The main event title fight of Desert Force 21 went up in smoke this evening. Featherweight champion Aziz was forced out of his fight against Bahraini Hamza Al Kooheji just three days ahead of the anticipated title defense.
This marks another hit to the Desert Force 21 event which was rescheduled to March 14th and relocated to Jordan after initially being set for Jeddah on the 7th of March.
Julaidan claimed the Desert Force title in December 15, 2014 after defeating the latter in 24 seconds at Desert Force Al Academiya Finale. That setback snapped a four-fight winning streak for the former champion Alselwady. Since then, Julaidan has been inactive.
Desert Force 21 goes down in Amman, Jordan Monday night (March 14, 2016) and the main card will air live MBC Action.
The event also features a title fight for the vacant light heavyweight shield between Mostafa Rasha and Osama Alsaedy, as well as a fight between Abdulrahman “Tyson” Alenzi and Amin Nachib for the first ever Desert Force heavyweight title .
What are your thoughts on the pullout?
He should be stripped from the title.
He should be stripped of the title. He did earn the title fair and square but he did not defend it for more than one year now.
Really? What could be a valid reason for this? Honestly I wasn’t eager to watch this fight but feeling for the many other fighters in this division who called him out and deserve a title shot, I wonder why Desert Force won’t enforce a written policy on all title holders, that they have to defend their title at least once a year, unless there is no other title contender (which is almost unlikely). Give ’em guys interim title shot at least!! Thanks Arabs MMA for updating us anyways, Zahi you rock!
One more thing, for Desert Force folks, I’m not sure how much you guys pay for the fighters, but I wonder how it would be interesting for fight fans to watch and follow when it isn’t much interesting anymore for many fighters! I guess it’s clear what I mean, especially when I see more Sofa-to-TV fans grow much more than fight fans as well as martial arts enthusiasts and practitioners. Another imp point, is that Dessert Force is the sole promoter here, following UFC footsteps in terms of promotion, so no other promoters are able to push fan-likable fights!
These things would even make sponsors re-think about it, mark my words.
“was forced out of his fight” what does that mean btw? but either way is just bad.. thanks