Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
CALANGUTE: Home-grown mixed martial arts fighter Sanford dos Remedios recently secured the gold at the All-India Bangalore Open MMA Championship held recently.
He trained at Strikers MMA Gym in Calangute.
The event organised by India’s Mixed Martial Arts Federation saw an interesting line-up of amateur mixed martial arts fighters from across India. Dos Remedios made Goa proud through the entire event by winning his three fights by knock-out in the first round, all within 25 seconds.
The first was against Ramesh Reddy from Bangalore (18 seconds), the second against Faiz Khan (22 seconds), and finally against Deepak Kumar from Haryana within 24 seconds.
Sanford dos Remedios, 26 years, hails from the village of Arpora and trains regularly at Strikers MMA Gym under the watchful eye of his coach Nelson Paes, Goa’s most well-known MMA champion. Paes, who is Goa’s first & only professional MMA fighter and the founder of Strikers MMA, said, “I am absolutely thrilled with Sanford’s win. He came to me completely raw and at Strikers Gym, we have trained him to be a fearless fighter. He is my first home-grown student who has improved with pure dedication and excellent discipline. If he continues in this manner, he has a bright future ahead of him.”
Other fighters in the event included Norbu Lama (65.5kgs), Riyaz Shaikh (61.7kgs), Babu Vitkar (52kgs), Themreiyo Muinao (61.2kgs), Manjunath Rathod (62kgs), Saikumar Kandula (71kgs) and Sanford dos Remedios (93kgs).
Prasad Gaitonde, secretary-general of MMA India, said, “Sanford is a talented athlete and has a bright future. Being a good medalist, we would like to give him an opportunity to represent India at the upcoming IMMAF-WMMAA (International Mixed Martial Arts Federation – World Mixed Martial Arts Association) World MMA Championship in Bahrain, and also feature in our Fight Nights.”
