You’ve got to feel a bit aggrieved for both these fighters. Abdulali was initially supposed to face AbdelAmmir Hammoud from Tiger Muay Thai Gym, but the Lebanese striker had to pull out leaving Abdulali without an opponent. A Tunisian fighter replacement also got injured 3 days prior to the event. Christopher Silva bravely stepped in two days before the fight and was ready to accept the challenge despite not having a fully fledged fight camp behind him.
From the offset, both fighters strategy became clear. Abdulali, a BJJ blue belt, wanted to keep this fight standing as long as he could against the Brazilian BJJ black belt. Abdulali enjoyed the stand up portion of the fight and used his long limbs to deliver kicks to the body of Silva who was waiting for an opening to rush the Moroccan for a takedown. Although Silva was clearly dominant on the ground, we have to give credit to Abdulali for hanging in there for the duration of the fight which was largely fought on the ground.
Credit to both fighters and to use a phrase from the bearded one (a.k.a Ashraf Shishani) – “blue belts can hang out with black belts, and only few people in the world would take a fight on a 2 days notice.”
Desert Force “Vs the World” Recaps
- Elias Baaklini VS Rachid Metlouti
- Abdulali Aityachou VS Christopher Silva
- Noureldin Isam VS Ahmad Darmaki
- Ahmed Amir VS Hamza Nafush
- Abdulrahman Awadi VS Ahmad al Boussairy
- Rafat Shawe VS Majed Sadeeq
- Victor Monfront VS Georges Eid
- Abdulmalek Mardhi VS Sultan Ali Owais
- Ramadan Numan VS Aziz Julaidan
- Tarek Suleiman VS Abdullah Medjdoub
- Anas Siraj Mounir VS Ali Ahli