Hamza ‘The Pride of Bahrain’ Kooheji defeated Colombian superstar Eduardo Mora via unanimous decision in the Brave CF 65 featherweight bout early this morning at the Khalifa Sports City Arena to the delight of fans who had packed the stadium.
The culmination of BRAVE CF’s epic Kombat Kingdom series could not have played out on a better note as the main event of the 11-fight night saw world number-three ranked bantamweight and former title contender, Kooheji deliver a master-class performance.
Through the course of the evening, there were KOs, TKOs and hard-fought decisions as 22 warriors showed their appreciation in being tasked with fighting on the BRAVE CF 65: Rumble in the Kingdom card in the third and final leg of the nine-day mixed martial arts festival.
Aside from Mora’s spinning back kick that almost gassed his opponent out, it was all Bahraini power and skill throughout the three-round fight as Kooheji brought out the KHK Team Bahrain MMA tutorial, leveraging off of his body weight to take his opponent down and go to work with his impeccable wrestling and grappling. For the entire fight, Kooheji stuck to Mora’s back like white on rice. Mora did well to stay busy and make Kooheji work hard, but failed to capitalise on any escapes or attacks as his opponent used every move to secure a takedown and initiate a ground-and-pound.
As the fight moved along, chants of “let’s go Hamza!” reverberated around the Khalifa Sports City Arena as the Bahraini star redeemed himself after failing to beat now-BRAVE CF Bantamweight champion Brad Katona in his last title fight earlier this year. In the third round, Mora gave one last effort in hopes of shocking the world when he dropped a spinning back-kick that hurt Kooheji, but the Bahraini athlete gritted his teeth, clasping his arms around his opponent and taking his back as he searched for a rear-naked choke before the buzzer went.
“I have so much respect for Mora,” Kooheji said afterwards. “He gave me a good spinning back-kick that almost gassed me out. I then did what I had to do and went to work.
“To my KHK Team Bahrain brothers, you are my second family. The whole of Bahrain is my family. I love you all. Thank you for coming. I will see the guys at Bantamweight soon.”
In the co-main event, USA’s Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres put his hand up as potentially the new BRAVE CF Bantamweight contender after he dominated Jordan’s Izzedine Al Derbani. After an electric start by Al Derbani who threw leg kicks and leather with bad intentions, Torres bided his time waiting for the perfect moment.
At one point, the grappling strong Torres went in for a takedown which was avoided by Al Derbani who beautifully framed out what looked to set the tone for an interesting bout considering the grappling prowess of the American versus the sharp stand-up of Al Derbani. However, the relentless Torres backed his wrestling pedigree and eventually negated Al Derbani ‘s range before taking him onto ‘Shorty’ airways, scoring easily the takedown of the night that would write the script for the rest of the fight. Torres forced Al Derbani into his world and educated his opponent with a wrestling clinic.
Torres picked up the pace, showcasing devastating ground control as he methodically outclassed his opponent for three rounds to secure a unanimous decision and putting the bantamweight division on notice before expressing his desire to fight Katona.
“It’s definitely a great opportunity to fight at bantamweight,” Torres said. “I feel amazing and happy to be back after 18 months. I love this sport. I would love to fight Brad Katona. I want to fight him one day, but now I need to set my foot right at 135 pounds.”
In the heavyweight bout of the night, the big boys did not disappoint as Bahrain’s Shamil Gaziev produced the only knockout when he beat Lithuania’s Pavel Dailidko.
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