As reported by Israel’s Ynet news, Ilya Grad, 24, made history when he became the first Israeli to enter Malaysia, after receiving special permission from the country’s Muslim authorities, in order to participate in a national TV reality show on boxing.

Grad, a former Israeli Muay Thai champion, the 2010 Asia champion and the second runner-up in the world championship, has been living and training in Thailand for the past four years. He has already won 38 competitions, and lost only nine times.

Malaysian television station AXN recently invited 16 of the world’s best boxers to participate in a reality show called The Challenger Muaythai. They live in the same house, eat and train together, and in the evenings they fight in a ring in front of the cameras.