BRAVE CF Super Lightweight world champion Eldar Eldarov made headlines this week after the reveal that he was behind the viral slogan ‘’if sambo was easy it would be called jiu-jitsu’’, which enraged the Brazilian martial arts community at the time. Now, four days removed from the first defense of his title against Leonardo Mafra, who took exception at the phrase and said ‘’if sambo is good, vale tudo is amazing’’, Eldar has spoken again on the subject and did not hold back.
In a pre-fight interview, Eldarov claimed the saying was intended as a joke, but stood by his words and guaranteed he was ready to prove that sambo is indeed superior to jiu-jitsu on Saturday night, January 16th, in the main event of BRAVE CF 46.
‘’I think for Mafra, he will have more pressure now that he spoke about it. Because Brazilians are telling him that he needs to prove that jiu-jitsu is better than sambo. So he will feel more pressure, maybe. It was a joke, but it was the truth. And I will show that my sambo skills are better than his brown belt in jiu-jitsu’’, claimed a fired-up Eldarov, who is confident he can deal with the new set of skills of Mafra, who has been claiming he’s no longer a pure striker, but a well-rounded fighter.
‘’I think it’s true that Mafra is now a well-rounded fighter. If you look at his last fight, he was getting takedowns, looking for submissions and showing a great ground game. He is a well-rounded fighter. He’s the most experienced opponent of my career. I don’t underestimate this guy, it will be good test for me’’.
BRAVE CF 46 marks the first time the fastest-growing MMA organization in the world lands in Russia. On January 16th, in association with Krepost Selection, 13 MMA contests will take place at the WOW Arena, in Sochi. Aside from the headlining Super Lightweight title fight, other notable Russian stars will be in action, such as Ali Bagautinov, Konstantin Erokhin, Rustam Chsiev, and Roman Bogatov.
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