Javid Basharat improved to 13-0 with his win over Tony Gravely at UFC Vegas 60 last weekend. It was a week to remember for the family because his younger brother, Farid Basharat had earned a contract with the promotion, after winning on Dana White’s Contender Series a few days earlier.
Afterwards Basharat described himself as being in a state of euphoria,
“I got euphoria from Farid’s fight and obviously my own fight. I hope England is proud of me, I hope Afghanistan is proud of me,” he said after the fight
Both brothers arrived in England as refugees from Afghanistan and Basharat believes this makes their journey to the UFC all the more remarkable,
“The support we have been getting is overwhelming. We are just two kids who came from a refugee camp (and) England gave us a better life and we found a way to fight on the biggest platform in the world.”
“The sky is the limit. I just turned 27.”@JavidBasharat knows he has it all ahead of him after a clinical decision victory in which he showed his all-around game.
See every result from #UFCVegas60 here ⬇️: https://t.co/IazlmeYTCn
— UFC News (@UFCNews) September 17, 2022
Point to prove
He was taking on a touted wrestler last weekend in the shape of Tony Gravely. Fighters from England are not renowned for their wrestling and Basharat felt he had a point to prove,
“They are not outwrestling me, I am outwrestling them. I got more takedowns in the fight than he did. The only reason he got those takedowns was because of the cut.”
The 27 year old had to endure a spot of adversity after getting cut by a clash of heads in the opening round. He says this affected his takedown defence,
“The cut really did affect me, I couldn’t get low (because) he would run in with his head. Technically that should be a point deduction.”
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His younger brother is awaiting news on who he will face on his UFC debut. But Basharat already has two wins inside the octagon and is starting to look towards the upper echelons of the bantamweight division,
“The sky’s the limit, I’m not even in my prime yet, I’ve still got a long way to go and I’m climbing the ranks like this.”
Basharat would like the opportunity to test himself against a ranked opponent,
“This is a stacked division, it sets me up for whatever they give me. I want some progression fights, Tony Gravely, I don’t think he had a ranking to his name.”
But the one name Basharat has in mind is an unranked Englishman,
“Davey Grant, he likes to stand and bang, forget this wrestling nonsense.”
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Survival mode
All three judges scored the opening round for Gravely but had Basharat winning the next two. He says his opponent was in survival mode towards the end of the fight,
“I felt him getting frustrated but what surprised me was how long it took him to get frustrated. He kept his composure very well and I knew that once I started hitting him he would start panic shooting but he did a better job surviving than I thought he would.”
Basharat’s only frustration was that he couldn’t finish the fight. But the 27 year old says he hit the American so hard he actually damaged himself in the process,
“I knew I had to dig deep and try and put this guy away and my bones are hurting from trying to put him away.”
