SFC5 : Allen Solomon's Journey's Back to the Top

Sept 2016 was a memorable time for Allen Solomon Chong, fighting in his hometown in Kota Kinabalu, in Borneo’s premier MMA promotions Jesselton Fight League (JFL). Allen took the victory in the main card winning the Tourism Cup. Being the home town hero and as the pioneer of MMA & BJJ and the inaugural winner of MIMMA Lightweight belt, Allen received tremendous supports.

Riding on the high, right after the fight he signed up again with JFL for a fight in Dec. Allen flew to USA to prepare for the fight. Training, rolling and meeting with a number of MMA’s great such as Sam Alvey, Dan Henderson, Mark Munoz, Fabrico Werdum, Cat Zingano. To name a few.

But due to unavoidable circumstances, Dec’s JFL was postponed and Allen was left without a fight. Right after when he came back, management issues causes him to forego his Alpha MMA. The gym that he founded from his blood & sweat of bringing BJJ & MMA to the forefront.

He also had to deal with some issue with the state BJJ association that he founded. To further add to the pressure he already stopped working as an architect to focus on his fight career.

Amidst all these he had to be there for his family as his wife deliver their second child.

It was truly a time where fight was the last thing on his mind. But fight on he did. Allen picked up the pieces and without the burden of running a gym and with his new found motivation of a bigger family to care for, he started to focus back his mind and body on his training.

Joining the fame Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS), headed by Coach AJ Pyro. AJ welcome him to his team of pro fighters such as Hisyam, Ann Osman, Audreylaura and Kelvin Ong, and put him into fight camp immediately.

The journey back has begun for Allen as he now focus on preparing for his fight this Sat 8 April at Singapore Fighting Championship 5. 

Finding the right sponsors to support his journey

It will be a barnburner as this featherweight fight promises to deliver lots of action. Allen will go up against a young Filipino, Jhunior Acilo Diapolet.

At only 21, Jhunior trains out of Manila’s D’ Elements MMA Warriors. At such young age, Jhunior has amassed much experience from his amateur days fighting in Philippines regional MMA promotion. He turned pro in late 2016 when he fought in Blaze FC. 

A few weeks ago he fought in South East Asia Fighting Championship (SAFC), losing the challenge for the featherweight belt. This motivates him more to get a win in SFC5.



Growing up in Panabo City at the Davao Province in southern Philippines, life was hard as jobs are hard to come by and economically the region is poor with banana & fruit cultivation as the main industry. 

At age 16, Jhunior started training in Muaythai which gave him a solid striking foundations. Jessie Rafols continue to polish his Muaythai as he improve on his ground game and grappling through Fernando Piccio, Ramonito Pabroa and Francis Romero.

Fighting at SFC5 will be Jhunior’s first fight out of Philippines and he is feeling mighty proud to carry his country’s flag into the MMA cage. Allen will be his biggest name opponent to date as Allen come with the record as an ex UFC’s Ultimate Fighter, plus Allen’s two win was both against Filipinos.

Jhunior aspire to making it big in MMA as how Eduard Folayang has done. Not for the fame but his motivation is providing a better life for his family back home in Panabo.

In this SFC5 fight card, another Sabahan will be featured - Eddey Kalai. Well known for his fast hands from his years of experience in boxing, representing Malaysia in SEA Games, Commonwealth Games and Arafura Games. 

Eddey ventured into MMA and has utilizes his fist to win him many fights, he has an underrated ground game but has surprised many strikers with his take down defense and magnificent suplex. 



Eddey was successful in amateur MMA, being the 1st JFL Flyweight Champion and also MIMMA4 flyweight finalist. He recently turned pro in Primal FC Thailand. 

He lost that fight but came back blazing and was victorious in ONESilat (full contact Silat with rules somewhat similar to pro MMA), winning it in 1st round via kimura against Madit Sada of Indonesia.

Eddey will go up against Garie Tang. An up and coming fighter from IMPACT MMA Singapore. Garie started with Muaythai and has picked up grappling and transitioned into MMA. 

