MMA – Bahrain’s Gimbat Magomedov gets his bid underway today for an unprecedented third straight world title when he steps into the cage at the 2025 IMMAF World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The prestigious International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) event kicked off yesterday and it is being held as one of the main attractions of BRAVE International Combat Week, under BRAVE Combat Federation.
Magomedov will be fighting in the super welterweight 79.4kg category. He was the world champion of the same weight-class last year, which was his first world title at the senior men’s level.
The 22-year-old had earlier clinched world championships gold in 2023 in the junior men’s welterweight 77.1kg category.
His first assignment today will be in the round of 16 against Yerkebulan Myngbossyn of Kazakhstan, who was a winner by unanimous decision over Robert Guth from Slovakia yesterday.
Magomedov is part of a seven-strong Bahrain team going for gold in the Georgian capital.
Isaev Abdulla was the kingdom’s lone MMA fighter in action yesterday in the round of 32 of the senior men’s light heavyweight 93kg division.
He narrowly lost his bout against Edvainer Injal from England by split decision, thus making an early exit from the worlds.
Bahrain’s other competitors are reigning world champion Gadzhi Gadzhiev and Magomed Sheikhov in the senior men’s weight classes, and Tamim Seroor, Abdulla Ismaeel, and Arsen Suleimanov in junior men’s categories.
Gadzhiev is competing in the super middleweight 88.4kg. He gets his medal bid underway tomorrow when he will be facing either Mario Stefan from Angola or Mbongo Mounoume from Cameroon in the quarter-finals.
Like Magomedov, Gadzhiev is aiming to complete a hat-trick of world titles this year. The 23-year-old clinched the super middleweight crown in 2024 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, after winning light heavyweight 93kg gold in 2023.
Elsewhere today, Sheikhov will be facing Nebu Hadnezar from Indonesia in the flyweight 56.7kg’s last 16.
In the junior men’s categories, Bahrain’s Ismaeel is competing in the strawweight 52.2kg class, where he begins his medal bid in the round of 16 today against Bekzhan Nazarov of Kazakhstan.
Seroor is also in the cage today against Tamaz Shavadze of Georgia in the flyweight 56.7kg division’s last 16.
Suleimanov is only in action tomorrow when he takes on Volodymyr Mukan of Ukraine in the light heavyweight 93kg category’s quarter-finals.
Fights are to be held every day this week until the junior finals take place on Wednesday and the senior finals on Thursday, the concluding day of the championships.
This year’s meeting marks the second edition in which IMMAF world champions will be awarded official title belts in recognition of their victories.
In 2024, the kingdom’s national team ranked first amongst Arab nations in Tashkent, where they came away with four medals, including two gold, one silver, and one bronze.
Gadzhiev and Magomedov were the gold-medallists, Sheikhov captured the silver, and Sultan Gapizov won bronze in the senior men’s super heavyweight +97kg category.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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