|
|
Category Archives: WMMAA
Move turns ideas into results Mexico vs. Colombia competition Provides platform for athletes
|
MONTE CARLO, Monaco (November 1, 2016)- The Mexican MMA Commission (COMEXAMM) and Colombian MMA Federation (FECODEAMM), respectively led by Hector Molina and Jaime Arturo Pena, have partnered to provide a bi-national undercard in lieu of the recent cancellation of the inaugural World MMA Association (WMMAA) Pan-American Division Championships due to problems associated with the hosting Chile Federation.
The Mexico vs. Colombia fights will be on the undercard of the November 18th Combato Extremo event, promoted by Ubaldo Marroquin, at Auditorio National, Monterrey, Mexico. Mexican and Colombian fighters who were supposed to compete in the aforementioned WMMAA Pan-American Division Championships can now have the opportunity to be in action.
Molina has been instrumental in WMMAA Pan-American Division development since 2014 as president of the Mexican Commission of MMA, as well as the Pan-American Director of the Regulatory Committee.
“That first year,” Molina said, “we are focused on identifying the best parts of he WMMAA regulatory programs – its people, programs, systems and processes – then quickly and effectively integrating these parts into a stronger centralized continental organization partner with improved, more useful, more impactful systems and resources. When you bring together multiple organizations there are real differences that need to be addressed, including cultural, and business operations, as well as geographic differences.”
Molina and his leadership team studied the WMMAA systems, maintained what successfully worked, and improved other aspects to build a new network. They retained top talent and aligned them with COMEXAMM’s bold culture, also adding some new people in areas perceived as non-optical to support business. Ultimately, Molina bold a team that embraced core values and visions for regulatory that was instilled in him by mentors and years of experience.
“We started with the premise that we hire the best people in the industry; that we train them well, and offer them cutting-edge resources and skills. We empower our people to make smart decisions and, most importantly, we trust our people key members like Gustavo Cantu. This trust is critical to our success. When we empower and trust people, they want to take ownership, not only for results, but for how we get our results.”
One of Molina’s first accomplishments at WMMAA has been the restructuring and realignment of the rules and regulations committee to mirror the company’s operating model. The Continental Rules and Regulations Committee was built on the principle guard railing the unstoppable growth of MMA and given the dynamic nature of WMMAA.
“Moves like these, from leaders like Hector Molina, are the ones that many organization would dream about in moments of crisis,” WMMAA Pan-American Division president Tomas Yu remarked, “giving a new definition to what it means to be part of the WMMAA family.”
The WMMAA Pan-American Division is a leader of a new industry category – growth Federation – powered by a committee to growth, focusing on MMA as a sport area leadership, in addition to dedication to operational excellence, investment in research and development innovation, and a strong focus on its members.
To maintain its position as an industry leader, WMMAA Pan-American Division practices what it calls, “Living Bold.” This culture embraces five principles: building bridges, powering ideas, acting fast, driving results, and always doing what is right. Molina and his team create regulatory strategies, systems, and programs that embody this culture.
“As opposed to being a back-room function that primarily creates policies and performs audits, my teams are aligned with the business units and are in the field with them daily,” Molina explained. “We advise in real time and proactively collaborate in strategy and planning meetings so our business can come up with innovative ideas, act fast, and quickly drive results.”
“My team knows that I am a bit of a regulatory geek when it comes to our work. It’s extremely exciting from a strategic perspective because it allows us to become a more valuable partner to the colleagues who run the business. We’ve always had strong, productive and active strategies. And we always will! By continuously challenging the status quo, asking ourselves how we can do things differently, and ultimately advancing our regulatory program, we will make a meaningful contribution to helping the WMMAA be bold, act fast and power ideas.”
INFORMATION:
Twitter: @theWMMAA
Instagram: @worldmmaa
|
2016 World MMA Championships November 26-27 in Macau
MONTE CARLO, Monaco (October 28, 2016)- World Mixed Martial Arts Association (WMMAA) president Vadim Finkelchtein has formally announced that the 2016 World MMA Championships will be held November 26-27 in Macau, China.
“The recent European MMA Championships went very well,” Finkelchtein said. “The Russian National Team once again demonstrated the highest results of competition. In Russia, the fighters are real strong fighters, who repeatedly prove their highest level at the European and World Championships, winning a very difficult competition. The bar has been set significantly high. We have seen athletes from Germany, Ukraine, and Belarus participating at these events. Ukrainians are no longer that far behind the Russians and German fighters have become much stronger in a relatively short time. In addition to The Championships, we held a judicial seminar, where we discussed many important issues regarding the development of our sport. Overall, I think everything was great.