Under Prof Alexsandro Machado (BJJ Black Belt), Royston Wee (Singapore’s 1st fighter in UFC) and Bruce Loh (Singapore’s 1st pro MMA fighter) Garie has developed into an all-rounder. An injury prevented him from being active late last year but now he is back! 



He is also part of Singapore’s National Wrestling Squad and regularly trains with his fellow IMPACT MMA’s young fighter of high caliber such as Nazri Sutari and Niko Soenarto.



Let’s gear up for SFC5: Combat Redefined this Saturday in Singapore’s Foo Chow Building. SFC5 will bring plenty of action on the feet as well with 7 Pro Boxing matches on the card. The hi-light is for the WBA Asia Super Featherweight Championship, which home town hero Muhamad ‘ The Chosen Wan ‘ Ridwan will fight Waldo Sabu of Indonesia for the title belt.

Mixing into the Pro MMA and Boxing fights will also see some amateur Kickboxing actions.

SABAHAN KELVIN AND AUDREY AIMS TO CHILL BANGKOK

11 Mac 2017, ONE Championship: Warrior's Kingdom will be held in Bangkok. The fight cards feature some of the best MMA talents in Thailand. With 11 Thai fighters in the cards, it's Thailand vs the rest of Asia. The atmosphere inside Impact Arena will be loud and hot as Thai fight fans are very passionate and they will be fully behind their fighters with deafening cheers.

Amidst this high pressure atmosphere, two warrior from Sabah Malaysia will aim to bring the chill to Bangkok. The two are Kelvin 'Ice Man' Ong and Audreylaura ' Ice Comet' Boniface. They are both fighters from Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS).

Kelvin in ONE's photoshoot wearing the BTS fight shorts with unique  Sabahan native motifs

This is Kelvin's debut in ONE Championship and his 2nd pro MMA fight. Kelvin's pro debut was in Jul 2016 WSOF Global Championship 3, in which he won against Fhilipino Jesdan dela Pena by TKO in 2nd round. ( read about my write up on Kelvin's debut here )

Winning his pro debut in WSOF GC 3

Kelvin has a quiet personality and is a very humble man. But when he steps into the cage, he is ice cold and merciless. To fight in ONE Championship as the biggest MMA promotion in Asia is certainly a dream come true for him. He is very thankful to his coach and mentor AJ 'Pyro', himself a ONE Championship fighter.

Kelvin with BTS fight team lead by AJ Pyro ( R )

Kelvin never misses training even though he has a very busy schedule working. He helps out in his family business running a stall in the LIDO market in Kota Kinabalu. He stepped into BTS two years ago and Coach AJ notice how hardworking this man is and decided to work closely with him to polish his skills.
"Kelvin has the heart and right attitude, so it's my job to improve his skills and mold him into a fighting machine" 

said Pyro.

Kelvin will be facing Sagetdao Petpayathai. This is Sagetdao's MMA debut but he was household name and a legend in the Muaythai circle in Thailand when he fought actively from 2004-2014, winning numerous titles such as MAX Muaythai, Lumpinee Stadium, Rajdamnern Stadium, WBC World Champion, WPMF World Champion.

At 30 this year he is retired from Muaythai and has been teaching in the EVOLVE MMA gym in Singapore. Sagetdao is well known for his vicious knee and strong clinch and he look to begun his new journey in martial arts through MMA.

Kelvin's team mate is Ice Comet - Audreylaura Boniface. This is also Audrey's debut in ONE Championship and her 2nd pro fight. Her debut was in Thailand's Full Metal Dojo in Jul 2016. Before that Audrey fought in ONE Silat ( with rules similar to MMA ). Read about Audrey's MMA debut in my previous write up here .

Audrey en route to winning her ONE Silat match

Audrey's involvement in martial arts started when she was in university as she got into Taekwondo, In BTS she has picked up crucial ground game and has won medals in BJJ comp. She has a day job as a doctor in the emergency and trauma department in Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kota Kinabalu

Dr. Audrey in the house ...and the Oval cage!

