Former IMMAF World Champion Lee Hammond to make Pro Debut with Heroes Fight League
SBG Ireland’s Lee Hammond is set to make his long awaited professional debut tomorrow night.
The 2018 IMMAF World Champion will take on undefeated Ionuț Brostic (4-0) in a lightweight bout with Heroes Fight League in Bucharest, Romania on Friday 19th November
A BJJ brown belt under John Kavanagh, Hammond rose to prominence on the Irish scene as a young jiu-jitsu phenom, becoming a close training partner in the “Mac Mansion” to teammate Conor McGregor ahead of his UFC title fight versus Jose Aldo.
Hammond caught the MMA bug, and began competing as an amateur in 2015. After claiming a silver medal at the 2016 IMMAF European Open Championship, the Crumlin native would go on to win the IMMAF Senior World Championship in November 2018. In addition to his title-winning performances, Hammond garnered attention for his creative submission skills, stopping Moldova’s Stefan Tonu in the first round by what IMMAF christened the “Hammoplata.”
Here it is then @LeeHammond96 #Hammoplata finish from today’s #MMAWorlds2018 #Bahrain pic.twitter.com/20EI2Rq8sw
— IMMAF (@IMMAFed) November 12, 2018
In an interview with Petesy Carroll from inside the Mac Mansion in 2015, Hammond voiced his aspirations to become the first person to land a berimbolo sweep in MMA. Mere months later, Hammond ticked off that goal in his amateur debut, landing the move before KO’ing his opponent via spinning back fist.
Now 25 years old, Hammond will be looking to make a similar to statement to that of his amateur debut in his first professional outing. No layup fight here, as he takes on the undefeated Brostic, who boasts 3 submission victories already on his unblemished 4-0 record.
