Aboubakar Tounkara (©BRAVE CF)

Fighting out of Mali by way of France, Aboubakar Tounkara, 30, has successfully made his BRAVE Combat Federation debut. The Malian-French mixed martial artist was one of the “BRAVE CF 35” winners.

Tounkara has been competing professionally since 2016 and before joining BRAVE CF, he competed in Octagon Fighting Club, European Beatdown and Lions Fighting Championship. “BRAVE CF 35” marked his seventh professional MMA bout.

In association with Romanian MMA promotion Real Xtreme Fighting (RXF), BRAVE CF held “BRAVE CF 35” at Berăria H in Bucharest, Romania on July 20, 2020. It marked the return of the Bahrain-based MMA promotion after going on hiatus due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“BRAVE CF 35” featured six professional MMA bouts. In the third bout of the evening, Tounkara fought Marvin Belecciu, 23, of Romania in the lightweight division.

The referee put a stop to the lightweight contest after 3 minutes and 36 seconds in the second round. Tounkara knocked out Belecciu via punches and elbows.

This is the fifth time Tounkara knocked out an opponent in a professional MMA bout. Winning at “BRAVE CF 35” improved his professional MMA record to 6 wins and 1 loss.

Originally from Bamako, Mali, Tounkara is based in Argenteuil, France. He was born on July 23, 1989.

A Bulgarian Top Team representative, Tounkara was originally set to fight former Bellator MMA fighter Andrey Barbarosa, 31, of Moldova. However, the latter was pulled out from the card and was replaced by Belecciu.

Like Tounkara, Belecciu also made his BRAVE CF debut at “BRAVE CF 35.” The Romanian MMA fighter also made his professional MMA debut and he now has 0 win and 1 loss.

Six countries were represented at “BRAVE CF 35” namely France, Italy, Mali, Romania, Senegal and Sweden. Tounkara solely represented Mali and he was one of the two fighters who represented France while Belecciu was one of the eight representatives of the host country.

Ion Grigore, 42, of Romania knocked Mamadou Lamine Sene, 31, of Senegal and France battled it out in the heavyweight division in the co-main event of the evening. Romanian kickboxer Claudiu Alexe, 27, was submitted by Enrico “The Killing Machine” Cortese, 22, of Italy at a catch weight of 88kg in the main event.