BRAVE Combat Federation will be investing over $60m into Indian mixed martial arts, according to its president Mohammed Shahid.
This was revealed at a press conference in Mumbai which was attended by many Bollywood stars and Brave 1’s star fighter Mohammed Farhad.
By the end of 2016, Brave would also have kick-started their global MMA promotion by hosting two major events by then, added Shahid.
According to Shahid, Brave plans to develop Indian athletes from the grassroots level, similar to what he has done in Bahrain with KHK MMA - giving youngsters an opportunity to train with world class equipment and coaching facilities.
“This development at amateur level will create a new wave of Indian MMA fighters who we may well be seeing at the IMMAF World Championships in the near future, as we did with five Bahraini fighters this year,” said Shahid.
This press conference was significant considering the turnout of stars from both the Bollywood industry and India’s MMA community, which have been closely interlinked in recent times.
Bollywood has adopted some MMA themes in big budget movies and the Indian MMA fighters have, in turn, been offered roles in Bollywood productions.
Shahid also highlighted his plans to concentrate on the development and welfare of women in performance sports.
Fighters
“Brave will eventually bring in female MMA fighters as other organisations have successfully done,” added Shahid’.
These exciting announcements in Mumbai follows a thrilling year for Brave which was found in September with ‘Brave 1: The Beginning’, where the presence of India was also felt with three Indian stars on the card - Abdul Muneer, Sunny Khatri and Mohammed Farhad.
Farhad’s victory at Brave 1 was a major achievement for Indian MMA, added Shahid.
“All this was possible because of the the vision His Highness Shaikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the founder of KHK MMA,” concluded Shahid.