Vadim Kutsyi, 31, of Minsk, Belarus was one of the winners at “BRAVE CF 66“. It marked the Belarusian mixed martial artist’s second victory in BRAVE Combat Federation, an MMA promotion based in Bahrain.

Featuring eight professional MMA bouts, “BRAVE CF 66” was held at Maritim Hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany on December 17, 2022. In the co-main event of the evening, Kutsyi fought “The Austrian Wonderboy” Ismail Naurdiev, 26, of Salzburg, Austria in the super welterweight division.

Naurdiev gained the ascendancy early on with devastating leg attacks that hurt Kutsyi, who seemed fragile on his back foot. At one point, the Austrian contender rocked his Belarusian opponent, who was held up by the fence as he fell backward. 

Kutsyi then responded with an explosive right hook which immediately dropped Naurdiev. The referee stopped the super welterweight contest after 3 minutes and 23 seconds in the first round and raised the hand of the Belarusian contender, who was declared the winner via technical knockout via punches.

Including Belarus and Austria, a total of eight countries were represented at “BRAVE CF 66”. The others were Azerbaijan, Brazil, France, Germany, Moldova and Switzerland.

Losing to Kutsyi at “BRAVE CF 66” downgraded Naurdiev’s professional MMA record to 22 wins and 6 losses. The latter now has 17 wins and 1 loss.

Born in Minsk, Kutsyi trains at Academy MMA in Minsk. He made his professional MMA debut in 2014.

On June 4, 2021, Kutsyi made his BRAVE CF debut at “BRAVE CF 51” at Falcon Club in Minsk. He defeated “Doni” Daniyar Abdibaev, 32, of Kyrgyzstan via unanimous decision.