Trinidad and Tobago Kickboxing Federation inducts six in first Hall of Fame ceremony

THE Trinidad and Tobago Kickboxing Federation (TTKBF) held its first Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Fine Line Fight Factory Gym, Chaguanas on Sunday.

Six former national champions were inducted at the ceremony including Donald Snaggs, Medford Charles, Neil Fredericks, Kevin Jackie, Floyd Trumpet and Andre Fraser.

All the inductees have been in the sport for more than 30 years each and achieved a multitude of accolades.

A TTKBF media release on Monday said Snaggs has the distinction of being TT’s first international kickboxing champion and went on to become a Caribbean and Pan American champion. He was the first national mixed martial arts champion and was ranked number one and number six respectively by the International Kickboxing Federation and the Golden Belt Martial Arts Association.

Charles is one of the pioneers of the sport and is internationally certified by the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations (WAKO), with a first-degree black belt and is a WAKO pro national super welterweight champion. He is the founder and owner of Fierce Young Lions Kickboxing and Karate School.

Pan American kickboxing champion Fredericks has been victorious in several events across different weight divisions and eventually went on to open his own school, the Combined Martial Arts and Kickboxing Academy.

Jackie has one of the longest histories having started his career in 1980. He won several national titles in the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. Jackie’s tenacity in the ring was most evident and he is now the head coach at Alpha Academy.

Unable to attend the ceremony were Trumpet and Fraser. Trumpet was one of TT’s first kickboxers to be world-ranked, sixth at the height of his career. His highlight bout was defeating an experienced Mexican champion in Mexico in 1997 while he posed a record of just 6-0. He is now the head coach for the Cayman Islands Boxing Association.

Fraser became TT’s first medallist at a kickboxing world championships when he won bronze at the 1997 championships in Seoul, Korea. He later became the International Sport Kickboxing Association Commonwealth champion in 2005.

The TTKBF also took the opportunity to announce the senior and junior 2023 fighters of the year, as well as gym of the year. The junior fighter accolade went to Darnell Sinaswee of Prodigy Fight Club and Nevin Byer of Intencity Gym nabbed the senior fighter of the year award. TriniShinobi Budo, led by Tevin Greenidge, won the Gym of the Year award.

President of the TTKBF Bharrath Ramoutar welcomed attendees and shared a short history before the presentation ceremony. The TTKBF was formerly the TT Kickboxing Association (TTKBA). The Association was founded in 1997 and later became the TTKBF in 2000. While there are other representative bodies for the sport, the TTKBF has the majority of member clubs in the country and is the only faction that has produced world, international and regional champions, as well as medallists at the world championships.

Ramoutar said that the TTKBF sees the Hall of Fame as an important step in honouring the pioneers and those who paved the way since the inception of kickboxing in TT. Each year the inductees will include persons in different spheres of the sport who made a significant contribution including the fighters, officials, coaches and administrators.

He said the TTKBF hopes that the splinter organisations will see it fit to merge together as one collective unit to encourage particularly the younger generation and to develop the sport.