{"id":32185,"date":"2023-03-23T19:46:29","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T19:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=32185"},"modified":"2023-03-24T11:39:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T11:39:41","slug":"gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country","title":{"rendered":"GAMBIAN-FRENCH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STAR GETS OFFCIAL NOD TO REPRESENT HOME COUNTRY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>France\u2019s Number 2 MMA star Ibrahima Mane becomes Gambian international<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Gambia now has an official place in international Mixed martial arts MMA. He is 34-year-old Ibrahima Mane. Born in France Mane took interest in MMA at age six, and has never looked back. Now ranked Number 2 in France and 187 in the world, Ibrahima feels he should formally give his service to his country of ancestry-The Gambia, where is parents, Foday and Aisha Mane come from.\u201d I have been unofficially representing Gambia at several MMA events including ones held in South Africa, Italy, Bahrain among other places. Each time they class me as a French man, I always insist I am representing Gambia,\u201d Ibrahima told The Standard just after being handed the Gambia flag by the National Sports Council, NSC.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"bin\/Users\/Muzaffari\/postMediaimg_101_1.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"611\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The NSC executive director Marcel Mendy handed the national flag to Ibrahima yesterday with a pledge for national support and encouragement. Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Ibrahima prefers and has excelled tremendously in ground fighting, close to boxing. He currently welterweight (77kg) and working on securing a belt in the near future.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-32183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/postMediaimg_101_2.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/postMediaimg_101_2.jpg 450w, https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/postMediaimg_101_2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He told that he naturally loves fighting since he was very small, much to the annoyance of his mother who had always worried about her son\u2019s passion for fighting. \u201dSo, I decided to transform my early life fighting skills to a profession,\u201d Ibrahima said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\">Gambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. France\u2019s Number 2 MMA star Ibrahima Mane becomes Gambian international The Gambia now has an official place in international Mixed martial arts MMA. He is 34-year-old Ibrahima Mane. Born in France Mane took interest in MMA at age six, and has never looked back. Now ranked Number 2 in France and 187 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":32184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11,17],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-32185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-photo","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GAMBIAN-FRENCH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STAR GETS OFFCIAL NOD TO REPRESENT HOME COUNTRY - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"France\u2019s Number 2 MMA star Ibrahima Mane becomes Gambian international The Gambia now has an official place in i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GAMBIAN-FRENCH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STAR GETS OFFCIAL NOD TO REPRESENT HOME COUNTRY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"France\u2019s Number 2 MMA star Ibrahima Mane becomes Gambian international The Gambia now has an official place in i ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T19:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-24T11:39:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679575946.16.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"GAMBIAN-FRENCH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STAR GETS OFFCIAL NOD TO REPRESENT HOME COUNTRY\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-23T19:46:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-24T11:39:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\"},\"wordCount\":271,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679575946.16.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"photo\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambian-french-mixed-martial-arts-star-gets-offcial-nod-to-represent-home-country\",\"name\":\"GAMBIAN-FRENCH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STAR GETS OFFCIAL NOD TO REPRESENT HOME COUNTRY - 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