{"id":54276,"date":"2024-10-31T12:29:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T12:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=54276"},"modified":"2024-10-31T12:45:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T12:45:57","slug":"abuja-tapped-as-future-mixed-martial-arts-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/10\/31\/abuja-tapped-as-future-mixed-martial-arts-hub\/","title":{"rendered":"Abuja to Become Mixed Martial Arts Hub Soon -AFC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Emmanuel Ogbodo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Abuja is poised to become a prominent hub for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), in Africa, according to the African Fighting Championship (AFC).<\/p>\n<p>The organization\u2019s recent event, the MMA National Championship held in Abuja, marked the beginning of what AFC Co-founder, George Oladipupo Younes envisions as a significant growth era for MMA in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Younes emphasized that the capital city\u2019s infrastructure and passionate fan base make it an ideal location for fostering sports tourism and advancing MMA opportunities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the event, Younes, alongside Co-founders, Rada Aswani and his brother Christopher, expressed excitement over the future of Nigerian MMA. He called the inaugural AFC 001 event a \u201cdream come true\u201d and a foundation for many more competitions that will elevate local fighters and broaden MMA\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n<p>The AFC also plans to support university students interested in pursuing MMA, creating pathways for young athletes to develop their skills and pursue professional careers.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing the growing popularity of MMA, the Nigerian Mixed Martial Arts Federation\u2019s President, Ambassador Henry George, commended the AFC\u2019s efforts. He highlighted the federation\u2019s goal to enhance training facilities and provide additional opportunities for Nigerian fighters, underscoring the sport\u2019s rapid expansion and enthusiastic fan base in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emmanuel Ogbodo Abuja is poised to become a prominent hub for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), in Africa, according to the African Fighting Championship (AFC). The organization\u2019s recent event, the MMA National Championship held in Abuja, marked the beginning of what AFC Co-founder, George Oladipupo Younes envisions as a significant growth era for MMA in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":54260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54290,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54276\/revisions\/54290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}