Mundine described him as honest and hardworking. Ahmed's mother, meanwhile, described her son as "not very intelligent" and his barrister said he suffered an "impaired intellectual state" that made him easily influenced. Last week the NSW State Parole Authority signalled they were ready to grant Ahmed parole as early as this Friday, in part because he risked being radicalised by other inmates if he remained behind bars. The State Government launched an appeal against his release this week on the grounds he was "already radicalised" and had maintained links to ISIS supporters. The appeal was upheld yesterday meaning he will not be released until at least July 28th.