The opening round of BRAVE Combat Federation’s prestigious Flyweight Title Tournament held during BRAVE CF 42 yesterday saw a shocking draw between Sean Santella and Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres.
The duo will square off against each other once again to decide who will move to the semi-finals.
The first round was a classic display of high-level grappling, especially by Santella. With both men into a 50/50 position, Santella attacked the calf and the ankle of Torres, who responded by calmly defending and eventually managing to leave the position. Immediately after, Santella took the back of a standing Torres and remained there until the end of the round.
The second round began with Santella shooting for the leg but being denied by Torres. While Torres tried to counter, though, Santella took the opportunity and went for the back. They stayed like this for a while, until the end of the round. There was still time left for Santella to pull another trick, faking a takedown attempt and connecting a beautiful spinning heel hook in the process.
In the third and final round, Torres came ready to compensate for the first 10 minutes. Denying every takedown attempt by Santella and taking advantage of the top position to unload punches and elbows, which gave him the edge on the third and made the scorecards even for two of the three judges.
With one judge scoring the bout 29-28 in favour of Santella and two of them scoring 28-28, the bout was declared a majority draw. BRAVE CF officials have confirmed that a rematch between Santella and Torres will be scheduled for an upcoming event to be confirmed and the winner will move forward in the Flyweight Title Tournament.
In the co-main event of the evening, Velimurad Alkhasov topped Brazil’s Flavio Queiroz and secured his spot in the semi-finals of the BRAVE CF Flyweight Tournament.
With a solid and consistent performance, Alkhasov was the dominant force during the bout’s 15 minutes and rocked Queiroz a few times, also almost submitting the Brazilian with an omoplata.
Scheduled to face Zach Makovsky, who beat him in a razor-thin decision back in January, in the next round, Velimurad used the post-fight interview to send a message to his rival. “Be read, Zach Makovsky, I’m coming for you”, he stated.
Meanwhile, ‘The Pride of Bahrain’ Hamza Kooheji remained undefeated in his home turf, as he beat Wales’ Aidan James via split decision at BRAVE CF 42 in a very close contest.
Kooheji started the fight connecting the more powerful strikes and, despite having a reach disadvantage, was able to put pressure and make his opponent move backwards through the five initial minutes.
In the second round, the tables turned and it was the time for James to be the aggressor. In the third and final round, back-and-forth attacks made it as balanced as the previous two. But Kooheji managed to be more effective and took the edge on the judges’ scorecards.
In the post-fight interview, Kooheji said that after his seventh win inside BRAVE CF he sees himself ready for a title shot. “I’m in the picture for a title for a long time now. I feel like I’ve done more than enough to get a shot and I’m going after Stephen Loman,” he said.
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