The Paralympics may be over, but the craze isn’t as a UK-based promotion has said they’re going to stage the world’s first mixed martial arts wheelchair fights.
The event will take place later this year in South Yorkshire as part of the Ultimate Cage Fighting Championships and will feature wheelchair-bound athletes and amputees fighting against each other inside a cage.
The event will be co-presented by the Wheeled Warriors group and Ultimate Cage Fighting Championships.
Wheeled Warriors was set up by Colin Wood who wishes to see disabled people have the opportunity to fight in boxing and MMA in the Paralympics.
So far there have been a few wheelchair boxing fights and there are moves to have mixed martial arts included in the Olympics in 2016 which takes place in Brazil, the spiritual home of Vale Tudo, a precursor to MMA.
So far the idea has been welcomed said Wood speaking to the Fighters Only publication, “It is clear this concept is well-received and ahead of its time as very few would expect something of its kind to come to fruition so soon. To conclude, this is a great collaboration which surely will improve sports and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Both sides are gaining opportunities.”
Wheeled Warriors has branches in the United States, Hungry, Brazil, Canada, Australia and South Africa. It says it “will be setting up wings in many more countries in the near future.”
We’re not quite sure how well the wheelchair fights will work in practice but one-armed American MMA fighter Nick Newell has been kicking ass against two-armed fighters for years now, the 26 year old has an 8-0 record and packs a mean right hook as you can see below:
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