By JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH Wednesday, June 20 2012

TRINIDAD and Tobago put on another dominant display when they defeated Barbados 4-1 at the Caribbean Kickboxing Grappling San Shou Federation (CKGSF) hosted Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Tournament at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Pleasantville, on Saturday.

The local contingent was represented by students of the Al-Hikmah Kung Fu Dojo, under the tutelage of professor Davanand Samaroo.

This four-man and one woman team competed against seasoned fighters from Barbados, who are all members of the Regional Organisation for Combat Karate (ROCK) Club lead by the Dr Albert Best. The night saw five bouts in total, with TT defeating Barbados in four of the match-ups.

Highlighting the evening’s proceedings was local wonder-boy Mancini Mahadeo, who successfully defended his Amateur Featherweight title against Bajan Troy Vaughn. The start of action was fast and saw intense exchanges between the two fighters.

Vaughn sought to use his size as an advantage, but the champion proved his worth and reversed all advances of his challenger’s attempts. The Bajan fought valiantly, but Mahadeo landed a powerful roundhouse kick to his head which brought an end to the match.

The Presentation College student gained a successful mount and then decimated his opponent with heavy punches in the final round to retain his Amateur Championship title.

Mahadeo remains undefeated with an MMA record of 6-0-0 (W-L-D), and will now turn his attention to a tournament in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands where he will compete for another Featherweight Championship title.

The event, dubbed “MMA in Paradise” will host fighters from the Caribbean and the US. The bouts will see Team Caribbean against Team USA, where Mahadeo will be the TT representative on “Team Caribbean”.

Meanwhile, local fighters Darius Jaimungal, Talon Thomas and female Amy Rajkumar also secured wins while Ibrahim Salaamah was the lone fighter to go down to Bajan opposition.

Jaimungal opened the evening’s proceedings with a well deserved win over Marlon Remise. After a slow start by Jaimungal in the first round, he then out-punched Remise in the second and recorded his first MMA win of his career.

The second fight was a crowd pleaser as local female fighter Rajkumar clinched victory over Ramona Grandison. Grandison was the more aggressive fighter from the opening bell and quickly had Rajkumar against the cage. However, the local expertly manoeuvred her opponent to the ground and attempted to administer several submission attempts. But, the Bajan resisted. The judges though, ruled in favour of the local fighter as she secured another important win for the home-team. This was also the only female bout and the only fight to go the distance of the allotted three rounds.

Newcomers to the ring, Talon Thomas (TT) also secured a win against Troy Nurse. Talon proved to be the dominant of the two, keeping his rival at bay with some heavy punches to the head and body as well as kicks to the legs. Talon drove home a powerful right hand to Nurse’s head which dropped the Bajan claiming first round victory over Nurse.

Salaamah (TT), however, went down to Bajan fighter Oneale Chase. In the early stages of the first round, Chase landed a huge right hand to Salaamah’s jaw, which took him to the ground. The Bajan fighter continued to dominate and went on to take the lone win for Barbados.