A local athlete has taken bronze at the Youth MMA Championships in Rome. On August 3rd, Candian representative Ian Stoby fought representatives from three different nations in the Lightweight, 70.3-kilogram category before taking third place in a fight against the Bulgarian representative who eventually took gold.
Ian has been competing since he was seven and trains at Gladiators MMA in Grande Prairie. While this was his first official MMA competition, Ian is no stranger to winning.
He previously took home a gold medal at the 2017 Alberta Provincial Boxing Championships and a gold medal in sparring at the 2017 Taekwon-do Open Worlds Championships in the Netherlands.
This was the inaugural World Junior Mixed Martial Arts Championships. 269 athletes from across the country took part.