Being a doctor has both advantage and disadvantage. The good side is, she understand stress very well and is used to work under pressure and her work trains her to think lightning fast. In the down side, her dedication as a life saver took her time off from training. So whenever she has the time she will put in lots of effort and focus on learning as much as she can from AJ Pyro.

Audrey with BTS fight team

She never thought that she will be a pro fighter, and she owes this trust to AJ Pyro. AJ sees the potential in her. As she has the mental strength. 
" It's easy to train the physical skills and conditioning, but mental toughness is something you need to develop mostly on your own, and Audrey already has this in her"

Audrey with her mentor and coach AJ Pyro Lias Mansor

Audrey cherish the opportunity, and she has uses her MMA training as a stress reliever from her stressful job. Becoming a fighter certainly gave her a new aim in life as she is able to be role model to other Sabahan female.

Having Ann Osman as her team mate certainly is an advantage as Ann has given her many pointers in terms of fight skills and also how to deal with the jitters of fighting in the big league.

Audrey needs all her mental strength she can get as she will be facing Thai's MMA darling 'Tiny Doll' Rika Ishige. This is Rika's MMA pro debut. She is the girlfriend of Thai MMA superstar Shannon 'One Shin' Wiratchai, whom will also be fighting on 11 MAC in the co-main event.

Shannon and Rika

Facing off at the roof top of Banyan Hotel Bangkok

Rika has background in Taekwondo and Judo. With a doll of a face, she is becoming the media darling of Thai martial arts. The support she will get will definitely be hot and 'Ice Comet' will need to cool down the temperature with her calmness and composure.

Among the other fights to watch out for is the Joshua Pacio of the fame Team Lakay of Philipines vs Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke (DSA). Joshua is a young fighter at 21 years but posses a 11-1-0 record with all the win by finishes. He is certainly a great straw weight prospect, challenging for the title last year against Yoshitaka Naito. Joshua was dominating for two rounds until in third round a costly mistakes allowed Naito to get his back to sink in a rear naked choke.

Joshua will need all his skills as he faces the ex straw weight champion, Dejdamrong. DSA was the inaugural straw weight champion when he took the title in May 2015. He lost the belt to Naito a year later in a high pressure match as ONE Championship debut in Thailand.

It was a heart broken moment when he had to tap out to Naito's choke in the fourth round, disappointing the thousand of Thais coming to support him. This is DSA first fight after the loss and he is very determine to win the title back and winning back the hearts of the Thais.



The co main event will see Thai MMA hearthrob Shannon 'One Shin' Wiratchai vs Richard Corminal of Philipines. Shannon is one of the first Thai to venture into MMA, mixing his striking skills from Kung Fu with his accomplished Judo skills with plenty of BJJ and wrestling. He is a very exciting fighter to watch with memorable and attention grabbing walk out. He dresses in Pokemon theme in his last win in Kuala Lumpur against Malaysian Peter Davis. Everyone is eager to see his walkout this time in Bangkok.

More importantly from his walk out antics, Shannon is prolific striker and a has a suffocating grappling skills. His fights are exciting to watch in the Oval cage. He has unorthodox striking and will attack from odd angle and unpredictable moves.

Filipino Richard Corminal is base in Kuala Lumpur, fighting out of Muayfit. He holds a record of 4-1-0 and all 4 wins via KO/TKO. Inspired by Manny Pacquiao when he was young he took up boxing and eventually Muaythai and grappling. Leaving Manila to earn a living in Kuala Lumpur, Richard now is a instructor at Muayfit.

Corminal understands very well that he is the underdog. But he is happy that the pressure will be on Shannon due to his fame and the demand of performing in home crowd. Richard aims to keep the fight standing and spoils the party of Shannon.



ONE Championship Warrior Kingdom will be headline by Female Atom weight Champion Angela Lee defending her title. Angela is of mixed Singaporean and Korean heritage and trains at Asia’s premier mixed martial arts gym, Evolve MMA in Singapore.

