BRAVE CF Bantamweight champion Nkosi Ndebele is open to the idea of fighting Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres for the third time but with one stipulation – The fight should happen in Africa.
The rivalry between Jose Torres and Nkosi Ndebele kickstarted back at BRAVE CF 73 in Colombia when these two fought for the vacant BRAVE CF Bantamweight title.
Following a closely contested bout that lasted 25 minutes, the judges awarded Torres the victory via split decision, much to the disbelief of Nkosi who was under the impression that he had done enough to win the title. In fact, Nkosi was not the only one that was surprised by the decision. This controversial ending evoked mixed reactions in BRAVE Nation and even BRAVE CF President Mohammed Shahid himself voiced his disbelief.
Nkosi was adamant about getting an immediate rematch due to the controversy and his efforts paid dividends quickly as well.
Four months after their initial outing, Nkosi and Torres locked horns for a rematch at BRAVE CF 80 in Bahrain. This time around, Nkosi made sure that the judges were not involved and forced Torres to quit in the third round, in turn, becoming the BRAVE CF Bantamweight champion.
While Torres called for a quick rematch after BRAVE CF 80, Nkosi gave a lukewarm response claiming that he wants to grow as a fighter by facing new challenges. But the prospect of defending his title in Africa has created a newfound interest in the champion.
Nkosi feels that both the fights that happened so far presented home ground advantage for Torres considering his ties to Colombia and Bahrain. The South African now wants to flip the script and bring the trilogy to his home continent of Africa.
“Concerning the fight with Shorty, I will be able to take the fight with Shorty anywhere but this time I want it to be in my home soil. In my African continent. I followed him in Colombia, which is his hometown, you know his home ground, his continent, where he had his fans. And also in Bahrain, you know, he says is his second home. I’ll be glad to take the fight but in my home soil in Africa,” the champion said.
If the fight indeed happens in Africa, it would become the first-ever trilogy in MMA history with each fight taking place in a different continent as the previous two fights happened in South America (Colombia) and Asia (Bahrain) respectively.
Interestingly, BRAVE Combat Federation is the only international MMA organization to have hosted events in Africa and the company is all set to return to the continent in May with a debut event in Mauritius; making matters easier for Nkosi to fulfil his wish.