New St Albans martial arts centre is up for the fight

A BRAND new Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight centre has opened in St Albans, offering a range of martial arts.

And to mark the opening of the centre in Hatfield Road, there was a visit from Paul “Semtex” Daley, considered to be the best pound for pound MMA fighter in the UK

He gave a training session to those who turned out for the opening as well as an hour-long seminar on the sport.

The centre is the first and only full-time one of its kind across the whole of Hertfordshire and Mike Godfrey, the man behind it, is positive about what lies ahead for MMA.

He said the opening had been really successful with lots of interest and went on: “The sport is still in its infancy. Go back two years and nobody really knew anything about it, now it is the fastest growing sport in the world.”

He gave a special thanks to Paul Daley who will be returning to offer training to two members, Ben Callum and Ben Hodge, in whom he has taken a keen interest

In March the two youngsters will compete in “Unleashed” in Stevenage in the hope of being crowned the UK’s No. 1 submission fighter.

Mike, who has been involved in MMA for five years, added: “I have lived in St Albans all my life, and really want to give something back to the community.

“My business partner, Darren, works with underprivileged kids and we want to find some way to use MMA to help them. “

The centre welcomes all levels of MMA combat, from first-timers to professionals and to find out more go to www.mmafightcentre.co.uk