He started wrestling aged 11 encouraged by his father and inspired by his elder brother Muttalip Yerlikaya who is also a wrestler with international success.

[4] Hamza Yerlikaya's first international competition was in 1991 World Cadets Wrestling Championships in Quebec, Canada, in which he got the fourth place.

His first senior international event was the 1993 European Wrestling Championships in Istanbul where he got the second place, losing to Thomas Zander in the finals.

Yerlikaya joined the army to fulfill his military duty in 1996, during which he attended the Atlanta Olympics in Georgia, U.S. and won the gold medal in the 82-kilogram weight category.

Yerlikaya worked as a consultant in the General Director's Office for Youth and Sports, and he was also a member of the Turkish International Olympic Committee (IOC).