By Caoilte de Barra
The Czech Republic will play host to the Inaugural IMMAF Senior & Junior World Cup in September. The Czech MMA Federation are ensuring they send the strongest team possible in hope of winning the World Cup in home territory. On the 26th & 27th of June, they held a tournament to decide who will represent the nation. The event was aired live on the Sport 5 facebook page and on Sport 5 TV.
The tournament had 62 fights across Cadet, Junior and Senior, Reinders MMA were the standout team, topping the table by taking home seven models in total (two gold, two silver and three bronze). Robert Kovarik & Daniel Sum were both the gold medalists for Reiners, the former taking one as senior and the latter as a junior.
Some familiar names in Šimon Bruknar & Vojtěch Khol took home gold, automatically qualifying them both for the World Cup. Both men started their IMMAF journey at the 2018 Junior World Championships. That was Khol’s sole IMMAF appearance while Bruknar featured at two more IMMAF competitions. They will be hoping to improve on each of their last results by picking up their first IMMAF win at the World Cup.
In one of the most stacked divisions, Martin Pipek went on a three-fight tear which included a TKO victory, to win gold and qualify for the World Cup. Joining him will be MMA-PDY sportovní klub teammate Michal Miller, who won gold at Featherweight. Miller is a highly experienced amateur fighter in the Czech Republic with over 15 amateur fights to date.
Overall the event went smoothly, setting the Czech team up for a milestone event in less than two months time.
Full results > view here
