Brave 19 main event: a new chapter in the youth-experience never ending clash
When Adam Townsend and Mark Hulme step into the cage on December 8, in Sun City, South Africa, for the main event of Brave 19, a new chapter of a well-known story will be written. Since the early days of sports, the clash between the youth and experience has been one of the most repeated plots, no matter what modality we’re talking about or which part of the world the encounter happens.
At age 30, and competing in Mixed Martial Arts since 2011, from 2012 onwards as a professional, America’s Adam Townsend makes his Brave Combat Federation debut in his 25th professional fight. A veteran of several promotions around the United States and Europe, Townsend kept an average of almost four fighters per year, becoming not just one of the most exciting athletes fighting out of the Volunteer State, Tennessee, but also one of the most active ones.
Ironically, his opponent, Mark Hulme, also started his amateur career in 2011. The difference is that Hulme was a teenager back then and took his career in a much more unrushed pace than his Brave 19 foe. Now at age 23, Mark, a rear-naked-choke specialist, is about to make his 9th pro bout, after returning from a two-year layoff with a staggering win over Vadim Shabadash in Russia last June.
What makes the clash between the up and coming and the reigning talents so fascinating is that there’s no such thing as a blueprint to foresee what’s going to happen. While sometimes the fury, strength, and will of the younger prevails, is equally possible to see the nerves of steel, consciousness, and timing of the more experienced athlete give him the edge.
Both Townsend and Hulme are no strangers to the ground game and have most of their wins via submission. This also creates an interesting dynamic for the contest, because there are only two outcomes possible when competent grapplers face each other: they either engage into a highly technical ground fight or only one prevails in their least favourite aspect of the game, the striking. Whatever happens, though, the chances of witnessing a breathtaking match are huge.
The showdown between Adam “Primetime” Townsend and Matt Hulme in the Welterweight division will be the main event of Brave 19, the main attraction of the 2018 Brave Africa Combat Week. The group of combat sports events takes place between December 6 and 8 at Sun City Resort, in the Northwest Province, in South Africa and will be the first ever Brave Combat Week to be held outside of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
