Police officer from the Philippines to compete at Brave 16
Crisanto Pitpitunge has signed to return to Brave Combat Federation to compete in the upcoming Brave 16 hosted in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The bantamweight fighter who trains at Team Lakay, the Philippines is one among the first fighters from the Philippines to have signed with Brave Combat Federation. However, his promotional debut was delayed due to an unexpected injury forcing Pitpitunge to make his first appearance only by Brave 10 hosted in Amman, Jordan. The veteran from Team Lakay has fifteen fights in his professional career winning nine of his fights. The native of Kapangan, Benguet who is serving as a police officer had graduated in Criminology from the University of Cordilleras. Born in December 28, 1986, Crisanto comes from a poor family surviving on one meal a day. Eventually, Coach Mark Sangiao, from Team Lakay introduced him to MMA, it developed a high level of discipline and changed the life of Crisanto once and for all. Serving as a police officer, he is on the right side of the law catching criminals and has declared that he is proud to be an MMA fighter and a policeman. He comes from the same university as Bantamweight Champion Stephen Loman and Jeremy Pacatiw. “At first, balancing MMA with police duty was a bit challenging, but with wise time management, I got used to it now,” says Pitpitunge. He faced a disappointing first-round defeat at the hands of Jalal Al Daaja during Brave 10. To redeem the loss and to bounce back, he will be facing yet another fighter who is coming back after a loss in the promotion, Bahrain’s first professional mixed martial artist, Hamza Kooheji. The fight will take place at Brave 16 hosted in the Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 21st September.