A Brave mission

It was an amazing day especially for the hardcore KHK MMA fans at Khalifa Sports City yesterday with the BRAVE Championship producing ten exciting battles. 

The preliminary rounds of the event, which is now in its second edition, featured five fights between champions from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Egypt, the US, Brazil and Ireland. The event was organised under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports First Deputy President, Bahrain Athletics Association President, Bahrain Mixed Martial Arts Association Honourary President, HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Mixed Martial Arts Organisation (KHK MMA) Founder.

Paac dominates

With the night getting darker, the combat also started showing its true colour with the flyweight fighters Haidar Farman and Jomar Paac throwing heavy blows and punches at each other. However, in the end, there could be only one winner and it was the Filipino fighter, Paac who endured the three-round match. Paac bagged more points and was crowned winner by unanimous decision (UD) by the three judges of each fight.

Quinonez rules 

In the second fight, Mexican Christian Quinonez beat Egyptian Ahmed Faress by submission in the second round. Faress eventually tapped out after his opponent cornered him for more than half of the five-minute round.

American beast reigns 

The third fight was in the light-heavyweight category. It was between American beast Tyree Fortune and the Mexican “Spider-Monkey” Ben Forsyth. The American won the fight as per the judges’ decision after lasting for the entire 15 minutes  against his opponent, scoring more blows, kicks and other techniques.

St. Lion roars 

Only twenty seconds into the second round, Indian Gurdarshan “Saint Lion” Mangat finished Filipino Troy “The Hunter” Bantiag with a Technical Knockout (TKO). Living up to the hype, Gurdarshan’s win was absolutely a roaring one as he peppered Bantiag with kicks. And eventually, at the end of the round one, Bantiag was saved by the bell, when he collapsed. Mangat continued with his exiting form in the second round too with the referee finally halting the contest to Mangat’s favour. 

Da Silva’s day 

The night continued to gain more venom with the focus now shifting to the Featherweight fight between Daniel Swain and Alex Da Silva. Brazilian Da Silva won the match by an amazing TKO, pushing the crowds to cheer louder for him. However, it wasn’t a straight forward win for Da Silve as expected with Swain managing to throw some excellent knocks in the beginning. However, the round two turned out to be a decider with Da Silva dominating the show. 

The main events of the night included five fights between fighters from Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, the Philippines, the UK, the US, Russia, Sweden and Jordan.

Champion Boudegzoame

Algerian Elias Boudegzoame beat American Walel Watson in the first round after successfully submitting his opponent using the “Kimura” technique in the first round.  

Huge win for Al Silawi

The second battle of the main card and the seventh in the night was held between Swedish Erik Carlsson and Jarrah “The Jordanian Lion” Al Silawi. 

Al Silawi managed a huge submission victory in the second round by using the “Kimura” technique, forcing his opponent to tap-out. The game turned out to be a real thriller with a highly competitive first round. Though Carlsson had his moments in the fight he was unable to harm Al Silawi who fought back with equal vigour. However, in the second round, things were not going as planned for Carlsson with him eventually falling into the trap of Silawi. The Jordanian Lion soon started showing his true colours by locking his  opponent in a nasty trap to gain an impressive win.