Meet Britain’s 6ft 10ins MMA construction worker chasing UFC dream inspired by Israel Adesanya

Edvainer Injai is part of a stacked Team England heading to the 2026 IMMAF European Championships.

This year’s edition in Belgrade, Serbia, is the largest in the amateur mixed martial arts organisation’s history, bringing together over 1,000 athletes across youth, junior and senior divisions.

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The inaugural IMMAF European Championships took place in Birmingham in 2015, and the event — just like the sport itself — has grown rapidly to become one of the most important fixtures on the international amateur MMA calendar.

What is IMMAF?

IMMAF, the world’s foremost international governing body for amateur MMA, provides an excellent pathway from grassroots participation to professional careers, including progression to the UFC.

England has sent its largest-ever national squad to Belgrade, with 115 athletes selected across all age categories, boasting one of the world’s largest teams.

One of the team’s coaches is former UFC featherweight Mike Grundy, who travels to the tournament alongside son, Jack, a two-time IMMAF youth medallist now fighting at senior level after turning 21.

One of the standout members of Team England is Injai, a towering 6’10” Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist who is currently balancing construction work with a goal to become a professional fighter.

Injai’s dream

Injai was thrown into the MMA world almost by chance, joining classes in 2023 to lose weight and get fit under his current coach Igor Alves.

The 21-year-old was 115kg at the time and getting into trouble, but he started to attend sessions in a boxing ring next to a Norwich gym that has since forged a life-changing journey.

Over the next two years, Injai’s commitment grew, and he now regularly trains five or six days a week at Ignite Martial Arts Norwich, on top of digging holes and installing drainage in his full-time job.

Standing at 6’10”, Injai is regularly questioned about his ability to reach MMA’s summit.

Stefan Struve, who stood at 7’0″, remains the tallest fighter in UFC history to date, and along with UFC heavyweight Alexander Volkov, is just one of five fighters 6’7″ or taller to reach Dana White‘s promotion.

IMMAF

But speaking to talkSPORT.com, the British prospect revealed why he’s regularly embracing talk of his unique stature.

“My height is what starts conversations, is what draws the attention to me,” Injai said.

“I love it. I have no hate towards it — I actually guess before people are going to ask me how tall I am.

“I can see in their eyes what question they’re about to ask me. But I am six foot ten, officially six foot ten.

“I post a lot on social media, and I do read the comments. I don’t reply to the negative ones — I’m all about positivity,”

“A lot of people say I can’t wrestle because of my height, easy to get taken down.

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IMMAF

“It’s not like that — martial arts is forever improving, so you have to adapt if you do jujitsu, if you do martial arts, you have to adapt against smaller opponents, against bigger opponents, and you have to learn your body and know how to do certain moves.

“I can do anything and I can wrestle. That’s one thing I can do. I can wrestle.”

Injai named Israel Adesanya as his favourite fighter and someone he looks up to in the combat sports world.

Adesanya is one of the most famous UFC champions of all time, and Injai would love nothing more than to replicate his success.

“It means financial freedom,” Inaji responded when asked how he views the pinnacle of the sport.

“But truth be told, you’ll never truly know what you’re capable of doing because there’s always more. There’s always more to achieve.

“But it’s just keep going and reach my maximum capacity within the sport…

“Of course, I don’t want to look too far ahead of myself — I’m only a novice to the martial arts journey.

“But UFC, that is the biggest MMA promotion in the whole world. So that is the pinnacle.

“That is the pinnacle. But it is the pinnacle in terms of obviously fighting under that promotion. There’s so much more to martial arts.”

Injai made his IMMAF debut at the 2025 World Championship.

He reached the final 16 by defeating Dagestan-born Abdula Isaev via split decision, before losing to eventual gold medallist Vincent Yerly.

The light heavyweight received a bye in this year’s European Championships, which started on Tuesday, meaning his first fight takes place on Thursday.