Team Bahrain opened their campaign with a blast yesterday by clinching five wins at the start of the 2019 IMMAF World Championship at Khalifa Sports City’s Gym.
They won all but one of the six bouts to turn the first day of the tournament into a huge success for the hosts whose world top rankings will be on the line throughout the competitions.
Abdulla Alyaqoob was the first fighter to enter the cage and he completely dominated Cristiano Ottaviani, from Italy, on the way to a unanimous decision win.
The same scenario was seen in the next bout, a bantamweight contest, between Bahrain’s Abdulla Mubarak and Czech’s Miroslav Peroutka.
The Bahraini controlled the match and put on a stellar performance to secure a 2-0 victory.
At lightweight, Abbas Khan was able to overcome Pavel Senchenko, from Ukraine, handing Team Bahrain one more victory.
Ramazan Gitinov excelled in the welterweight division with a submission win over Jairo Carreon, from Mexico, while Sultan Omarov got a knockout win over Carlos Gamboa to get his middleweight run off to a great start.
Throughout the day, Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa proved once again his commitment to the sport of MMA, and its development in the Kingdom of Bahrain, by giving the fighters advice during their bouts and in-between rounds as well.