By press release

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation has announced the relocating of its scheduled 2021 Youth MMA World Championships from Istanbul to Sofia (Bulgaria) due to the threat of the escalating COVID-19 situation in Turkey and increasing government restrictions.

The competition dates of 30 July to 1 August remain the same.

The Bulgarian MMA Federation is strongly placed to guarantee the security of the Championships having the recognition and endorsement of its Sports Ministry. The BULMMAF boasts previous experience in hosting IMMAF competitions, having co-organised the European Championships in 2017, and has also been organising national level, youth MMA competitions since 2014.

IMMAF President Kerrith Brown said:

“We are grateful to President Nedkov and the Bulgarian MMA Federation for stepping in as the hosts of our 2021 Youth MMA World Championships and thus guaranteeing the event. IMMAF is making every effort to ensure a stable, return to competition for the IMMAF family and looks forward to welcoming our U18s national teams from around the world to Sofia in the summer.”

BULMMAF President Stanislav Nedkov said:

“That the BULMMAF will be hosting the 2021 IMMAF Youth MMA World Championships is a great pleasure and honour to me, as President, and to all our BULMMAF members. The award demonstrates a good evaluation of our hosting of the IMMAF European Championships in 2017, to which we gave enormous efforts. We have more than seven years’ experience in organising MMA events and I believe that we can provide a comfortable competition environment for participating nations and, together with the IMMAF team, organise a Youth World Championships that competitors, coaches and all officials can be proud of.”

IMMAF will be issuing the delayed event handbook to National Federations shortly so that teams can start registering.