Lee’s beautiful combination of solid striking and grappling skills has proven to be a potent formula for success as she remains unbeaten in her MMA career. In her last bout, Lee captured the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight World Championship with an awe-inspiring victory over Mei
Yamaguchi. Lee will now make the first defense of her title against Jenny Huang.

26-year-old Jenny Huang is a female mixed martial artist representing Chinese Taipei. Unbeaten with a professional MMA record of five wins and no losses, Huang also owns three impressive submission victories. In her most recent bout, Huang electrified the arena by executing an extremely rare submission, the gogoplata, overcoming a spirited performance from the Philippines’ April Osenio. In her next bout, Huang will challenge ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee for the title.

photos from : http://www.atimes.com

BRINGING BACK PYROMANIA!

AJ proudly wears his fight shorts that has bears the unique design of Sabah's Borneo native of Bajau & Dusun 

It's been around 3 years since Lias Mansor last MMA fight. What a fight that was in Nov 2013. Lias or more fondly called AJ by his friends fought Melvin Yeoh, Malaysia's pioneer in MMA in ONE CHAMPIONSHIP : WARRIOR SPIRIT. He overcame Melvin with an unanimous decision win and became ONE's Malaysia National Featherweight Champion.

It was sweet victory as prior to that, in Feb 2013, AJ lost to fellow Muaythai specialist, Jian Kai Chee. It was a controversial decision lost as AJ was dominating Jian in the 3 round fight with effective take down, superior cage control and better ground game.

AJ vs Jian

AJ vs Melvin Yeoh

The fight with Melvin was offered to AJ as Jian was not able to take the fight. That win as Malaysia Featherweight Champion became the hi-light of AJ's sports career and AJ made it more memorable and meaningful when he donated his winnings to the victims of typhoon Haiyan of Philipines.

Receiving his featherweigh trophy from Victor Cui. ( pix by Justinng Photography )

AJ is from Sabah, the Malaysian state at northern Borneo. His sports life  started since his school days. He took up Silat and became national champion. He also took up rugby and played actively in the national team.

After winning the featherweight title, AJ focused on his team Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS). He pour his focus and attention to the many great prospect in the team he founded with his wife Emily Barner in 2008.

Coaching Hisyam Samsudin to winning the WBF Asia Pac Boxing belt. At left is Ann Osman

BTS has produced many high caliber warriors. Among them Ann 'Athena' Osman, whom is certainly a big name in the region as pioneer of female MMA in Asia. BTS is also home to other professional fighter such as Saharuddin Hamsah, Kelvin Ong, Audrey Laura and Tira Tatiana.

While coaching and developing his team, AJ himself never stop training and improving. Teaching is something that comes naturally for him, coming from the background as a school teacher in his early working life. As for his personal development and conditioning, he regularly participate in grappling competition around the region, actively spar with his team and played rugby regularly.

Come this Saturday 14 Jan, AJ will be back into the MMA cage. His fight name is Pyro, and you can bet plenty of fireworks will be seen as he face Indonesian prospect Anthony Engelan.

Warriors of Borneo is honored that in AJ's pack schedule of fight preparation & media commitment for ONE, he was able to grant me an interview.

Your last fight was when you won the ONE FC Malaysia National Featherweight title. What motivates you to take up this fight in Jakarta after a 3 years hiatus?
As a martial artist, I am always learning and always training. I have also always been a competitive athlete. So this opportunity came up and I feel good, in shape. It is a great challenge and I wanted to seize it!

AJ is always in shape...eveready for action

After your competitive MMA days in 2011-2013, you have been focusing on developing your BTS fighters, so how does it feel to be back in fight camp yourself preparing for your own fight?
It's exciting!! I have been coaching, preparing my fighters for fights since my retirement in 2013, and now I am coming back as the fighter, so the process is unique and interesting.

