Brave president Mohammed Shahid details importance of Mexico and Brazil for the promotion’s future
Brave Combat Federation president Mohammed Shahid detailed his plans for the promotion’s future in an interview with Sherdog Radio’s Beatdown. As a guest of the show, Shahid shared his belief that the Mexican and Brazilian MMA scenes are instrumental in achieving Brave’s goal of becoming a truly global organisation.
In a lenghty interview with TJ De Santis, who will call Brave 7: Untamed live from Tijuana, on July 29th, which marks the promotion’s first incursion into Mexico, Mohammed Shahid claimed that Brave Combat Federation was conceived to give a true platform for MMA talents around the world to show their talents. And few countries have more up and coming fighters than Mexicans and Brazilians – who will have another platform on August 12th, as Brave 8: The Rise of Champions touches down in Curitiba.
“The model of mixed martial arts has become very business-orientated, it’s always about my brand, my event and whatnot. Promoters have been focusing on making the brand more lucrative and thinking about how they can sell it, and always looking for exit strategies. So here’s what we’re doing. We want to change the industry of MMA in the next three or five years. So the way to change it is very simple. We need to make MMA truly global and that is why we’re taking this thing to different countries and providing opportunities for fighters from Mexico and Brazil, for example. There are promotions who have global attention, but they don’t really provide a platform for fighters from different countries, and that’s what we’re doing, starting with those two countries”, commented Shahid.
Focusing on the fighters has been the difference between Brave Combat Federation and other promotions. However, Shahid would ideally like to change the promoters’s point of view on that and wants events to start putting the athletes first.
“Normally, being talented is not enough. You also have to be marketable. But Brave Combat Federation doesn’t care about that. As an event, we have to be brave and give a platform to talented athletes regardless of their upbringing, origin or marketing potential. If you’re talented and you need a platform to shine, you should join us”.
