Ottman Azaitar Stripped of Title, Released By Brave

Ottman Azaitar Stripped of Title, Released By Brave

After weeks of speculation regarding the future of Brave’s lightweight division, president Mohammed Shahid has announced Ottman Azaitar will be stripped of his lineal title effective immediately. The Moroccan fighter will also be parting ways with the company.

Azaitar hasn’t defended his title since winning it in November of last year with a victorious effort against Alejandro “Pato” Martínez. Even though he fought at last month’s Brave 14, the bout against Danijel Kokora was contested at welterweight and his belt wasn’t up for grabs in Tangier, Morocco.

“Ottman Azaitar had a great career with the Brave Combat Federation, he fought a really good fight in Morocco which was not for the title. If you look at the lightweight division today, keeping Ottman’s fight in Morocco apart, we did not have a title defence. Which is something that is very unfair to the weight class as a whole. And we had to make a decision on that. To make it official, Ottman Azaitar will be stripped of the lightweight title. The most important thing, the message here is to make sure that we want to have the athlete that is going to be fighting to be the best in the world as the champion”, said Shahid in a video posted on Brave’s social media accounts.

The president also shed light on what are the next steps for the division, announcing that a title fight will be contested on November 16th, as Brave returns home to Bahrain for the International Combat Week.

“We can confirm that a 70 Kg title fight will be contested in Bahrain, on November 16th. And we are trying to make that fight happen for a while now. If we don’t have that calibre of fighters willing to fight against the best in the world then that athlete doesn’t have a place at Brave Combat Federation”, says the president, who also claimed three fighters are in the running for the two spots: Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady, Luan Santiago and Eldar Eldarov.

Source: Brave Press Release