Brave CF super lightweight champion Eldar Eldarov has stoked the competitive fires ahead of Ireland’s team clash with RMMAU in the first round of the MMA Super Cup.
The team-based amateur MMA competition pits nation against nation in an elimination tournament that will crown one nation the best amateur MMA team in the world.
And expectations cranked up a notch when Ireland were drawn with the most dominant team in the recent IMMAF World Championships, RMMAU. The Russian MMA Union team topped the combined juniors and seniors medal table in Abu Dhabi, and are considered the favorites to capture the crown in the inaugural tournament.
Ahead of the matchup, Russian Eldarov, who is head coach for the second-seeded Team Bahrain on the opposite side of the draw, fired the first shots as he claimed RMMAU had received an “easy” draw compared to his own team’s tricky first test against Tajikistan.
“Russia got an easy draw for MMA Super Cup, but the harder the way, the better the feeling will be when we get this cup,” he stated.
His sentiments were echoed by RMMAU head coach Gennady Pavlovich Kapshay, who claimed his team was “lucky” to draw the Irish in the quarter-finals.
“I can’t hide the fact that we were lucky with our rivals in the qualifying stage,” he said.
“In the another subgroup three strong national teams of Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan will meet at once.”
The MMA Super Cup will form part of the BRAVE International Combat Week, the biggest combat sports festival in Asia, alongside BRAVE CF 57.
