Wimp 2 Warrior (W2W) Press Release: Thursday, April 15, 2021 — Global mixed marital arts training phenomenon, Wimp 2 Warrior (W2W) is pleased to announce that veteran MMA executive, Rich Chou has joined the company as the VP, North America.  He formerly  joins the company on Monday, April 19^th after previously serving as VP, Talent Relations for Bellator.

In the announcement made by W2W co-founder and CEO, Nick Langton, Chou’s appointment to oversee North American mirrors that of W2W co-founder, John Kavanagh, who continues to act in a similar capacity for Europe while overseeing the W2W training curriculum. 

In running the day-to-day business of the North American operation, Chou will be focused on rapidly expand W2W’s presence across the U.S. and Canada. Working in concert with Kavanagh and Langton, Chou will accelerate the growth of W2W’s licensee gyms through high profile partnerships with brand name MMA academies and gyms, creating the staging grounds for an immersive 100 class, 20 week fight camp that takes participants on a transformative mind, body and soul experience through the world of martial arts.

Chou will be armed with a significant budget to create co-branded marketing strategies for existing partnerships geared towards increasing gym census throughout their respective territories, as well as aggressively increase overall awareness of the program to attract new partners in untapped markets and regions.

This includes:

• Incentives and subsidies for gyms that join the program.
• Sponsorship/marketing opportunities for the program and participating gym partners.
• Brand ambassadorships with MMA fighters and well-known personalities to help bridge the message directly to prospective participants.

“As MMA immerses itself in global expansion, providing an organic and interactive program to men and women to practically learn martial arts is an important step in creating the transformative journey martial arts provides,” said Chou. “I am excited to further build upon Nick and John’s international success by expanding the program to be a fully realized subsidizing business partner to mixed martial arts gyms throughout the United States and Canada, while bringing in people of all ages to participate in the lifechanging journey that comes with learning martial arts.”

“The validation of a seasoned MMA executive like Rich Chou recognizing our programming is surpassed only by having him join the company,” said Langton. “As MMA continues to explode in global popularity, Rich’s ability to partner with the North America’s most recognizable names and academies will provide lucrative on ramps for our partner’s census and bottom line, while providing an exciting entry point for those who have always wondered if they could this.”

Over 10,000 people from 90+ gyms worldwide have completed W2W’s “Warrior Training Program”, adding millions of dollars in revenue for their partners in recent years.  Chou will build upon W2W’s existing presence in North America, where they have previously partnered with Montreal’s Tristar (Firas Zihabi), Long Island’s LAW MMA (Chris Weidman, Ray Longo), San Francisco’s El Nino Training Center (Gilbert Melendez), San Jose’s AKA Training Center (Javier Mendez), Las Vegas Xtreme Couture (Randy & Ryan Couture), Dublin California’s Combat Sports Academy (Kirian Fitzgibbon) SBG Portland (Matt Thornton) and more.

Kavanagh will continue to oversee all “on the mat” syllabus and programming for W2W to ensure best practice customer experience for an offering that balances being the entry point for martial arts training with becoming a fitness trend designed to compete with the highest profile and most immersive fitness offerings around the globe.

Chou is one of the most well respected executives in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. With more than 20-years of experience, Chou played a vital role in multiple promotions including Rumble on the Rock, EliteXC, Strikeforce, and Bellator where he most recently served as VP, Talent Relations.

For more information, please visit www.wimp2warrior.com

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