BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THREE of the Federation’s top Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters has winged out today (Mar. 22) for Trinidad to defend their titles at the Caribbean Kickboxing Grappling Shou Federation’s (CKGSF) Caribbean MMA Championship.
The Championship will take place from 7:00 p.m. on Saturday (Mar. 24) at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Trinidad, where the three local fighters, Alex Lewis, Livine Stevens and Tija Stanley of the Apocalypse Mixed Martial Arts Club, will be defending their respective titles won at last year’s Championship.
Lewis will be fighting in the Middleweight Division, Stevens in the Light Heavyweight and Stanley in the Heavyweight Division.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Professor Davanand Samaroo of the CKGSF said, “The three guys from St. Kitts participated in last year’s Championship for the first time and they all won title belts in their respective divisions. This year, they have to defend those titles and they will be going up against three guys from Barbados.
“If they lose their titles to the Bajans or successfully defend them, then the next country that has three good fighters in the same weight categories as the winners will then bring their fighters to compete against them in next year’s Championship.”
Samaroo explained that the CKGSF is currently trying to get the entire Caribbean region involved in the sports discipline and has thrown out an invitation to other fighters in St. Kitts and Nevis to participate in the annual championship.
He also explained that in addition to the middle, light heavyweight and heavyweight, there are six other categories within which fighters compete.
He noted that the CKGSF was inaugurated in June 2007 and is the governing body for the Caribbean Fighting Championships and True World Champion, the largest professional and amateur Martial Arts Championship Tournament in the Caribbean.
“We are the first organisation to introduce the sports to Trinidad and Tobago and have hosted our first event on December 1, 2007. Since then, we have hosted over 30 events, but last year was the first for the three fighters from St. Kitts,” Samaroo said.
Professor Samaroo said they are cognisant of the fact that getting to Trinidad to participate in the championship is a costly venture to fighters not living close to the twin-island Republic.
He however declared that any fighter who participates and wins at the championship would be sponsored by the CKGSF. “We will sponsor them for upcoming events; and if any fighter keeps on top of his game, we will continue to sponsor him in the form of airfare, accommodation and meals as is being done with the fighters from St. Kitts.”
Apocalypse Mixed Martial Arts Club was founded in 2004 by Lewis, who is the club’s Chief Instructor, and it is located at the Life Fitness Centre (Semore’s Gym) in Bird Rock.
According to Lewis, he Livine and Stanley have been training very hard for the championship and they all promised their fans to return to the Federation with their championship belts.
Lewis stated that they intend to up the ante in their training schedule with the aim of someday moving up into the professional ranks, “but not before we have garnered enough experience as amateurs”.
