George Itumo

George Itumo began martial arts after secondary school in 2012, drawn to combining disciplines and learning self-defense. Looking back in 2026, he dated his first amateur MMA competition to 2022 and described an all-round game, with particular confidence on the ground. His jiu-jitsu competition history already extended beyond Kenya. Daily Monitor’s April 2019 report from a championship at Fuji’s Dojo in Kampala named him among One Tribe Nairobi’s competitors. The club had traveled from Kenya to join the Ugandan event. One Tribe’s own history explains the thinking behind that name. In a 2020 BJJ Globetrotters interview, cofounder Tete described replacing the Westlands label because it evoked Nairobi’s wealthier side. One Tribe expressed an ambition to bridge that economic divide. After losing its venue following a 2016 split, Tete spent two years rebuilding before joining forces with Séraphin at a permanent gym with more affordable fees. By June 2023, KenyanVibe was reporting George “The Maverick” Itumo as the main-bracket winner at Nairobi’s jiu-jitsu invitational at The Alchemist. The gathering brought together academies from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia, with separate superfights alongside the main competition. That August, he also won the men’s advanced adult under-65 kg category at the ADCC Africa Championship in Cape Town, representing OneTribe BJJ and Kenya. His presence in Nairobi’s martial-arts community was also visible away from tournament results. KBC named him among those attending Kombat Brigade’s free April 2024 expo at Umoja One Boxing Gym in Eastlands. Striking, wrestling and grappling demonstrations formed part of the event, which brought practitioners and spectators together. In May 2025, Itumo and Ouhsummer Ali Abad signed with African Knockout, preparing together in Nairobi for bouts in Lagos. Itumo described African competition as a stage toward the larger international MMA leagues he hoped to reach. The debut on June 13 ended in defeat: Angola’s Clelio Diogo beat Itumo by unanimous decision in their bantamweight bout. He returned to professional competition in Nairobi at ANZA’s December 5, 2025 event, stopping Joel Ssemanda in the first round. The recorded finish was ground-and-pound TKO: strikes delivered from a position on the mat. Capital FM’s account of his June 2026 bout with Ken Boton gives a fuller picture of his approach under resistance. Boton found openings with his striking and repeatedly regained his feet after takedowns. Itumo kept combining grappling with attacks to the body, increasing his pressure until a finishing attack against the cage brought a TKO. The report describes an exchange in which getting an opponent down was followed by the problem of keeping control when he stood up again. Ahead of his September 2026 main event, Itumo spoke about the earlier decision loss in terms of choices he could improve. He told Capital FM that he did not regard it as proof of inferior skill; better technical decisions were what he wanted to take into his next performance. He also recognized the advantages of preparing in familiar surroundings and hearing a home crowd. Those comforts did not, in his account, change his intention when traveling: he approached away bouts with the same aim of winning. On September 19, he faced Jorge Correia in the bantamweight main event of ANZA Pro Nights 3 in Nairobi. He won with an armbar, an arm-lock submission, and received Submission of the Night. In September 2026, he was still training and coaching at One Tribe while holding a nine-to-five job: fighting did not cover his living costs. Camp combined opponent study, strategy and conditioning with two daily sessions three days weekly, one on other training days, and Sundays off. He wanted government and sponsors to help make full-time fighting viable. ADCC’s federation directory also lists him as its Kenya leader.