Bahrain : Over the last few months, Amin “Fierceness” Ayoub and Ahmed “The Butcher” Amir have built an ongoing rivalry. The banter between the two mixed martial artists extended far outside the cage.
However, Ayoub wasn’t the original speck in the eye of Amir as the Egyptian bruiser wanted revenge on Cleiton “The Predator” Silva, whom he shared a bloody history with when they fought at BRAVE CF 11 in April 2018.
Silva walked out of the grueling encounter with his hand raised in triumph, defeating Amir by way of second-round stoppage. More than a year after their encounter, the Brazilian captured the BRAVE CF Lightweight World Title at the expense of compatriot Luan Santiago.
When Silva was slated to make his first defense against Ayoub at BRAVE CF 44 in November 2020, Amir made a scene during the weigh-ins and issued an expletive-filled challenge.
But things didn’t go according to plan as Silva bowed to Ayoub via fourth-round knockout. With the Frenchman now having the silver-plated strap in his possession, Amir targeted the newly-minted champion.
From there, it escalated quickly as they went back-and-forth on social media and in interviews.
Both Ayoub and Amir had the chance to settle their beef with each other at BRAVE CF 50 this past April, but the latter was on the receiving end of an unfortunate news as he needed to pull out of the bout due to a neck and shoulder injury.
As a result, Mashrabjon Ruziboev stepped in and took Amir’s place to face Ayoub in a non-title, 74-kilogram catchweight contest, where the French champion came out triumphant via unanimous decision.
Ayoub was in the middle of his celebration when Amir surprisingly came out of nowhere and engaged in a heated verbal exchange. Though security and officials inside the venue were able to ease the tension, it is far from over between the two.
Amir was in attendance for the historic BRAVE CF 53 in Almaty, Kazakhstan last August 21 and talked about Ayoub’s most recent performance.
“Bad performance! I don’t like the idea that he’s holding the title and he showed a bad performance like that. BRAVE CF is a big organization, and his level is not for someone who should be holding a title,” he said.
Amir is not the only fighter who wants a piece of Ayoub as Ahmad “Shadow” Labban seized the moment to call out the champion after stopping Virgiliu “The Iceman” Frasineac in the first round of their super lightweight clash at BRAVE CF 52: Bad Blood last August 1st.
“I’m improving, I’m getting better and better and I’m ready for a fight in particular. I’ve already challenged you twice, Amin Ayoub, and you keep running away like a coward,” Labban stated in his post-fight interview.
“For the third time now, Amin Ayoub, are you ready? Be a man and accept this challenge.”
With his next outing yet to be known, Ayoub has a lot of options to choose from for his first official world title defense in the promotion
