On Thursday BRAVE CF president Mohammed Shahid promotes the invite-only Brave 24: london in front of just 350 invited business and media magnates, social media influencers, world champions in several sports, and more. While every other promotion worldwide is intent upon putting asses in seats, Brave was founded in 2016 from the vision of His Highness Shaikh Khaled bin Hamad Al Khalifa from Bahrain.
The Shaikh, who has himself fought, boxed, raced in ironman competitions and marathons, and stongman contests, became aware of MMA a number of years ago, and was appalled by the meager opportunities available to local fighters, who then included the nation’s first professional MMA fighter – Mohammed Shahid. Shaikh Khaled established KHK MMA team, providing promising fighters a stipend, housing, food, and medical care. It was a natural extension to found Brave Combat Federation, to uplift the sport on a global basis.
That effort reaches a new high on Thursday.
BRAVE CF is not just a promotion – it is a vision, said Shadid to Scott Lagdon for BE. Today, it is in the shape of an event/promotion that is easy for the MMA community to relate to so we can speak loudly and be heard. The vision is to change the sport of MMA and take it to the next level which is a real change. We want to move from the event business we are in today into the sports business.
The invite-only show targets one of the most important sport markets which is Europe. This region has the biggest sports industry makers that have helped build football, cricket, tennis, and F1 among others. The world approves of sports that have been accepted by Europe as long as they have class and make sense. Today, MMA is lacking that so the invite-only event will empower the sport in all of Europe so it can be clearly seen what it could contribute to the landscape. Most importantly, MMA serves the sports agenda by bringing the world and people together. The BRAVE CF event in London on July 25th will start a golden era for MMA because the government and sponsors will remember the sport as a powerful, classy event where billion-dollar net-worth businessmen were brought under one roof. The whole perspective people have of MMA will change.
We sign fighters regardless of small-minded thoughts about what region the athlete comes from and how economically viable exploring that market would be. Also, we don’t think about whether or not the fighter himself is marketable – how dare different promotions do that! This sport was built on the ethos of finding the best martial art and the best fighter in the world which is what we want to display. Keep an eye out for Gamzat Magomedov who I think will be the future of MMA. People like to call him the next Khabib but I think he has more qualities now than Khabib had at this early stage of his career. Aidan James is the next big thing from the UK/Wales and Rami Hamed is another fighter to watch for out of Lebanon where we do extensive scouting. To add to this, the main event between Bubba Jenkins and Lucas Martins will be a display of two complete mixed martial artists and the winner will be one of the best featherweights in the world.
Artem Lobov v Amir Khan in a boxing match is something that we would be interested in. John Kavanagh wanted that bout in BRAVE CF so we are prepared to talk about it. If we can work with both sides, this could happen although there are other options for Lobov out there. I’d like to see him take on any boxer at the top level but no talks have happened yet. Lobov will be in attendance on July 25th so discussions may begin then.
In three years, we have helped more athletes compete in the World Championships than anyone else. Sport and MMA has the power to bring the world together and to improve relations between different countries so if that makes someone sad then I am shocked. That is one of the main things that sport is all about.
Many people think that Asia’s largest promotion is the one with the highest social media numbers. That promotion only has four countries as its market share. MMA journalists believe it because there is no journalism. People don’t realize that the Middle East, South Asia, and many areas in South East Asia are all part of Asia too. We are one of only two promotions who went to five continents in 2018 yet you don’t hear that spoken of. No other promotion dared to enter markets where top athletes in many sports come from like Africa except BRAVE CF. This is a big reason why the MMA industry needs to change and have more cash-flow so it can have more quality journalists.
The promotion’s first-ever show in England will be available, live and free in much of the world. Fans will only need to go to BRAVE CF TV’s official website and log in or subscribe for free viewership of this historic fight card. The free stream for BRAVE 24 will not be available to the USA, Middle East, North Africa, Philippines, India, and Brazil. Fans from those regions will be able to watch the show through partners at Fite TV (USA), Abu Dhabi TV (Middle East and North Africa), ESPN5 (Philippines), and MTV (India), Combate (Brazil).