You always look lean & ripped even when off season...what is your training philosophy? Can you share with us what kind of diet do you follow when off season?
I am into martial arts, and this encourages you to live and eat healthily - not just train. So even 'off season' I believe in staying healthy, training daily, eating clean and if I indulge it is in moderation. My diet...stay away from sugar!

In AJ's corner in Jakarta will be Adrian Tham, fellow Sabahan and Jesselton Fight League Champion

Few years back in MENSHEALTH interview you consider yourself a striker, with your growth in BJJ and wrestling...do you still consider yourself one?
Yes. But I am well-rounded now - this is the main goal as an MMA fighter to be proficient in both striking and grappling.

MMA is such a impactful and demanding sports...at age 42 how do you keep up physically? Does diet/supplement and yoga plays a huge part in your training and maintenance? 
What about the mental aspect?
Mental strength is the key. Desire and discipline are important. As mentioned, I live a healthy life daily - this is important to me, my passion to train daily, eat clean, and encourage others to be healthy. By most people's standards I should have 'expired' as a 42-year old athlete, yet I am still kicking ass!

Going into this fight,.do you still train at the intensity level as compare to 3 years ago?
I have been training hard even off season. Then close to the fight, I train smart.

Outside of martial arts, you still compete in rugby, tell us what about rugby that makes you indulge in this sport so passionately since your school days?
It's in my blood! I feel great satisfaction from rugby as it tests you as a person mentally and physically. It is a real man's game. Plus it's a team sport - where you get to train and play together. A bit different from MMA, where you train together but fight alone in the cage!

You have been doing a lot of volunteering in SPCA KK & also have adopted a cat in BTS...tell us about this part of your personality. What do you see in the animals that makes you wanna help out at SPCA?

I just love animals, and always have been since I was a small child. I used to take home stray animals when I was a kid and hide them because my mom would get upset - not because she didn't like them but because we couldn't afford to feed them. 

Now I have adopted 3 stray cats. And going to SPCA is another way for me to help these animals who all deserve love and safety. I encourage more people to help volunteer as well as to give a stray a caring, loving, safe home! #adoptdontbuy

You will be the only Malaysian in ONE : QUEST FOR POWER, vs Anthony Engelen at his home crowd in Jakarta, are you worry about cage rust? What kind of pressure do you feel and how you cope with it?
I have no pressure. I think my experience helps a lot. In fact, I am really excited to come to Jakarta to fight and get the win!

Judging from Anthony's past fights, he stands & trades to get close to use his grappling, ...How do you think your fight with Anthony will go?
I am an all rounded fighter, so I am comfortable wherever he wants to go.

Anthony Engelan will be facing AJ on Saturday in the ONE cage

Will you use this fight to kick start your career again? Will this be a beginning of the 2nd coming of Pyro?
I have never left! I have been a martial artist since I was a child - martial artists never stop learning, ever. I have always been training whether or not I have a fight. I have continued to stay active while I have been developing new athletes (fighters).

I have still been competing around the region in a variety of sports including BJJ - so maybe you haven't seen me in the cage, but I have never stopped and I cannot wait for this upcoming match - I have never felt more ready physically and mentally!

You seems to be always training, even when on holidays...What type of music gets you going during workout how do you unwind? How do you unwind ? What type of music or activities relaxes you?
I listen to everything! One of my favourite ways to relax is to go to the cinema! I love watching movies!!

AJ also skate to unwind and relax

I know its no fun talking about food while you in the last phase of cutting weight, but as a Sabahan, what is your favorite local food ?
Ikan masak ampap is my favourite local dish

What about favorite cheat day food?

Favourite cheat day food is carbonara pasta and waffles!!!

?? Choices, choices,...which shall I go for?

Where is your favorite place to hang out in Sabah?
Anywhere we can enjoy the beach & sunset!

Rolling in front of Kota Kinabalu's scenic beach

One of AJ's favourite spot, hanging out from his condo with his wife Emily where they have a great seaview

Anything you wanna say to Anthony?
I am going to get you!

The Sabahan spartan will unleash Pyromania in Jakarta. Warriors of Borneo wishes AJ a successful fight!