24 February 2019
Mixed Martial Arts includes a comprehensive set of skills and martial arts foundations, such as grappling or wrestling. However, none of them is easier to grasp or excites audiences around the world as much as striking, probably because it’s the oldest and most conventional form of combat sports. That’s only one of the main reasons why Cian Cowley vs John Brewin at Brave 22: Storm of Warriors is a must-watch match.
What fans in the Philippines, and around the world, will witness is two of the most creative, exciting, and accomplished strikers in Brave Combat Federation roster head-to-head in about that is going to, most certainly, leave them on the edge of their seats.
Cian Cowley is certainly one of the most decorated strikers fighting out of Ireland. No wonder why he was Conor McGregor’s main sparring partner for his stand up practice for a long time at Straight Blast Gym. Cowley, in fact, was always seen of one of the key figures on McGregor’s entourage and took part in most of the most glorious, and also infamous, episodes of the “Notorious” career.
With multiple titles in muay thai, Cian made his transition to MMA in 2016 and quickly rose through the amateur rankings, becoming a bronze medalist in the edition of the IMMAF World Championship in Las Vegas (USA).
His transition to professional MMA wasn’t that smooth, though. The Irish analysts mentioned that Cowley wasn’t feeling too comfortable inside the cage under professional rules yet, was facing a hard time to pull the trigger in key moments of the bout, and, eventually, would crack against a superior grappler. Those were exactly the things that happened in his pro debut, in which he ended up being submitted.
The chance of signing with Brave CF made a lot of difference in his career. Without the jitters of a debut and with a long contract guaranteed, a much more loosen up version of Cian Cowley was seen in the cage in his Brave debut. With a devastating performance during Brave 13: Europe Evolution, Cowley finished Daniel Olejniczak within the very first round and set the SSE Arena on fire with another massive win for the local favourites.
His second bout under Brave CF banner was no less impressive, a clash against a fellow IMMAF World Championship bronze medalist Hardeep Rai at Brave 18, in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Once again, Cian showed a much more improved version of himself inside the cage and remained undefeated in the promotion, with yet another finish to his record.
John Brewin didn’t make as much noise as Cowley when coming to the MMA scene. He was also part of the IMMAF World Championships but did not secure a spot among the medalist in his only participation. Nonetheless, the discreet start doesn’t mean that the New Zealander did not end up making waves of his own.
A career-changing moment for Brewin was his relocation to Bali, Indonesia, where he joined brothers Anthony and Andrew Leone at Bali MMA. With high-level sparring partner and professional coaching, all of it in a heavenly scenario, Brewin took his game to a whole new level and joined Brave Combat Federation during the promotion’s maiden Indonesian card.
The New Zealander was the underdog against Hardeep Rai, coincidentally Cowley’s last opponent. He entered the cage focused on breaking the odds and he did it, with complete dominance in the striking and devastating elbows to finish the fight.
His second fight was as impressive as the first one. Once again as the underdog, he faced one of the highest ranked Middle Eastern fighters, Egypt’s Ahmed Amir, and managed to impose his pace, control the distance, and attack with precision to finish his second fight in-a-row.
Even when the result ended up not being positive, as in his last Brave appearance, against Anas Siraj Mounir in India, John Brewin put on a show for the fans. A super narrow split decision after 3 back-and-forth rounds and lots and lots of thrilling moments was acclaimed as the “Fight of the Night” at Brave 20.
One might argue that an international fight between a New Zealander and an Irish in the Philippines is probably not a fan favorite right off the bat. Think twice, when this much potential is on the line, anyone who’s going to watch a 5-hour top-level MMA marathon would be counting the hours for Cian Cowley vs John Brewin.
Follow the writer on Twitter: @burnsports
