The year 2016 has been a big year for Brave with two major events kick-starting their global MMA promotion.

Yet 2017 is shaping up to be a year of exponential growth and on November 18, Brave president Mohammed Shahid made a major announcement in Mumbai, initiating Brave’s expansion to India.

A host of Bollywood stars turned-out at the Courtyard by Marriott, Mumbai for the press conference including their winning fighter from Brave 1, Mohammed Farhad.

Bollywood has adopted some MMA themes in big budget movies and the Indian MMA fighters have, in turn, been offered roles in these Bollywood productions.

President Shahid revealed his exciting plans for the forthcoming year, with an approximately $60 million dollar investment into Indian mixed martial arts laid-out, and key broadcast and media partnerships hinted during his speech.

Crucially for Indian MMA, Shahid revealed his plans to develop Indian athletes from the grassroots level and, similar to what he’s done in Bahrain with KHK MMA, give them the opportunity to train with world class equipment and coaching facilities.

This development at amateur level will create a new wave of Indian MMA fighters, who may well compete at the IMMAF World Championships in the near future, as five Bahraini fighters did this year.

President Shahid made another key announcement in the press conference, highlighting his plans to concentrate on the development and welfare of women in performance sports. The implications of this may be that Brave will eventually bring in female MMA fighters as other organisations have successfully done. Another key phase in Shahid’s vision for Brave.

This exciting announcement in Mumbai, India follows a thrilling year for the Brave, which began in September with Brave 1: The Beginning where the presence of India was also felt with three Indian stars on the card in Abdul Muneer, Sunny Khatri and Mohammed Farhad.

Farhad’s victory at Brave 1, considering his popularity in the country, was a major step for Indian MMA and it’s about to take some giant leaps in 2017 thanks to the vision of Shahid and His Highness Shaikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Khalifa.