by Liam Tarrant
On Friday December 7th, the New Jersey State Martial Arts Hall of Fame honored several members of the New Jersey Muay Thai community by including them in their inaugural class of inductees. The awards included trainers of the year, male and female fighters of the year, promotion and matchmakers of the year, referee of the year and judge of the year, all strictly relating to Muay Thai. The Hall of Fame also included MMA awards with such notable inductees as Renzo Gracie (Legend award) and Frankie Edgar (MMA Fighter of the year).
A special thanks goes out to the Perez family for sponsoring the Hall of Fame, and Nick Lembo, Counsel to the State Athletic Control Board, for their participation and continued support of Muay Thai.
Trainers of the year – Joe Bumanlag and Ray Cruz (North Jersey Muay Thai)
Male fighter of the year- Ognjen Topic (North Jersey Muay Thai)
Female fighter of the year- Prairie Rugilo (Team Girl Fight)
Promotion of the year- Weapon’s 9/Warrior’s Cup
Matchmaker of the year – Chris Tran (Weapons 9/Warrior’s Cup)
Referee of the year- Coban Lookchaomaesaitong (Team Coban)
Judge of the year- Vladimir Borodine (Borodine’s Gym)
Congratulations to all of the recipients.