This past weekend, at BRACE 26, BRACE finally kicked off its new championship tournament format at the Big Top situated in Luna Park, Sydney.
As previously announced, the Australia-based organization has turned its events’ format into knockout-style championship tourneys across multiple divisions. Much like Bellator’s, but with a few differences.
And in November, it all climaxes in the very first BRACE Australian MMA “Grand Final” where all title belts will be on the line.
In the main event of BRACE 26, Gerhard Voigt finished Mohammed Naim in under a minute and a half to advance to the next round of the Middleweight tournament. A vicious left hook was all she wrote for Naim as the referee duly drew a halt to the contest. Voigt took home ‘Knockout of the Night’ honors for his finish.
Voigt will be joined by Billy McAlees, who made quick work of Shane Phillips in the co-main event. McAlees never looked like losing and was on the front foot from the get-go. The lopsided encounter saw McAlees end the fight on the canvas with strikes.
Luke Standing slumped to another defeat, this time at the hands of rising starlet Jan Johannes Van Aswegen. The Australian was looking to rebound from a title defeat he suffered against Martin Nguyen but Van Aswegen clearly had other ideas. Some brutal and nifty ground-and-pound was all it took for Van Aswegen to end the fight midway through round one.
‘Fight of the Night’ was awarded to the scintillating tilt between Jamie Mullarkey and Joshua Pecastaing. After surviving a first round scare, Mullarkey peppered his opponent with strikes en route to securing a third round TKO triumph.
The second set of opening round match-ups will take place at BRACE 27 on May 17th at the AIS Arena in Canberra.
Check out the rest of the results for BRACE 26 below:
- – Gerhard Voigt def. Mohammed Naim via KO (Punch) at 1:30 of Round 1 – BRACE Middleweight Tournament match-up
- – Billy McAlees def. Shane Phillips via TKO (Punches) at 1:54 of Round 1 – BRACE Middleweight Tournament match-up
- – Jan Johannes Van Aswegen def. Luke Standing via TKO (Strikes) at 2:32 of Round 1 – BRACE Featherweight Tournament match-up
- – Giancarlo Embradora def. Darwin Sagurit via Unanimous Decision – BRACE Bantamweight Tournament match-up
- – Steve Micallef def. Hoshi Freidrich via Unanimous Decision – BRACE Welterweight Tournament match-up
- – Jamie Mullarkey def. Josh Pecastaing via TKO (Punches) at 0:49 of Round 3 – BRACE Featherweight Tournament match-up
- – Connor Murphy def. Chris Lofts via Unanimous Decision – BRACE Light-Heavyweight Tournament match-up
*Photo credit: BRACE
*Note: Middleweight contest between William Namoa and John Mitchell was scrapped due to government registration issues. William Namoa wins via default and will move onto Round two of the tournament
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