Sport Minister meets with local fighters ahead of World Championship

The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) team of Guyana on Wednesday, met with the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, Jnr.  as they prepared to depart for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The team will join athletes from over 50 countries at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) World Championships capital of Abu Dhabi.

At the meeting, Minister Ramson stated that he was elated that the organisation is taking part in the sport.

“It’s great that you’re taking the jump into this new sport, it’s got a lot of prospects, but it’s a tough sport. So, your ground game has got to be important” he said.

Meanwhile, president of the Guyana Mixed Martial Arts Federation Gavin Singh, said that the preparations came with a number of challenges however, there are great expectations from the team.

“There’s high expectations, the guys will do well. This was our first opportunity, it was a challenging one when we see the standard that is set at the international level.”

He also stated that the preparations for this tournament was made possible through the efforts of the government to control the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said a number of teams from several other Caribbean countries are unable to participate due to the pandemic. 

“And I just say this, it’s not a political statement but if our honourable President did not make the first move with the vaccination drives, we would not have the opportunity to be part of this championship… we must commend the administration for that,” he said.

A total of six athletes will be representing Guyana at the championship and will be among the 529 participating athletes from 60 countries from January 24 to 29.

It will be the first world championship since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, marking Guyana’s first-time participation at the global event.

Guyana will be represented by Corwin D’Anjou in the men’s welterweight (77.1kg), Webster McRae in the middleweight (83.9kg), Ijaz Cave and Akeem Fraser in the men’s light heavyweight (93kg), Christopher James in the heavyweight (120.2kg) and John Campayne in the super heavyweight (no limit).