Lee Hammond among five Irish athletes fighting for gold at IMMAF World Championships
Hammond has already knocked out the first seed in his division, will look to claim victory on Saturday.
By John Balfe-15 Nov 2018
SBG’s Lee Hammond has qualified for the lightweight finals for this weekend’s IMMAF World Championships in Bahrain.
Hammond overcame Kazakhstan’s Abdilbek Kairgali in the Thursday’s semi-final to advance to the championship match on Saturday. He is now 4-0 this week in the amateur championships, which serves as a proxy for mixed martial arts as an Olympic sport.
His first match of the tournament this week went viral, after the Irishman pulled off a beautiful submission which combined an omoplata with a head & arm choke.
Ger Harris, Ryan Spillane, Paddy Wilkinson and Trevor Makengo have all also qualified for the championship match in their respective divisions.
This is equivalent of the Olympics for MMA and we have Irish athletes through to the finals on saturday looking to bring back Gold for Ireland. https://t.co/Z3Blfdgx2d