With a few more weeks until the Oceania Mixed Martial Arts Championship in New Zealand, Team Samoa has confirmed 22 fighters from their camp.

The 22 Samoan fighters have been listed as more are likely to join. These fighters will be in the ring to fight it out and hope for the opportunity to fight in the ONE championship later this year.

There to help the athletes prepare for their fight is Team Samoa President Felise “The Fob Father” Leniu, who is an experienced fighter himself and a promoter of the Pasifika muscle breaking into the MMA discipline.

Samoan fighters have rallied under his wing to prepare for the championship in June, together with his wife, Inna Leniu who recently won gold at the Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA) Worldwide tournament in Amsterdam last year.

Together with Coach Ben Sosoli, they will lead the teams to advance into GAMMA’s first Oceania Championship to once again obtain gold in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports.

Coach Ben Sosoli said in an interview with Radio Samoa that the main thing for their fighters is fitness and this is something they will work on during their training sessions. Fighters from Team Samoa are likely to have multiple fights in just a couple of days.

"With the recovery side of things the fitter they are, they will be able to recover easier between matches, usually when it comes down to combat sports, if the skill levels are quite even then it's whoever is the fittest who will come out on top," said Coach Sosoli. 

"This is kind of what we're trying to push for, just cleaning up some technical stuff and overall trying to get everyone up a little bit in fitness and being able to compete at a higher intensity for longer."

Much of the sports discipline falls in line with the Samoan Culture of respect and that is something the senior fighters are hoping to impart heavily on the young martial artists.

Mrs. Leniu shared a message with all the Samoan fighters interested to represent Samoa in the ring and said that it was important to show respect in order to receive respect in the sport.

“The sport is based around respect and part of the discipline is having respect inside and outside the ring." 

And that is not just by making an impact by winning their fights, but by also being able to show forth Samoan values that make up Samoan culture.