 “We’re looking forward to the World MMA Championship in Macau on November 26-27. We expect the participation of athletes to represent 40 to 50 countries around the world. Many have already applied; despite the long distance they must travel to fight. The World MMA Championship will be held at a new venue in Macao Studio City. This is a huge, new complex that is entirely covered in marble with construction costs reaching about $3 billion. I have examined it and the scope of the building is stunning.“Now, we can say that the championship will have a lot of representatives from Latin America, Asia and Europe. The African region is under developed right now, so only a few countries are participating from there, but Australia and New Zealand are competing. We expect spectacular, competitive fights. We will also be arranging the next WMMAA Congress, where a lot of MMA issues relative to children and women will be discussed. We will decide what countries will host the European, Asian and World MMA Championships next year, as well as create a judicial committee. We shall discuss the time of the mandatory reference date of sport by each country, considering all the athletes, and then fix it. We will solve the issue of holding seminars that are mandatory for coaches, judges and medical specialists in each country. We are still a relatively young organization, so there are still shortcomings. But we are moving forward and working hard to improve.”
INFORMATION:
Twitter: @theWMMAA
Instagram: @worldmmaa
|
FAAMM on a roll as new WMMMA Argentina
 (L-R) – WMMAA Argentina president Diego Fernandez &
WMMAA Pan-American Division president Tomas Yu
MONTE CARLO, Monaco (October 27, 2016)- The future of the new World MMA Association (WMMAA) Argentina is bright with unlimited opportunities for future growth, largely due to Argentina’s youths continuing to drive increased consumption of healthier lifestyles.
FAAMM, the Argentinean MMA Federation, restructured its organization under the leadership of president Diego Fernandez to earn WMMAA Pan-American Division’s fastest growing federation to date.
“One of my main objectives was to share the organization’s (FAAMA) story with the government and the private sector community to bring its competitive advantages to light,” Fernandez explained in an interview with ENLACE. “I also leveraged the WMMAA skills and resources to help guide the due diligence and restructing to emerge with the proudly earned name, WMMAA ARGENTINA.
“Transforming the organization from an association to a federation and now known to the world as WMMAA Argentina was the largest progressive step we’ve completed to date in the organization’s history. The business model as the new WMMAA Argentina is very straightforward: our job to help our nation’s athletes.”
The new Argentina has a prominent footprint with many qualified board members. The new WMMAA Argentina is well positioned to offer customized solutions that drive increased value, developed from a mere structure provider into a services and solutions organization for the sport in all aspects.
WMMAA Argentina has solid reporting, industry-leading analytics and repeatable methodologies, plus hard-working members, collogues and full support from the WMMAA Pan-American Division.
INFORMATION:
Twitter: @theWMMAA
Instagram: @worldmmaa
|
Pan-American Championship Official Promo
History will be made October 7-9 when Chile hosts the inaugural World Mixed Martial Arts Association (WMMAA) Pan-American Championship – CHILE 2016 — in Santiago.
Initiative on MMA as a sport will build on the well-earned reputation of previous martial arts history in terms of addressing, sharing and discussing significant developments and social advancements that will impact the future of MMA:
FITE TV announces television carriage deal for the WMMAA Pan-American Division Championships October 8-9 in Chile
|
|
History making WMMAA Pan-American Championship Oct. 7-9 in Santiago, Chile
|
|
Kazakhstan dominates World MMA Association 2016 Asian Championships
|
|
Vadim Finkelchtein: “The Emelianenko-Maldonado situation is getting ridiculous”
MONTE CARLO, Monaco(July 28, 2016)- World MMA Association (WMMAA) Vadim Finkelchtein has gone public to explain the recent WMMAA decision regarding Team Maldonado’s appeal, which resulted in the change of the official Fedor Emelianenko–Fabio Maldonado fight result to a draw, in addition to terminating its Head of Judges, Radmir Gabdullin.
WMMAA president Vadim Finkelchtein
Vadim, talk us through the appeal process. Why did you accept it in the first place since Russian MMA Union rejected Maldonado manager’s appeal?
VF: “Everyone could see what was going on in the media and MMA community after the bout. Being the founder of both the Russian MMA Union and World MMA Association, I received tons of messages and calls from people demanding an explanation about how it was possible for Russian MMA Union employees to officiate their own boss’ fight. I read hundreds of negative comments disparaging the Russian MMA Union and WMMAA. Some even went so far to say it was about Russian Mafia doing business there, all Russian judges are bought, etc. I tried to stay away from this debacle, since the fight occurred in another promotion, but when Maldonado’s manager sent an appeal to the WMMAA, asking to reassess the fight outcome, we couldn’t say no. WMMAA’s reputation was on the line as well as that of the Russian MMA scene, too.”
What did the process of choosing the reassessment commission look like and why was head judge Radmir Gabdullin suspended?
VF: “Basically, I had to make Radmir, as the WMMAA’s head judge, responsible for the whole process. However, since he was one of the reasons the appeal surfaced in the first place, the most logical decision was to suspend him temporarily and appoint WMMAA’s Secretary General (Alexander Engelhardt) to handle it.”
Click these links to read WMMAA press releases about this subject: http://wmmaa.org/
In his recent interview, Radmir Gabdullin belittled the significance of WMMAA’s verdict, stating it was all unofficial and that he had never received any appeal.
