MMA – Bahrain’s mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters put in brave performances yesterday in the sixth IMMAF Youth World Championships, currently being held in Al Ain, the UAE.
Aseel Almutwa, Hamad Mohseni, and Saood Salman were all in action in their respective weight classes in the Youth A competitions for participants aged 16 and 17.
They are part of a 13-fighter Bahrain national team competing in this year’s youth worlds, which are being held under the patronage of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Abu Dhabi Executive Council chairman Shaikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
It features a record participation of more than 1,000 boys and girls representing 60 countries, including Bahrain. Aside from Youth A, there were also fighters who contested Youth B events for ages 14 and 15 years old, Youth C for 12 and 13, and Youth D for 10 and 11.
Aseel and Hamad were both in the cage in the 56.7kg weight class. Aseel was in Group D, and he opened his medal bid with a triangle choke submission victory against Zakhar Dremliuha of Ukraine. Aseel then won with a similar triangle choke submission against Francisco Javier Herrera de Jesus of Mexico in his next fight, making for a strong start.
Aseel then lost his final match, however, against Bekhruz Ravshanov of Uzbekistan by unanimous decision, but was still able to advance to the knockout stages.
There, he was eliminated in the eighth-finals after a unanimous decision defeat to Abdulaziz Kholmatov of Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Hamad was in Group A.
He opened his account with a loss by unanimous decision against Samuel Kruty of Slovakia, and then lost by an anaconda submission against Aleksander Zajac of Poland. Hamad then completed his schedule with an arm triangle choke submission defeat to Ayan Akef of India.
Saood was competing for Bahrain in the 52.2kg category, where he suffered three defeats. He first lost to Jack Powell of England by unanimous decision, then lost by majority decision against Henrique Ngoma of Angola. Salman forfeited his last match against Asliddin Rajabzoda of Tajikistan.
Bahrain have one fighter left to compete in the International MMA Federation (IMMAF) event, which concludes today.
Abdulla Qahtan will be battling today in Group F of the 65.8kg weight class. He will be going up against Kabina Benedek of Hungary, Caiden Bouwer of South Africa, and Muso Kholov of Tajikistan. There are 41 participants in all in this weight class, divided into 11 groups for the preliminaries.
The kingdom’s young MMA athletes are coached by Renat Iusubov and Sharap Gitinov, while the national team administrator in Al Ain is Ebrahim Aun.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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