ONE WARRIOR SERIES IS COMING TO KOTA KINABALU !

I remember in 2008, Mixed martial arts was still an anomaly to many. As a martial artist I was fascinated with the series of Fight Quest by Discovery Channel hosted by MMA fighter Jimmy Smith and army vet Doug Anderson; also the Human Weapon series by History Channel hosted by MMA fighter Jason Chambers and wrestler Bill Duff. It was really captivating to see them travelling to countries such as Japan, Israel, Philippines to learn from various masters on different styles of martial arts.

Fast forward to 2018. Mixed martial arts is booming and has become the fastest growing sports in the world. 

In Asia, ONE Championship reign supreme. It is the largest global sports media property in Asian history and hosts the largest sports entertainment events across Asia, featuring some of the world's best martial artists and world champions.

In Nov 2016, ONE Championship announced the launch of ONE Warrior Series, hosted by Rich Franklin.  In the series Rich, a former multiple-time middleweight world champion, will travel to various Asian nations to visit local gyms beginning in Bangkok, Manila, Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing to discover new and upcoming martial arts talent.

Deserving prospects will be rewarded with a USD 100,000++ contract with ONE Championship!

The promotion’s elite video production team will be following Franklin’s journey across the region, chronicling the action to produce a series of compelling documentary videos.

Catch the first two episode here:

Rich

Franklin, Vice President of ONE Championship and CEO of ONE Warrior Series, stated:
“Asia is the hotbed of the industry’s top martial arts prospects. It comes as no surprise, since martial arts has been home to the region for the past 5,000 years. 

Throughout my time in ONE Championship, I have been witness to some of the best martial arts talent I have ever seen. Stars today such as Angela Lee and Eduard Folayang came from the grassroots level of talent in Asia, and the next martial arts superstar is just waiting to be discovered. 

Follow me on this journey to showcase Asia’s greatest cultural treasure, and join me on the hunt to find ONE Championship’s new wave of superstars.”

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, stated: 

“At ONE Championship, one of our biggest missions is taking martial arts, Asia’s greatest cultural treasure, and placing it front and center for the entire world to witness. One of the ways to do this is by developing local homegrown martial arts superheroes. We are excited to travel across Asia, visiting the most iconic cities, to discover the next big superstar."

Chatri Sityodtong

ONE Warrior Series aims to discover new talent, providing promising young athletes with the platform to unleash their martial arts greatness, at the same time Rich and ONE Warrior Series director Jonathan Fong will also immerse themselves in the local culture and do some sight seeing.

For Malaysian, especially as a Sabahan, it's truly a great honour that ONE Warrior Series, after kick-starting the series in Bangkok the fight capital of Asia, has decided to make Kota Kinabalu (KK), Sabah as their third stop after Jakarta. They will be in KK on 23 FEB 2018.

This is certainly a great acknowledgement for Sabah, as the hotbed for martial arts talent in Malaysia. The venue will be at Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS), which is founded by AJ Pyro and the home gym of Ann Osman. 

Ann, being the 1st Malaysian female pro MMA athlete, was the trail blazer for female MMA in Asia. The charismatic Ann has hold the torch as the ambassador for the sports in Asia and amassed a fight record of 5-4. She last fought for ONE in Kuala Lumpur in August last year. Ann has announced her retirement from fight last Nov and has taken an executive role in ONE Championship.

AJ Pyro  is Ann's coach and one of the pioneer in Malaysian MMA. He was one of the earliest MMA athlete to fight pro in ONE FC ( which was known as previously ) and won the ONE Championship Malaysian National Featherweight title in 2013. AJ last fought for ONE Championship in Jakarta in Jan 2017.

AJ now focuses on developing new local talent. His gym BTS is known as one of the gym with the highest number of pro MMA athlete in Malaysia, with the likes of aforementioned Ann, there are also Audreylaura, Kelvin Ong, Hisyam Samsudin, Allen Solomon Chong.

Ann Osman and her coach AJ Pyro

Kota Kinabalu is also fastly becoming the fight capital of Borneo with many local promotion being held here, such as STAND, JFL, FIGHT FEST, SGQ, RAMPAGE FC and COPA DE BORNEO

By having the tryout in Kota Kinabalu will certainly help promote this tropical city to more people and position Kota Kinabalu as a good spot for combat sports tourism. Sabah's has so much to offer, with its friendly people and the natural beauty ranging from lush green jungle, mesmerising coral to the majestic Mount Kinabalu, it's a heaven for tourist.

Sabah has the historical heritage of the native warrior tribe that practice headhunting in the old days.  This surely will be a subject that Rich Franklin and team will want to find out more about.

Aside from that, I bet the deliciously fresh seafood and the tantalising local Kadazan Dusun dishes will be on Rich Franklin's menu.

In Bangkok, Rich ate scorpion, perhaps when in Kota Kinabalu he will try the sago worm ( inset picture ).

