Theebaan Govindasamy brings Malaysian Invasion to the IMMAF world stage

Photo by YK Tang – MIMMA By IMMAF.org lead writer, Jorden Curran Kuala Lumpur’s Theebaan Govindasamy will be one of the exciting new additions to the middleweight bracket of the 2017 IMMAF World Championships. This year, the 27-year-old was crowned champion of Asia’s biggest domestic amateur MMA competition, Malaysian Invasion, and now he brings the invasion to the world’s premier proving ground for amateur mixed martial artists – the IMMAF World Championships. Packing 22 years of karate experience, Govindasamy has dedicated much of his young life to representing Malaysia internationally and served as the Malaysian Youth Sports Ambassador to the Beijing Olympics. The eight-time national karate champion began MMA just 3 years ago and has transitioned to become a dual-sports sensation in his native country. With an 11-3 amateur record, he has been on fire since April of 2016, remaining undefeated with a streak of 8 victories under the MIMMA banner, regulated by the Malaysia Mixed Martial Arts Association – the nation’s affiliated IMMAF representative. MIMMA participation figures put it up there as one of the world’s biggest domestic amateur championships and through its digital platform is widely viewed across South-East Asia where Govindasamy is ranked as the region’s top welterweight. However, for the IMMAF World Championships, he enters the middleweight division to cater for back-to-back days of competition from 12-19 November – an experience and challenge like no other in MMA. In the 29-man middleweight bracket he will debut among the unseeded newcomers looking to upset the lineup of top ranked athletes already experienced in IMMAF championship tournaments, including top seed Heytham Rabhi (Sweden), undefeated European Open champion Dario Bellandi (Italy), European silver medalist Khaled Laaallam (Sweden), plus continental bronze medalists capable of taking that further step to the finals, such as Florian Aberger (Austria), Tom Crosby (UK). The 2017 IMMAF World Championships take place at Khalifa Sports City Arena from 12 to 19 November, as part of Brave International Combat Week, the 2017 World Championships are set to be the biggest event in the history of amateur MMA under IMMAF with more participants than ever before representing nations from all continents. 2017 marks the first year of the IMMAF Worlds taking place outside of Las Vegas, USA. For live IMMAF World Championships results and more information on brackets and national amateur teams visit MyNextMatch.com ]]>