A 13-year-old with dreams of becoming the next big mixed-martial arts fighter has been chosen to fight for England at the European Championships next year in Belgrade.
But the family of Cairo Thomas need to raise almost £2,000 to fund his trip to an international training camp and then his appearance at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) championships in Serbia in February.
They are in something of a race against time to find the funds, but have already been backed with more than £1,000 of donations to a GoFundMe page, set up to get the youngster from Lyde Green a step closer to his dream.
Cairo is a Year 9 pupil at Winterbourne Academy and trains at the Roger Gracey East Bristol gym in Speedwell. He started Jiu-Jitsu when he was nine back in 2020, and only took up MMA a year ago, so his rise to represent England is nothing short of meteoric.
“It’s crazy, really,” said his proud mum Leilani-Chyna Thomas. “You have to have been doing MMA for quite a few years to even be considered for national teams, but they invited Cairo to go to a training event in Liverpool just having heard about him,” she said.
“They said they knew about him with the Jiu-Jitsu, they said they have had their eyes on him for a while, so they wanted to see him in MMA, and he went twice. He must have impressed. He was in one fight up there and absolutely demolished the other lad, and that sealed the deal,” she added.
MMA began as a hybrid of various different martial arts with the creation of the UFC in America in 1993, and has quickly become the leading combat sport which is now almost rivalling boxing around the world. Competitors usually learn a specific sport first, like judo, wrestling, jiu-jitsu or boxing first as youngsters, before developing into MMA fighters as they get into their late teens, so there hasn’t really been a grassroots junior MMA structure or organisation – and the IMMAF, along with the sport’s English authorities, are evolving it now.
“Cairo’s dream is to become a professional fighter,” said his mum Leilani-Chyna. “The pathway is that he develops with the IMMAF until he gets to around 19 or 20 and then hopefully he’ll get picked up by the Cage Fighting or the UFC and can turn pro,” she added.
With MMA, promotion and persona is important, and Cairo already has his octagon nickname – King Cairo – sorted, with his own Instagram account and a growing number of followers. He’s had several fights already, as well as a longer career in jiu-jitsu. For under-18s, the sport is organised so that young competitors are matched in the same age and weight categories as their opponents, and punches or kicks to the head are not allowed.
“Safety is a huge priority, so I am reassured,” said Cairo’s mum. “They have briefings before fights that take half an hour and it’s all about safety. Sometimes I watch through my fingers, but I am getting better. At the start, I would be the one upstairs in the coffee shop texting my friends ‘has he won?’ because I couldn’t watch.
“But he kept saying to me that I should be there watching, so I have started now. In that last fight, which was televised, you could hear me clear as day shouting ‘come on!’ at him,” she added. “When he gets in the ring he’s got this nonchalant air, like he knows he’s going to win. He’s very calm and collected, and doesn’t seem to be nervous at all. As soon as it’s finished, the smile comes back and he’s back to his happy self again,” she added.
“Cairo is the most hardworking dedicated and humble person I know that would help anyone in need and is always there to help train his team mates if they ask,” she said. Already the fundraiser for his big European Championships opportunity has got more than £1,000 in donations, but it is a race against time.
“I don’t want his dream to stay a dream because of a small hurdle that’s in our way, Cairo shouldn’t suffer as he has done what he was supposed to do, i.e turn up, train hard and have a good mind set… So I wouldn’t want this opportunity to slip through our fingers,” Leilani-Chyna added.
Bristol has a good track record when it comes to MMA. Southmead ’s Nad Narimani was initially a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and began his professional MMA career in 2011, when he was 24. He won the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship featherweight championship against Paddy ‘the Baddy’ Pimblett, and then signed with the UFC, becoming Bristol’s first UFC star. He went on to a successful career with 12 wins in 16 fights.