There\u2019s a small, little fishermen\u2019s village in West Africa, called Thiaroye-Sur-Mer, Thiaroye by the sea. Situated on the southeast coast of Cape Verde, in the suburbs of Dakar, this Senegalese town totals just more than 35,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n
Most of the people there try to make a living by fishing, but there is another activity you can pursue in Senegal. You can wrestle.<\/p>\n
And that is what Oumar Kane (1-0 MMA; 1-0 ARES), also known as \u201cReug Reug\u201d, did. Born in a family of wrestlers 28 years ago, he started practicing Senegalese wrestling at a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve started doing Mbapatte (a group of traditional wrestling techniques) when I was 16. After a few months [of training], I left my home and moved to a Seereer community village and tested my self into a lot of competitions. In 2012, then, I came back to Dakar and had my first official fight\u201d, Oumar Kane told BJPENN.com<\/p>\n
Laamb (or Njom), the original form of Senegal\u2019s wrestling, was created by Seereer people, as a form of preparatory exercise for war among the warrior classes. Today\u2019s wrestling is more sport-oriented and there are two versions of it: Lutte avec frappe\u00a0<\/i>and Lutte sans frappe <\/i>(respectively, wrestling with blows and wrestling without blows).<\/p>\n