Coming off the biggest win of his career versus Erick Da Silva, Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady already has his next opponent in mind. He wants to go to war with Charlie Leary.
While it seems that half the roster would like to fight Leary, it was one particular thing that made him want the fight. After finishing Daniele Scatizzi at Brave 9, Leary asked for a title shot and Al-Selwady feels that he’s trying to jump the line.
“I saw after his fight, he won and then he goes to Sheikh Khalid and he points to him like he wants a title shot,” Al-Selwady said. “He’s definitely not going to get a title shot right away because there are a lot of people in line. I’m the top contender, nobody can say anything about that but it doesn’t matter for me. If he wants to go anywhere near the belt he has to go through me first.”
Al-Selwady also feels that they stylistically match-up well in what he guarantees would be an entertaining fight.
“He’s a tough fighter and he’s a good striker as well,” Al-Selwady said on Leary. “I’m a good striker and I’d like to put on a great war for the people. Everyone likes to see a crazy fight, just people hitting each other and blood and I think this would be a good match-up.”
Brave
In his last outing, Al-Selwady promised that he will finish Da Silva and make him bleed and that’s exactly what he did. His win may have not been the prolific finish he was looking for but it was a TKO win due to a doctor stoppage. The doctor had to intervene at the end of the second round and stopped the fight due to a nasty cut suffered by Da Silva.
“It was exactly what I had said before, I said I was going to break him down piece by piece,” Al-Selwady explained. “I said it was going to be a very bloody fight and that’s exactly what it was and I rocked him a lot and I didn’t rush for the knockout. I played it smart and just when I decided I was going to go for the knockout, the doctor stopped it.”
Da Silva came into the fight with a 21-4 record, presenting by far the toughest challenge in Al-Selwady’s career. However, the established resume didn’t faze the “Pride of Palestine”.
“He’s one of the toughest opponents I’ve ever fought. His record itself is maybe higher than all my past opponent’s records combined but the fight went exactly how I planned it would go. I actually came into this fight really confident that I was going to knock him out.”
Brave
Currently riding a 4 fight win streak and undefeated under the Brave banner, Al-Selwady would love nothing more than to compete in front of his friends, family and fans in Jordan. Multiple fighters on the roster who also picked up big wins at Brave CF 9, Jarrah Al-Selawe and Jalal Al Daja have also been campaigning for a Brave show in Jordan.
“I actually started the campaign in July to have Brave come to Jordan this past September but it didn’t work out. It’s time; all of the fans in Jordan are waiting for Brave to come. Me Jarrah and Jalal we picked up wins and we’re all really excited to have Brave in Jordan.”
And Al-Selwady would love to take on Charlie Leary in front of an electric home crowd.
“The crowd in Jordan is the best crowd in the Middle East and they haven’t had an MMA event since maybe a year. They’re itching to have an event and me, Jarrah and Jalal can definitely sell out 6,000 seats in the arena in Jordan.”
