As promised, ArabsMMA continues its investigation in Desert Force 13’s middleweight headliner. We have scoured for information and had all parties give us their side of the events. After reporting Abdallah Abou Hamdan’s account of the story earlier, followed by what the champ had to add, we now reach out to Desert Force’s own managing director Mohammed Mirza to hear Desert Force’s statement on the issue.
Mohammed Mirza:
The Middleweight Title bout between Sawi vs Abou Hamdan was a great fight for the fans of Desert Force. It did end up with some controversy due to claims that arose following the fight.
To clear matters, what happened prior to this Bout is as follows:
Ibrahim El Sawi was stranded in airports from August 22nd until August 24th which is the day of the weigh-in. Sawi did not undergo the regular weight-cut procedure that all MMA athletes under go. Moreover, he had travel and entry permit complications that stranded him in airports for 3 days which is something that is not his fault, nor Abou Hamdan’s, nor Desert Force’s and is out of all our control. On the other hand, Abou Hamdan was the first Desert Force athlete to arrive in the UAE, on August 21st, giving him ample time to get over jet-lag and go through the process of weight-cut adequately.This led to Sawi not weighing-in at the specified time and he just arrived to the hotel as the weigh-ins were starting.
Knowing this, Abou Hamdan talked to Desert Force officials and reached a conclusion that he would fight given Sawi wouldn’t exceed 92kgs the following morning.
For Abdallah’s positive outlook and for being a true professional and saving the title fight for the Desert Force fans, Desert Force agreed to compensate Abdallah with a full purse independent of win or loss; which is far higher than industry standards of a certain percentage of the opponent’s purse.
Abdallah along with his agent, Chuck Wichert from United S.E.G. MMA Management, SET and CONFIRMED these terms with Desert Force officials.
On fight day Sawi weighed-in at 91.5kgs in witness of Abou Hamdan’s camp and the fight remained on.No one from Desert Force, or on behalf of Desert Force, obligated Abou Hamdan at any given time or date to take this fight.
Both athletes are exemplary MMA practitioners and exciting fighters for the Desert Force fans. They were both unlucky in the lead-up to this specific fight, however, being the athletes they are, they threw all that out of the window and put on a fantastic fan-adoring battle.
Desert Force is currently the only organization touring in the region and spreading the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in every major Arab city. We are also in the process of putting regulations in place everywhere we go.I am glad to announce that we will be supporting an initiative to establish an independent regional commissioning body within the coming few months to further spread MMA in the region as a safe and professional sport.
I thank ArabsMMA for taking the initiative to reach out on this issue; I know you have MMA’s best interest in mind.
Now that you have heard Abou Hamdan, El Sawi, and Desert Force’s side of the story, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments box below!
ما بنقدر نقول غير باعوا الكضية هههههه
يعني أبو حمدان ماخد الفلوس الي بياخدها الربحان سواء فايز أو خسران وقبل بهالموضوع , يبقى ما عنده أي حجة بعد هيك يحكي عن الأوزان
كانت مباراة رائعة وجميلة والحكي بعد المباراة والحجج ما بتفيد
I agree yousef! Too bad our pasports make everything harder.
what is this crap? Again Desert Force trying to deflect all blame from temselves. They should admit it once, just once that they fucked things up with the flights and visas. Not acceptbe
Will the real Mohamed Mirza please stand up
Now that is funny.
Every organization in the world, when a fighter doesn’t make weight for a title fight, it becomes a catch weight fight and no longer a title fight.
And about every one calling abu hamdan a sour loser. The guy admitted he lost fair and square, he is just arguing why it stayed a title fight and wasnt announced as a catch weight fight!!!
Desert force is a joke.
Mirza, does not matter if Abu hamdan accepted that or not ..
The guy did not make the official weight, how is he the champ ?!!!! he did not make the 84kg .. it supposed to be a regular fight..
not having a middle weight champ is much better than having champ who did not make the weight (I know it is not Sawi’s mistake, but he did not make it) …
That will affect DFC a lot. it has to be fixed.
I think desert force should let the fighters get the visas on their own. They think its easy for some arabs to get visas to other arab countries. GOod luck!!! Also what would this joke Abou Hamdan had done or said if he had won the fight????????? Would any of this mickey mouse bullshit stories ever show up???? After he got knocked the fuck out he started speaking arabic again, wanted a catch weight fight, not a title fight. the recipe of a good knockout brings humblenss back i guess!!
It was an unfortunate situation (the visa problems and airport wait and all) and unfortunate situations happen. However, they all (Abu Hamdan, Al Sawi, and DFC) came to an agreement at the end. If Al Sawi makes 92kg, the fight goes on. Now, I understand that Abu Hamdan feels bitter after the fight and he is entitled to let off some steam and set the records straight on his fb account, if he wants, and that’s what he did. Period. There’s nothing else to be said except that maybe the visa issues need to be handled better in the future.
Also, Desert Force needs to announce the correct weight before the fights. They announced Al Sawi at 84 kg and that is a betrayal to the spectators of the fight.
At least that is DFC’s point of view written in a nice way; Not like Zaid Mirza’s comment on Abou Hamdan facebook post: “get this crap somewhere else, not on my wall… no one slapped you in the butt to fight…”
DFC is maybe the only organisation in the region but that doesn’t mean they should take everything for granted, you guys have still a long way to reach the standards.