Brave Combat Federation’s first ever champion, Elias Boudegzdame was recently honored in his home country of Algeria by the country’s Ministry of Sports. Mr. El Hadi Ould Ali gave “Smile” an official welcome and declared his victory over Masio Fullen a matter of national achievement for representing Algeria at a global level.

Currently training in France but representing Algeria, the Featherweight champion also received a special gift from national authorities: the Algerian national jersey, embedded with the national emblems of the country. Mr. Ould Ali hopes Boudegzdame will use the jersey in his first title defense and thanked the mixed martial artist for his positive influence in the people of Algeria, while also praising the Kingdom of Bahrain for their efforts in promoting MMA on a global scale and providing opportunity and a platform for athletes from all over the globe.

Elias Boudegzdame will most likely fight former UFC fighter Lucas “Mineiro” Martins in his first title defense. The bout isn’t official yet, but the Brazilian had an intense face-off with the champ, which will most likely translate into a very exciting title fight.

“Smile” is no stranger to former UFC fighters. In his Brave debut, he submitted Walel Watson with a kimura. Two events later, he fought for the promotion’s first ever world title and, once again, used his jiu-jitsu to finish Fullen in the first round, this time with a triangle choke. Boudegzdame’s rise from the beginnings of his career to his world title win has been documented in the documentary “Smile”, available on Brave Combat Federation’s official Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/bravemmaf

Days after putting on a life-changing performance against Carl Booth at Brave 8 and capturing the inaugural Welterweight title, Carlston Harris set out on a tour of gyms that helped him get to championship status. The Guianese fights out of Rio de Janeiro and visited traditional martial arts places such as RFT and Nobre Arte where he’s been training under the guidance of legendary local trainers such as Márcio Cromado and Cláudio Coelho. He made it a point to “offer” the belt to friends, family and teammates, saying they all had a hand in his famous win over the Englishman last Saturday.

“No one gets to where they want to be alone. As a fighter, it’s always been my dream to be a world champion and I had to pay my respects and gratitude to those who helped me along the way. I’ve been blessed to be welcome in different gyms throughout my career and I represent RFT, but I’ve trained boxing with coach Coelho and wrestling in other gyms as well. I had to take my belt to those people and show them the fruits of their labor. It’s a dream to be where I am now and it has a lot to do with their hard work and support”, explains Harris.

Fresh off his victory over Booth, “Moçambique” says the hard work begins now as he promises to add more weapons to his arsenal in order to maintain his status as Brave’s Welterweight World Champion. And Harris guarantees he’ll take all challengers put in his way.

“I had to form a strategy against my opponent on the spot since I had no time to prepare for him. My performance wasn’t thrilling but I promise to put on a show in my first title defense. I’m willing to fight everyone. I’m the champion so I don’t choose contenders, I’ll fight anyone. I said I wanted to fight someone that wasn’t Brazilian, because if you look at my record almost all my fights have been against Brazilians, and I’ve proved I can hang with foreign opposition against Booth. Now it’s time to work and wait for the phone call”, claims Harris, who admits he would like to defend his belt in the upcoming card Brave Combat Federation is putting together for the International Fight Week in Bahrain.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to fight outside of Brazil and hopefully I get in on the Bahrain card. It’s supposed to be a huge event and I look forward to perhaps defending my title in the Kingdom of Bahrain”.