Bahrain’s Kooheji misses out on BRAVE CF bantamweight title

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) superstar Hamza Kooehji last night narrowly missed out on winning the Brave Combat Federation bantamweight title in a split-decision loss to Canada’s Brad Katona.

Katona won the vacant championship belt after upsetting the hometown hero in a gruelling five-round fight. He upset Kooheji, nicknamed “The Pride of Bahrain”, who had the backing of a jam-packed crowd at a rocking Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.

Katona’s victory maintained his undefeated record in BRAVE CF events. It was a disappointing result for the valiant Kooheji, who was hoping to become the first-ever Bahraini to win an MMA world title.

BRAVE CF 57 took place as part of BRAVE International Combat Week, which is being hosted by the Kingdom and being held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority president and Bahrain Olympic Committee chief His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

HH Shaikh Khalid was on hand at yesterday’s MMA showcase. In a thrilling co-main event last night, Mohammad “The Latest” Fakhreddine made MMA history after becoming the promotion’s first two-way world champion after winning the BRAVE CF lightweight world championship to add to his BRAVE CF middleweight title.

Fakhreddine captured the lightweight title belt after defeating Mohamed Said Maalem by technical knockout (TKO). It was an immensely heated affair in the cage, with both MMA stars already being arch-rivals.

After the fight, a scuffle broke out between the two fighters’ camps but order was quickly restored by officials.

Unclaimed
In the lightweight interim title fight last night between Abdisalam Uulu Kubanychbek and Cleiton Silva, the belt went unclaimed after a no contest.

The referee called the bout due to an unintentional blow to the back of Silva’s head, and the former world champion could not continue. In two lightweight fights held as part of the BRAVE CF 57 main card, Sam Patterson claimed a TKO win against Khunkar-Pasha Osmaev, while the fight between Husein Kadimagomaev and Agshin Babaev ended with a no contest due to an accidental low blow.

Meanwhile, in yesterday’s preliminary card, Asu Almabaev defeated Imram Magaramov by decision in their flyweight bout. Kamil Magomedov beat fellow-lightweight Sayed Murtaza Sadat by submission, while light heavyweight Murtaza Talha won over his counterpart Mikheil Sazhiniani.

In three bantamweight fights, Maysara Mohamed took a technical knockout win against Mohamed Farhad, Magomed Idrisov won by decision over Rahmatullah Yousufzai, and Abdullah Al Yaqoob got a win by corner stoppage against Omar Emad.

In the amateur lightweight fight, Hussain Muhammad secured a dominant decision victory over Adon Ayoub. BRAVE International Combat Week is scheduled to conclude today with the final day of action in the first-ever MMA Super Cup, to be held at the same venue.

The competition is the first-ever nation-versus-nation amateur MMA tournament in the world, where the best team in the world will compete to prove themselves amongst the top amateur MMA nations.

Team Bahrain will be fighting for the gold medals when they take on Team Ireland this afternoon starting at 3.30pm. The bronze medals will then be up for grabs in the match-up for third place between losing semi-finalists Team Kazakhstan and Team Mexico.