Canadian Brad Katona, who hit the radar for many fight fans when he won season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2018, will be fighting for gold this March.
Katona (10-2) will face Hamza Kooheji (11-2) at Brave CF 57 on March 11, 2022, promotion officials announced this week. The promotion’s vacant bantamweight title will be on the line.
This is Katona’s second shot at gold since parting ways with the UFC in 2019 after posting a 2-2 record including his TUF championship win. Katona had signed on with Elite MMA Championship in 2020, and was booked into a bantamweight title fight with Stipe Brcic at EMC 6. However, thanks to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the event was postponed. The fight never did materialize.
After missing all of 2020, Katona, originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba and fighting out of Dublin, Ireland, signed on with Brave CF. He won both his fights in 2021, picking up a submission of Borislav Nikolić in April, then winning a unanimous decision against Bair Shtepin in August.
Bahrain’s Kooheji, meanwhile, has won five straight fights, with four of those wins coming under the Brave CF banner. Most recently, the 28-year old picked up a win in Belarusian Fight Championship when his opponent refused to answer the bell for the third round.
Kooheji hasn’t lost a fight since a 2018 meeting with future/current UFC fighter Kalid Taha.
Brave CF 57 will take place Friday, March 11 at the Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town, Bahrain. The event is part of Brave’s 2022 International Combat Week.
