In October 2023 Assouik gave a Muay Thai world title back rather than accept what came attached to it. IFMA had left him out of the -75kg class he had fought his whole career at for that year's World Games, and offered him a division below instead.
He calls it unbearable, and unfair to anyone who has held a weight since childhood in order to stay champion, and boycotts both IFMA and the WMC over it.
