Ja­son Fras­er, pres­i­dent of the T&T Mixed Mar­tial Arts Fed­er­a­tion, has vowed to de­vel­op the Pan-Amer­i­can re­gion, as well as the ter­ri­to­ries with­in its bound­aries. This was af­ter he was elect­ed the pres­i­dent of the In­ter­na­tion­al Mixed Mar­tial Arts Fed­er­a­tion (IM­MAF) for a term that will last four years.

His ex­ec­u­tive will in­clude: Vice Pres­i­dent Ul­bal­do Mar­ro­quin (Mex­i­co), Vice Pres­i­dent Jaime Baron (Colom­bia), Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Manuel Pa­gan (Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic), DI­REC­TOR NORTH AMER­I­CA-Di­rec­tor One Muza­m­mal Nawaz (Cana­da), Di­rec­tor Two Jim Nightin­gale (USA). DI­REC­TOR CEN­TRAL AMER­I­CA-Di­rec­tor One Yariela Men­doza (Pana­ma), Di­rec­tor Two (to be cho­sen from El Sal­vador). DI­REC­TOR CARIBBEAN-Di­rec­tor One Dr Kent L Bazard (Ba­hamas), Di­rec­tor Two Daniel Chacko-Wilmot (Ja­maica). DI­REC­TOR SOUTH AMER­I­CA-Di­rec­tor One (to be cho­sen from Brazil), Di­rec­tor Two Mauri­cio Alexan­der Del­ga­do Car­taya (Venezuela). DI­REC­TOR SUP­PORT- Di­rec­tor One Hec­tor Moli­na (Mex­i­co), Di­rec­tor Two Gavin Singh (Guyana).

Yes­ter­day Fras­er said he will im­me­di­ate­ly work on cre­at­ing a sec­re­tari­at that will cater for the needs of all in the re­gion, in­cor­po­rat­ing dif­fer­ent lan­guages such as Span­ish, Eng­lish and Por­tuguese and there­by break­ing the lan­guage bar­ri­ers.

Born in the small is­land of To­ba­go, Fras­er who has worked hard to see the rise of sam­bo and com­bat sport in T&T and the world at large, said it is an ho­n­our to be pre­ferred ahead of ad­min­is­tra­tors from the big­ger na­tions in the re­gion, such as the Unit­ed States, Mex­i­co and Brazil for the top lead­er­ship po­si­tion.

“It is an ho­n­our and priv­i­lege for this kind of con­fi­dence to be placed in me, to build a man­age­ment team to de­vel­op a struc­ture for the Pan Am re­gion.

“Bring­ing 28 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in sports ad­min­is­tra­tion, lo­cal­ly, re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly in dif­fer­ent com­bat sports such as wrestling, kick­box­ing, sam­bo and mixed mar­tial arts, will help me de­vel­op the Pan Am re­gion.”

“The pas­sion and dri­ve I have to not see the Pan Am re­gion left be­hind, as was done in the past, will help me achieve my goals for the re­gion. For far too of­ten, in­ter­na­tion­al fed­er­a­tions on­ly con­sid­er the Pan Am re­gion for elec­tions or to so­lic­it votes, but if we ex­am­ine our his­to­ry, we will see that we have nev­er host­ed one World Cham­pi­onships in this part of the world, not even one.

“I be­lieve that un­der my lead­er­ship the re­gion should see a World Cham­pi­onship with­in five years, con­sist­ing of many coun­tries, tourists, me­dia and the type of tele­vi­sion reach that MMA is ca­pa­ble of,” Fras­er said.

Fras­er’s lead­er­ship will hinge on a few ma­jor ob­jec­tives, name­ly: To de­vel­op a con­sti­tu­tion to gov­ern the Pan Am re­gion; Or­gan­ise in­ter­na­tion­al events and com­pe­ti­tions; To reg­u­late the sport to en­sure the safe­ty of our am­a­teur ath­letes, as well as en­force the rules gov­ern­ing the sport; and De­vel­op a code of ethics for the Pan Am re­gion by fol­low­ing the fun­da­men­tals prin­ci­ples that the IM­MA has de­vel­oped.

Fras­er’s first as­sign­ment in charge of the Pan Am re­gion will be the World Cham­pi­onships in Bel­grade, Ser­bia from Feb­ru­ary 11-18.

How­ev­er, he will be the on­ly per­son from his coun­try there, as fi­nan­cial woes have pre­vent­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion com­pet­i­tive­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to Fras­er: “It is a bit­ter/sweet feel­ing, es­pe­cial­ly for the ath­letes who have done ex­cep­tion­al­ly well at the Pan Am Games in Mex­i­co last year.

At that Games Je­re­my Rudol­fo won a gold medal, An­tho­ny Joseph got a sil­ver, Mick­el Allen earn a bronze and Ron­nie Chad­band got a bronze. All these ath­letes are al­so ranked.