Brave celebrates its first anniversary

Manama : A couple of years ago, the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was relatively unknown in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Now after the creation of KHK MMA by HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa and the subsequent introduction of Brave Combat Federation as the first-ever Bahrain-based professional MMA promotion, that scenario has changed a lot.

Celebrating the end of its first year of existence, Brave made a "Fight of the Year" poll among the fans, in order to pick the best bout of 2016.

The contest took place on the social media and drew thousands of votes during the last days of the year.

The vote had great success though the absence of the Bahraini idol Hamza Kooheji, who fought and won in both Brave events in September and December, made the local fans mobilize and question the organization regarding the absence of Hamza.

The nominated fights were: Stephen Loman vs FransMlambo and Haider Farman vs JomarPaac, respectively the "Fight of the Night" winners for the first and second events. Also, other two bouts from Brave 2 were included in the list: the main event Carl Booth vs GadzhimusaGaziev and the co-main event OttmanAzaitar vs Kevin Koldobsky.

Last January 2nd, after a massive voting, OttmanAzaitar vs Kevin Koldobsky ended up being elected the best of 2016 in the opinion of the fans. Despite that, undoubtedly, Hamza Kooheji can also be considered a winner.