Fit Like a Fighter Club mounts eighth Coliseum amateur fight night in Portmore

Fit Like a Fighter Club is presenting the eighth edition of the Coliseum Martial Arts Amateur Fight Night at the municipal building in Portmore, St. Catherine, giving athletes in the programme a platform to demonstrate skills built in training.

Ahead of the event, the club’s Adrian Taylor told TVJ Sports that organisers hold an annual seminar so competitors understand what the evening involves. The session covers the martial arts disciplines on the card and also offers the public a clearer picture of those sports.

Taylor said this staging brings an uncommon feature for local cards of this kind: two women’s contests — one in jujitsu and one in boxing — at a time when female entries in such shows are still limited.

Proceeds from the night return to Fit Like a Fighter to sustain the club and its work teaching young people discipline through mixed martial arts, he said.

The Coliseum series has run for more than five years. Taylor noted that in some years the club staged it twice and in others once, and that the programme has now reached its eighth show — a milestone for the effort invested so far.

Former judoka Densign White, chief executive of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF), is in Jamaica for the fight night and voiced support for grassroots development of the sport.

“I’m proud of what’s been achieved here in Jamaica so far. I think the federation has huge potential,” White said. He pointed to young athletes training at the gym and added that if they stay the course, “they could have a bright future in the sport.”