REIGNING bantamweight world champion Stephen Loman will have another busy 2019 as he defends his title in Brave Combat Federation (Brave CF).
And this time, the Team Lakay member will have a chance to defend the bantamweight strap when Brave CF holds its first event in the country next year.
Loman made his second world championship title defense in Bahrain at Brave 18 during the Brave International Combat Week 2018 dominating Felipe Efrain from Brazil to retain his 134 lbs strap.
It was in the same arena in Khalifa Sports City where Loman had won the title after knocking out Gurdarshan Mangat in the very first round of the co-main event of Brave 9: The Kingdom of Champions last year.
Loman is the youngest fighter in Brave to be crowned as the world champion and was the first fighter from the Philippines to defend the world championship in United Kingdom when he faced 2015 IMMAF gold medalist and SBG Ireland fighter, Frans Mlambo during Brave 13 hosted in Belfast.
Brave has yet to announce Loman’s opponent but the Middle East based MMA promotion said the event is projected to feature the biggest names in MMA from Philippines including Jeremy Pacatiw and another fighter from Team Lakay.
Brave had been hinting expansion of operation to Philippines over a period of time. The initiative from Brave will mark the expansion phase of the brand into South East Asia.
Previously Brave Combat Federation has ventured into Indonesia to host Brave 12. (Roderick Osis)