Dmitrijs Homjakovs (4-1) lost to Mounir Lazzez (7-0) at Brave 16 what the promotion is calling an “instant classic.” The Latvian born fighter, raised and based in Sweden, made the most of his promotion debut and built his reputation as a technical brawler in his first loss. “It was a hard fight, but so much fun” says the Swede to MMA Viking. Read how the promotion’s release today about Saturday’s fireworks.
Brave 16 hosted in Abu Dhabi, UAE witnessed the promotional debut of the undefeated prospects from Sweden and Tunisia. Dmitrijs Homjakovs from Sweden with a professional record of 4-0-0 faced Mounir Lazzez from Tunisia who had an undefeated record of 6-0-0. The fighters invested each second inside the cage to showcase relentless aggression and brought it all to the table in a bout which could undoubtedly be the fight of the night.
During the early minutes of the first round, Dmitrijs “Dima” Homjakovs controlled the pace of the match adding significant pressure over his opponent who had a significant reach advantage. Both the fighters engaged in a back and forth battle until Dima closed the distance taking out the reach advantage of Lazzez by pinning him against the cage. However in a quick turn of events, an elbow from Lazzez opened the nose of the Swedish striker. However Dima retaliated with strikes to the body as soon as both the fighters were back on their feet. Throughout the first round, piercing elbows rained upon Lazzez from Dima.
“I just started to headhunt and forgot the gameplan because I thought I could finish him.” – Homjakovs
In the second round, Dima kept onto his game plan to close in on Lazzez to take his reach advantage. However Lazzez kept his composure and opened his game with a swift head kick that connected. This was followed by a missed head kick attempt in retaliation by Dima, which in-turn left the Swedish striker lose the balance. As soon as Dima swarmed back to his feet, tides were turning in favour of Lazzez.
Lazzez outlived another barrage of strikes from Dima to land some significant strikes to the body of his opponent. With both fighters bleeding, “Sniper” Lazzez clipped a right to Dima that nearly took him down. From this point both fighters set loose to unleash everything upon their opponents. With Mounir Lazzez advancing with combinations and knee to his opponent and Dima retaliating with fury. Dima rose to his feet twice, shocking the entire stadium. With the fans on their feet, both the fighters went against each other never willing to give up. With Dima suffering an onslaught of strikes from Lazzez, referee intervened stopping the fight with Lazzez winning by TKO.
When the bout ended, Lazzez celebrated his seventh win in his professional career. Meanwhile Homjakovs made it clear that he is the one to watch out for in the future by nearly threatening the former Desert Force Champion in the first round of action. As the fight was over, the mutual respect by the fighters after one of the toughest fights of the night captured the hearts of the crowd.
