Women are just as capable as men in making a good punch and Coach Felise has been promoting and actively recruiting women to join the mixed martial arts sport for several years now.

Team Samoa, which is currently camping in New Zealand, has announced that there is inclusivity within their team and has four women fighters who are now part of Team Samoa.

Felise Leniu – who has been promoting mixed martial arts [M.M.A.] as a Samoan fighter for the last 24 years – has focused more on having fighters represent Samoa through the Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA) over the last four years.

He has been actively and passionately recruiting since 2018/2019. The preparations for Team Samoa are going well for fighter Felise and the management team. They keep in regular contact with all fighters and their coaches spread out to Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia.

“So to put things in perspective last year, we had four fighters initially expected to attend the world competition. We ended up with only one fighter which was Inna Leniu and she came back with Samoa’s first-ever gold medal," Coach Felise said. 

They have seen a significant increase in fighters with a registered 24 fighters in the Oceania Championship next month with five of them women. This is the highest measure of growth Team Samoa has ever had.

Sally Kaokao, who is one of the female veteran fighters representing Samoa, is an all-around athlete, a deadly striker, and has fluid ground skills.

“She is currently fine-tuning her skills and her fight camp is coming along very strong as she is doing it alongside her fighter brothers”.

Wilma Letalu, Elizabeth Faumuina, and Caylen Sagala are the other fighters standing in the ring alongside their two sisters ready to take on whoever is thrown in against them.

Inna Leniu was the only Samoan to represent Samoa on the global stage and brought back Samoa’s very first gold medal in the sport. She is also assisting in preparing the female fighters for their upcoming tournament. Her experience has made her more determined to encourage more women to take up the sport.

“I love seeing more women come on board and more women developing their skillset as MMA fighters. We have many Samoan women already dominating in MMA and well why not have our women make their mark with where they are from by representing Samoa too hey," Mrs. Leniu said. 

“I think promoting women’s MMA can be done by sharing our journey. Showing young women that MMA is also a discipline and it requires congruency with your heart, mind, and physicality. Our women are just as capable as men in building the overall skillsets to be MMA fighters. 

They live by the motto of Iron sharpens iron and having their Samoan fighters learn from each other helps elevate their skills a step further. 

Coach Felise will be returning to Samoa in September and is going to take every opportunity to network and connect with any fighters and aspiring fighters while he is there as well as provide any service to the combat communities in Samoa.

“It has been fantastic to see the fighters help each other to build more skill and challenge each other by testing theirs against one another, Samoa mo Samoa.”