VF: “There’s nothing to comment about here. It’s a pure lie. I don’t understand what he was trying to accomplish by saying something like this. If necessary, I can show the manager’s e-mail with Russian MMA Union employees, Kamil Gadzhiev and WMMAA employees as recipients. Saying he’s never received an appeal is absurd and a silly excuse.”
At the same time he insulted the professionals that reassessed the fight by calling them incompetent.
VF: “When I read it my first reaction was vast disappointment. How could he, as the official head judge, state something like this towards his colleagues who he knows really well? He used to officiate multiple events with them. Their experience is ten or maybe even hundred times greater than Radmir’s. Marco Broersen has been officiating major European events, including KSW, M-1 Global and many others, for 15 years. He’d been working in this field when Radmir was still in school. It’s a shame for him to say something like that. It’s degrading for both Radmir and the Russian MMA Union.”
Can you explain why 24-year-old Radmir had been chosen to become the head judge in both WMMAA and Russian MMA Union having no experience or appropriate education whatsoever?
VF: “You know, it all started back in 2010-2011, when I decided to start developing amateur MMA in order to provide thousands of young athletes with career opportunities. For that to happen the MMA Union in Russia was necessary, as well as official recognition of Mixed Martial Arts as a sport. It was hard. I had no experience working in a Federation; plenty of paper work. We lacked a qualified staff when we started to look for people. I offered Fedor Emelianenko to be the Union president with me heading the WMMAA. Gabdullin’s name was mentioned by Fedor. He said there was this young and promising guy, let’s see what he can do. I agreed completely, although I realized he had neither experience nor knowledge.”
What was your reaction to Kamil Gadzhiev’s comments claiming in each interview that a draw was the best outcome, but after the result was changed by Sherdog following the WMMAA’s verdict, he changed his mind and promised to call and mail Sherdog to protest its action?
VF: “I had a phone chat with Kamil. He made it clear that he trusts the WMMAA and Russian MMA Union, while repeating his personal opinion that the draw would be the most righteous decision. I don’t know why his words were not consequently supported by his deeds.”
Russian MMA Union has a lot of officials. Yet, no one would comment on the situation, including Fedor himself. Why is that?
VF: “I can’t answer this question. Most important for me is justice and reputation and that holds for Russian MMA and WMMAA, too. I couldn’t choose sides, which is the reason why an international commission of judges was created. No one tried to take the other man’s victory, as some have claimed in comments. As the WMMAA president, I feel ashamed the situation went that far. The vast majority of the leading MMA sites supported the WMMAA’s verdict; Sherdog changed the outcome. Another example is the Match TV poll result, in which 56-percent of Russian voters said Fedor didn’t win the fight. ‘Big’ John McCarthy said it. Sergey Kharitonov,Alexey Oleinik and many others have said the same. People who have been cheering for Fedor for years realized that. And now we have one person stating the opposite, saying our decision is unofficial, that experienced judges have become incompetent in no time, and he’d never received an appeal. That’s a sad situation and we need to handle it appropriately. The world awaits sound and reasoned decisions but gets excuses and lies instead. Our reputation is on the line because of that.”
Schedule of Major 2016 MMA Events
Aug.3-8 – Asian MMA Championship in Hwasun, South Korea
Sept. 14-16 – European MMA Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia
Oct. 7-9 – Inaugural Pan-American Championships in Santiago, Chile
Nov. 18-20 – World MMM Championship in Macau, China
Information
Twitter: @theWMMAA
Instagram: @worldmmaa
WMMAA terminates head of judges Radmir Gabdullin
|
MONTE CARLO, Monaco(July 20, 2016)- The World MMA Association (WMMAA) has terminated its Head of Judges, Radmir Gabdullin, due to his imprudence, inexperience, and technical inability to evaluate Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in the professional sector.
Regarding recent statements that he recently made in the Russian press, Gabdullin expressed himself disrespectfully to other colleague judges, WMMAA Board member Alexander Engelhardt and the Association itself, as Worldwide WMMAA President Vadim Finkelchtein expressed, “One of the key factors of MMA is respect. This is a line we should and can never cross. That being said, it leaves me no other choice than to release Radmir Gabdullin from his function. We also severely advise that the Russian MMA Union do the same. (The Russian MMA Union is a full member of the World MMA Union.)
“We are working hard on standardizing in all countries of the world, all continents, in terms of Rules, Regulation and Referees committees, including anti-doping.We are a real worldwide organization and therefore we also have to reflect this in all of the WMMAA committees. Also, Russia will be, of course, represented in these as part of the WMMAA. More information will follow soon.”
Finkelchtein, who as WMMAA president reserves any other actions towards the associate judge, noted that, during the November 4-6WMMAA Congress in Macau, China, a board of judges will be discussed and created.
Schedule of Major 2016 MMA Events
Aug.3-8 – Asian MMA Championship in Hwasun, South Korea
Sept. 14-16 – European MMA Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia
Oct. 7-9 – Inaugural Pan-American Championships in Santiago, Chile
Nov. 18-20 – World MMM Championship in Macau, China
Information
Twitter: @theWMMAA
|