MOHAMMAD Fakhreddine has pulled out of his highly anticipated main event matchup with Thiago Vieira at Brave “The Beginning” which is set to take place at Khalifa Sports City on Friday.
Fakhreddine had just entered the final stages of his preparation with just under a week remaining before the fight of his life.
The final stages of training for Fakhreddine involved an intense weight-cut where he had to shed a large amount of his body fat. To do that, Fakhreddine was undergoing sprint training, when he got injured.
“It’s such a shame I had to pull out of this fight. This has never happened, before I fought with a broken wrist and a broken rib, but now it’s different, I blew my knee while I was running for my weight cut. It was the last hard run and I was doing sprints. As I was taking off my knee popped and as much as a hate this I am glad it happened now and not during the fight. I will get the surgery done and I’ll be back stronger and more focused than ever with bad intentions, to claim what’s mine,” Fakhreddine said.
There is no doubt that Fakhreddine will be a main event in a future card in Brave, but for now he will have to sit and watch others take the limelight.
His replacement will be announced shortly and whoever that is will face the almighty task of stepping in on very short notice to fight the undefeated Brazilian “Monstro” from Sao Paolo.
Vieira has won all of his fights inside the distance and fights aggressively, using his Muay Thai skills to throw chopping kicks to the legs and body to set up his punches.
He will still have an opportunity to fight on this prestigious card in Bahrain, but the main event will now be the battle between Rami Aziz and Abdul kareem Al-Selwady, which has been moved to the top of Brave’s premier show.
Brave’s CEO, Mohammed Shahid has promised that Brave will be the first truly global MMA promotion to rise from the middle-east and bring the world to Bahrain, whilst taking Bahrain to the world.
Shahid was in Dublin, Ireland, for a press conference on Thursday announcing plans to take Brave to Ireland, where two of his fighters from KHK MMA, Frans Mlambo and Kevin Koldobsky have been intermittently based.
Also on the cards is Argentinian, “El General”, is in red-hot form, and has won his last four fights. Now he must face the beast from Dagestan, Eldar Eldarov, in a battle between two high-level grapplers.
This fight will kick off the main card, but there are some incredible preliminary bouts which can’t be overlooked.
Two of the most eye-catching fights on the entire card involve the Filipino fighters, Stephan Loman, who takes on KHK MMA’s “Black Mamba” Mlambo and Jessie Raffols, who faces the indomitable Mexican Ivan Lopez, who once shared a ring with the current UFC Champion Dominik Cruz in Strikeforce.
Everyone knows that Mexicans come to fight, which makes it all the more exciting that Lopez is joined by fellow countryman Masio Fullen, former UFC fighter, who fights the “Cutman”, KHK MMA’s Indian sensation Adbul Muneer. Expect nothing but fireworks in this fight; Muneer has never seen a second round and Fullen is a Taekwondo world champion, stand-up specialist.
One of the most fascinating match-ups involves two men who are JiuJitsu specialists, Richie “The Boogeyman” Martinez and Ahmed Amir, otherwise known as “The Butcher”. East meets west in this battle of the submission artists, which could well end up being a stand-up war, as two similar styles sometimes cancel each-other out.
In the most anticipated fight of the night, Rami Aziz and Adbul Kareem Selwady will finally clash and settle their differences in the cage following an ongoing dialogue, which started with Aziz calling the 21-year-old out, and he pursued his prey until the match was made. Aziz has torn through his opponents in the middle-east, but certainly faces his toughest test against former champion Selwady, who is hungry for success again.
One young man with success on his mind is Bahrain’s own Hamza Kooheji. Expect nothing but perseverance as Kooheji looks to bounce back and showcase his talent at his home turf.
Tickets are still available for this historic event and it promises to be a night of memorable, action-packed fights. Visit www.bravefights.com and purchase your own.
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