Hamza Kooheji had been featured in the latest theatrical trailer of 2017 Brave International Combat Week. The Bantamweight fighter from Bahrain had posted a message teasing his probable return to the cage in the 9th edition of Brave Combat Federation.
Brave 9: The Kingdom of Champions is set to take place in Bahrain this November as part of the Brave International Combat Week. In the interview with Zahi Ephrem from ArabsMMA, Kooheji discussed his potential fight in Bahrain, his previous injuries that held him back from the competition this year and the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) world championship set to take place in Bahrain.
When he talks about stepping in the cage again, Kooheji wants to be on the Bahrain card and improve his professional record of 5 win and 1 loss, as he was forced to pull out of two events due to injury.
“I’m so motivated and hungry to fight on the November card in Brave CF. The beginning of this year wasn’t a good time for me as I had to pull out from two events. The first was the Abu Dhabi event which I had to pull out due to an injury in my ribs. The second time, I was in the best shape of my career. I was so ready to go, but I got injured in my last sparring session. I had a long, tough camp and had to pull out a few days before the fight. It was hard for me to accept that, but it made me as motivated as I am now”.
Kooheji believes that the Bahraini Amateur fighters , who he knows and trains with should make use of the fact that this tournament is taking place on their own home soil and believes that they have a really good team that can take home the gold.
“I think that the Bahraini fighters are so lucky to have the IMMAF in their country and they need to capitalize on that. We have a good team and it’s growing so fast. They will be more than ready to get gold medals in November”.
A couple of personal favorites for Kooheji are Hamza Zarira and Abbas Khan, who he thinks have a good opportunity to make history.
“We got good fighters coming up like Hamza Zarira. Though he relatively recently started training in mixed martial arts, he has come a long way so fast because this guy really trains hard. When he started out, he was losing fights, but always giving his opponents a hard time. Eventually, he got a gold medal in the IMMAF championship in Africa. I think Abbas Khan has also done great. He is a boxer who has now developed epic grappling skills. He has just finished competing 4 days back to back in the Bahrain fight week. He gold 3 gold medals, one in boxing, the other in kickboxing and finally mixed martial arts. He doesn’t have anything else to do, but work on becoming a better fighter”.
It is always go to to see that time of support between fellow fighters. It is also great that the IMMAF, which is one of the largest mixed martial arts events in the world, will be hosted in an Arab country. Over the last couple of years, Bahrain is gradually becoming a capital and destination for mixed martial arts around the world, especially with the establishment of Brave as a strong worldwide promotion which a lot of fighters are looking to join. It will be interesting to see Kooheji compete once again in Bahrain in front of his home crowd and hopefully, Brave will get him a fight.
