The development was announced today as Wimp 2 Warrior owner and career Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) coach, Richie Cranny, was appointed as the Vice President of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation Australia (IMMAFA), IMMAF’s member and MMA governing body in Australia.
Cranny first established the Wimp 2 Warrior (W2W) training program in his Sydney gym in 2012, as a platform to significantly grow participation in MMA at the grass roots and amateur level.
Since then, Cranny has overseen an expansion of the program across eight countries and into some of the world’s most famous combat sports gyms. These include SBG Ireland in Dublin and American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, homes to Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, respectively.
Cranny said: “There’s an amazing synergy between Wimp 2 Warrior and IMMAF’s vision for amateur MMA. Now Wimp 2 Warrior participants will complete their training under the IMMAF banner and will have the opportunity to continue pursuing their training and advancement in MMA under the new IMMAF gradings system.
“Wimp 2 Warrior has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to the sport of MMA through its live competition finales, under IMMAF Amateur MMA Rules, and its digital reach. Further, W2W has seen over 3,000 women and men actively participate in the sport via its revolutionary training platform which attracts people to MMA whom would likely have never otherwise have considered participating. At their conclusion of W2W, many competitors search for a way to continue their MMA journey and now our association with IMMAF creates the structured pathways for them to do so.
“I am very honoured and excited to play such an important role in the growth of amateur MMA in Australasia and work alongside so many talented people”
Of Cranny’s appointment to IMMAFA, President Joe Minehan said:
“I am proud to announce Richie’s appointment. His role will be to promote of the sport of amateur MMA and assist IMMAFA and our parent body IMMAF in progressing the sport to Olympic recognition. Richie will play an important role in our Coaching Committee and the introduction and roll-out of the IMMAF grading syllabus to be released soon.”
IMMAF CEO Densign White said: “IMMAF is delighted that Richie Cranny has decided to give the benefit of his long experience to our federation in Australia. These are challenging times for our sport and in particular for the amateur sport of MMA as we strive for recognition and unification locally and on the international level. To achieve our goals, we need our National federations to reach out and partner with like-minded people with administrative and technical skills. Richie Cranny brings these qualities to the table in abundance and I look forward to seeing this appointment bear fruit for MMA in the Oceania region.”
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