Cape Town — The year 2022 will be remembered as one of the most exciting for the BRAVE Combat Federation.
With BRAVE CF 61 taking place in Bonn, Germany last week, the mixed martial arts promotion reached a big milestone in its six-year history, becoming the most-travelled organisation in global MMA.
The brand officially ticked off 28 countries visited since its inception back in 2016 eclipsing the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s 27 countries visited.
The UFC’s objective may not necessarily be to visit the most nations in the shortest period of time, however, it remains the most popular mixed martial arts brand globally and who can forget that it was Ultimate Fighting Championship who put on the first live sports shows during the coronavirus pandemic when the entire world came to a grinding halt. However, credit must be given to BRAVE CF as the Bahrain-based promotion has now overtaken the Ultimate Fighting Championship in just six years.
From BRAVE CF 1 to BRAVE CF 61, it took the promotion 2144 days to reach 28 countries, while the UFC took 9 452 days to visit 27 nations since its first show back in November, 1993.
BRAVE CF has been across the globe hosting events in the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Colombia, England, Pakistan and more.
With BRAVE CF leading the pack as the most-traveled MMA brand (28 countries) and the UFC in a close second (27 countries), they’re followed by Absolute Championship Akhmat (19 countries), One Championship (12 countries) and Bellator (11 countries).
BRAVE CF is the only international MMA organization to host events in Africa and on various continents. The other two brands with footprints on the Motherland include Africa’s premier MMA brand, the Extreme Fighting Championship - based in South Africa and France-based Ares FC.
BRAVE CF’s last visit to South Africa was in December 2019 at BRAVE CF 31 which took place at Sibaya Casino, it was the brand’s second visit to Mzansi after debuting at Sun City with BRAVE CF 19 a year earlier.
Prior to that, BRAVE CF made its first stop on the African continent in Morocco with BRAVE CF 14.
In 2021, BRAVE CF went back on the road to help empower mixed martial arts in Europe, hosting events in Russia, Belarus, Italy, Poland, Serbia, and kicking off 2022 with shows in new territories such as South Korea and Uzbekistan.
BRAVE CF 61 was the brand’s first trip to Germany and marked the first of a series of three events in association with NFC (National Fighting Championship).
BRAVE CF 61 will be followed by two other German events until the end of the year. On October 8th, the organization lands in Munich, while Dusseldorf welcomes BRAVE CF on December 17th.
IOL Sport