Cape Town — South Africa’s Dansheel Moodley and Nkosi Ndebele will return to the BRAVE CF cage next month at BRAVE CF 70, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on April 23.
While BRAVE Combat Federation made known Ndebele’s next assignment yesterday on various platforms, IOLSport has confirmed in an exclusive with a source close to the promotion today that Moodley will join his compatriot on BRAVE CF’s second fight card of 2023.
Moodley will take on Edilceu Alves in a flyweight bout before Ndebele faces his toughest BRAVE CF assignment yet when he throws down with USA’s Jose “Shorty” Torres in a potential number-one contender bout.
Moodley successfully returned to BRAVE CF last year after a two-year hiatus when he beat the Philippines’ Jenel Lausa via unanimous decision at BRAVE CF 66 in Bali, Indonesia.
Before that, in his time away from the BRAVE CF cage, Moodley recorded one loss and one win against SA’s Gift Walker and DRC’s Fafa Dwama respectively in the EFC.
He will now look to build on a two-fight win record when he faces the dangerous Brazilian Alves, who recently dominated USA veteran Sean Santella over three rounds to a unanimous decision at BRAVE CF 60.
With eight victories coming via decision, Moodley is renowned for grinding out wins via grappling and wrestling. His opponent is not one for working overtime though as the Capoeira-esque fighter has secured eight stoppages in his 14 fights.
Number-five-ranked bantamweight Ndebele is riding a five-fight win streak from 2019. His last victory came against Indonesia’s Fajar “Macho Kamacho’’ at BRAVE CF 66 when he beat the local star via TKO in the second round in his own backyard.
At BRAVE CF 70, he has the opportunity of a lifetime to level up when he faces the world-renowned Torres, and a win can take him one step closer to 135-pound (about 61.2kg) champion Brad Katona.
The mission will not be an easy one for the South African.
“Shorty’s” reputation precedes him. The man is unbeaten inside the BRAVE CF cage, and he's also a former two-division title holder after winning the Titan FC flyweight and bantamweight championships before signing with the most-global MMA promotion — BRAVE Combat Federation.
On two occasions, Torres came close to securing a third world title when he was to compete for the BRAVE CF flyweight title, however, the death of his father, the pandemic, and weight-cutting issues put paid to those aspirations.
The current number-five ranked BRAVE CF flyweight has since moved up a division to curtail any possible weight-cut problems, and had a huge performance upon his return to 135 pounds, dominating Jordan’s Izzedine Al-Derbani at BRAVE CF 65.
BRAVE Nation fans can look forward to seeing various European MMA stars at BRAVE CF 70, including Slovenia’s Luka Podkrajsek, Miha Ferlic, Marko Drmonjic, David Forster, Samo Petje, Lithuania’s Pavel Dalidko, and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Erko Jun.
In sticking with its objective to empower the European MMA scene, BRAVE Combat Federation will again work hand-in-hand with the leading local organisation WFC which returns to action with WFC 25 in co-promotion of the BRAVE CF 70 card.
BRAVE CF 70 FIGHT CARD (so far)
Light Heavyweight: Erko Jun vs Marko Drmonjic
Bantamweight: Jose Torres vs Nkosi Ndebele
Bantamweight: Mohammed Farhad vs Ruel Panales 2
Flyweight: Dansheel Moodley vs Edilceu Alves
IOL Sport