Bassil Hafez has been making some headlines as of late. This after two former UFC champions were discussing his acumen as a mixed martial artist.
Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo recently spoke about the Egyptian/ Syrian combatant on their podcast Pound 4 Pound.
In an excerpt of the chat shared by @nasharmma on Instagram, Usman said,
“I’ve actually trained with Bassil Hafez. My Egyptian brother, I believe. I’m telling you right now, Bassil is a well rounded fighter. He’s the guy that took on JDM, Jack Della Maddalena, last minute replacement on a weeks’ notice. He was able to go in there and give him, I mean I’m talking a scrap. Controversial, I thought he might have did enough to win the fight against Jack Della Maddalena. Was striking with him, hurt him a couple times, took him down several times, held him down.”
Cejudo responded to that by stating,
“Honestly those Egyptians, man, like they carry a different power to them.”
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Bassil Hafez
‘The Habibi’ readies to fight again on Saturday night and Hafez competes on the preliminary portion of UFC 302. This welterweight matchup will see Hafez test skills against Mickey Gall. Bassil Hafez has been out of action for close to a year. The Della Maddalena fight took place last July and Hafez had a planned January fight this year with Preston Parsons fall through when Hafez withdrew.
Gall (who is known for fighting names like Mike Perry, Diego Sanchez, Sage Northcutt, and most infamously CM Punk) returns to the cage after over two years away. The New Jersey product looks to rebound from a two fight losing skid in the process.
In the above footage when offering up his prediction for this Gall versus Hafez contest, Usman quipped,
“He’s legit, he’s got power, he can grapple, he can wrestle, he can strike from either stance. If I had to pick, I’m going with Bassil. I’ve got Bassil, I think Bassil touches him, and Bassil gets him out of there.”
Cejudo agreed with him on the prediction for this bout. The former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion is in alignment with the former UFC welterweight champion on the outcome of this referenced matchup over the weekend.
