M2MMA Appoints World MMA Awards Trainer of the Year Phil Daru to Advisory Board

M2MMA Appoints World MMA Awards Trainer of the Year Phil Daru to Advisory Board to Empower Athlete Performance and Safety Through M2Intel

M2MMA Inc. (OTCBB:MMAZ)

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — M2MMA Inc. today announced the appointment of Phil Daru, one of the most recognized strength and conditioning coaches in combat sports, to its Advisory Board. In this strategic role, Daru will advise on developing and applying M2MMA’s groundbreaking AI-driven infrastructure, using his world-renowned expertise in performance methodology to support the practical application of M2MMA’s M2Intel OS from the lab to the gym floor and into sanctioned competition.

A former professional mixed martial artist and Division I college football player, Daru earned degrees in Sports Medicine and Exercise Science from Alabama State University. He founded Daru Strong and is a five-time Trainer of the Year honoree, including World MMA Awards Trainer of the Year in 2019–20 and 2021. Over nearly two decades, he has prepared more than 200 professional and Olympic-level athletes, including UFC champions and title contenders such as Dustin Poirier, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Amanda Nunes, and Colby Covington, as well as boxers, NFL players, and tactical professionals. He has also mentored more than 5,000 coaches across 16 countries.

That combination — fighter, clinician-trained coach, and systems builder — is the reason for the appointment. Phil intimately understands the challenges combat sports athletes and coaches face. Historically, combat sports have treated training, recovery, and well-being modalities as separate conversations, and training environments often lack the individualized protocols athletes require. M2MMA is building a single operating system where data, longitudinal trends, and protocols inform decisions and empower coaches and athletes with insights to advance every aspect of training and recovery.

The M2Coach built within M2Intel is designed to inform and support coaches and athletes worldwide, turning training, medical, performance, recovery, and even financial data into guidance they can use in camp to support athlete safety and performance. Daru’s guidance will be critical in designing how that information is delivered, ensuring the platform supports informed decision-making in real-world training environments.

Beyond supporting design, Daru’s expertise will support research initiatives into the factors influencing performance and safety as part of M2Lab, M2MMA’s dedicated research and development facility, also providing critical insight into the development of real-time impact monitoring and sensor-integrated equipment built to capture key metrics that strengthen M2MMA’s AI algorithms for safety and performance, helping ensure those tools are viable in training environments and competition without interfering with how an athlete moves, trains, or competes.

“Phil has spent his career in the rooms where performance is either built or broken,” said Jeff Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of M2MMA Inc. “Champions do not get made by slogans. They are built through training specificity, load, recovery, discipline, and honest feedback. We already have medical leaders and regulators on this Board. What Phil adds is operational layer: how a world-class camp should run when the data is truly empowering the coach. M2Intel and M2Coach are designed to inform and support coaches and athletes worldwide, and M2Intel is due to be delivered and operational with commissions later this month. Phil’s guidance will be critical to delivering the training data information so coaches and athletes can make informed decisions. At the same time, his oversight of our research initiatives and the equipment being built to capture the metrics behind our safety and performance algorithms strengthens the science-backed ecosystem we are building with this Board.”

Phil Daru commented:

“I have coached athletes through title camps, injuries, weight cuts, and the work that never makes a highlight reel. Exactly the work M2MMA is focused on supporting, as they recognize that the biggest factors in an athlete’s performance and injury risk are preparation and recovery, far from the spotlight of competition. I wholeheartedly believe in M2MMA’s mission to use data to develop AI-driven support tools for stakeholders across the sport, improving athlete safety and performance. The opportunity to support the development and application of the M2MMA tech ecosystem to help coaches and athletes across the entire development pathway manage the training metrics that matter in order to elicit their best performance, while also capturing and delivering new insights on critical safety challenges like sparring load and weight cutting, is one I am greatly excited about.”

Daru’s connection to the mission is personal. His mixed martial arts career came to an abrupt end after a concussion in MMA. His coach at the time, the legendary Din Thomas, told him it was time to stop, as brain health is something you just can’t gamble with. That advice protected him. Not every athlete is fortunate enough to be guided by a coach of Thomas’s caliber — someone willing to put long-term health above the next fight. Too many are left to decide alone, or to hide symptoms in order to stay on a card. That is why M2Intel also supports athlete information empowerment through M2Coach, giving athletes direct access to the insight they need to make informed decisions about training, recovery, and risk. M2MMA reinforces that athlete-facing layer through partnerships with leading neurological experts, including The Brain and Performance Center in Dubai, NeuroSolution Center, and IAFNR. Daru has not only experienced the damage head injuries can do in combat sports; he has watched others in MMA and in impact sports such as football live with the long-term consequences. He recognizes the power of the M2MMA mission and why its success in better protecting athletes matters.

The appointment of Phil Daru further strengthens the science-backed ecosystem M2MMA is building, with leading experts advising from the Board across the platform—including industry leaders in regulatory oversight, medical governance, performance research, and athlete-facing intelligence. The ecosystem is being diligently built to deliver lasting change in combat sports safety and performance. It also comes as another milestone moment approaches for M2MMA, with M2Intel due to be delivered and operational with commissions later this month.

About M2MMA Inc.

M2MMA Inc. (OTC: MMAZ) is an integrated AI-driven technology company specializing in combat sports and performance. It integrates advanced real-time predictive technologies with medical and safety innovation. The company operates M2Intel, the foundational operating system for combat sports; M2Lab, for research and development into real-time impact monitoring; and M2Chain, for immutable data verification and a tokenized economy. M2MMA is dedicated to building a unified ecosystem that safeguards athletes and fortifies global combat sports.
Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities laws, regarding future growth, technology development, partnerships, and expansion plans. These statements are predicated on current expectations and assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to diverge materially. Readers are hereby cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are valid only as of the date of this release. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as mandated by law.

Jeff Robinson
M2MMA Inc.
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