On 23 FEB, the screening and tryouts process will consist of pad sessions, grappling demonstrations, conditioning exams, and an interview process, among others.
Those interested for the tryouts can come walk in on that day or register earlier
( click here to register )

( click here for Borneo Tribal Squad  location ) 

Things to prepare:

• Athletic attire
• MMA gloves and focus mitts or Thai pads
• A coach to hold pads and a grappling partner
• Passport
• A translator if you are unable to speak English

Rich (left) with Jonathan Fong and guest judges; Thai MMA stars Rika Ishige and Shanon Wiratchai (on the right ) briefing the prospect in Bangkok

Physical preparation is one thing, come mentally prepared too as the team will interview you too to evaluate your mindset

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, 

follow them on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, 

and like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONEChampionship.

with Rich Franklin in ONE Championship KL

HISYAM SAMSUDIN - A VICTORY MORE PRECIOUS THAN A TITLE BELT

When I first met Hisyam, he struck me as a very courteous gentlemen. He conduct himself admirably and speak with respect and politeness. Surely his parents have done the right things bringing up this young man.

With his friendly attitude, I was mildly surprise that he is an active fighter, not only in the ring but also in the cage. In boxing there's a certain amount of control and respect. But in MMA, you need that ferociousness and that killer instinct  to survive a fight, let alone winning it. Hisyam seems to be more fitting as a boxer than a MMA fighter, but he proof to be best at both.

Hisyam with AJ Pyro

Train under the watchful eyes of AJ Pyro of Borneo Tribal Squad in Kota Kinabalu, Hisyam has grown into the sports that he started as a way to lose weight. His successful story of overcoming an overweight problem in his teenage years has been widely cover in the media.

Growing up overweight during the formative years of a teenagers is certainly tough especially when teenagers are so occupied by external qualities. To be able to overcome this shows the first sign of the resilient of Hisyam.

Hisyam in his FMD3 fight (pix by Singapore Maven) 

His pro MMA career began in the land of Muaythai in Full Metal Dojo 3. Victorious against a Thai in their home ground is no small feat. Hisyam took home the debut win with a TKO in round 1. His second outing in FMD 7 didn't went his way as a bad cut in the early rounds affected his focus, he lost with a unanimous decision to a local Thai with a record of more than 200 Muaythai fights.

Given the fight name Zephyrus by AJ, Hisyam took to his nick name like the west wind itself. He train all year round and is always ready. In Feb 2016, taking up a short notice fight, he was one of the four boxers fighting for the Super-4 WBF Asia Pacific Light Heavyweight Title belt at Singapore Fighting Championship 2. Among the pro boxers were Singaporean hero Syafiq Samad and Filipino warrior Richard Corminal and Malaysian young buck Ridzuan Dahari.

winning the WBF Asia Pac belt

Being the lightest among the four does not bother Hisyam. He fought and won a  technical fight vs Richard and in the title fight, although both him and Ridzuan was out of gas, but Hisyam was able to dig deep and emerge as the Champion, becoming the first Malaysian to win a international boxing belt.

Hisyam is one of the coaches in Borneo Tribal Squad, but when he gets a break he would travel back to his home town Tawau in the east coast of Sabah. He love to hang out with his young nephews. They look up to him as a role model. Back home in Tawau he spends as much time as he can with his family.

The BTS fight team

His parents now supports him fully in his fight career. Initially they voiced their concern and worries as they can't bear the thoughts of their son getting hurt. Hisyam, through his dedication and passion to martial arts manage to convince his parents that he prepares himself very well before entering any fight, hence reducing the risk of injury,...infact he may be the one inflicting the injuries.

This year AJ has been busy planning and arranging fights for his stable of pro athletes in BTS. In Sept a deal was seal for Hisyam for his ONE Championship debut. Although fighting in the preliminaries card, it was certainly a high profile debut as his opponent is Muhd Aiman who's name is propel up in the MMA scene being the fighters that enter MIMMA 3 times and won it on his 3rd try.

Hisyam vs Aiman - (pix by Eddie Chan)

I was cage side during that fight. It was a barn burner. Aiman being more swift and all rounder, Hisyam seems to be running low on fuel after being tire out by Aiman's pressure on the cage. Hisyam's didn't give up. With his parents watching on the side, he dig deep and towards the end of fight, executing a reverse elbow that almost knocked-out Aiman, but the fight ended with a 3 round victory for Aiman.

After that debut in ONE, he took a short break in Tawau, spending time with his parents.

Then it was back to BTS to resume training, polishing his striking and brushing up on his ground skills In the process earning his BJJ blue belt from Prof Adam Kayoom last month.

with Prof Adam Kayoom

Time for him to enter the cage again, as AJ managed to get him a fight in the Jakarta cards of ONE Championship Total Victory. This time in the main card, going against Indonesian Jeremy Meciaz. Jeremy is Indonesia's national grappling champion. Fighting in Jakarta is a very intimidating experience as the war cry of Indonesian supporters are well known to unnerve even the most season fighters.

Hisyam was fighting on 16 Sept 2017. A significant date for Malaysian especially from the Borneon states as this is the date 54 years ago, that Sabah together with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya came together to form Malaysia.

Also going into this fight, Hisyam carry on his shoulder the burden of erasing the memory of the hi-light reel lost of his coach AJ to Dutch Indonesian Anthony Engelan in Jakarta in January this year.

He also need to wipe out the image of being the nice guy, lacking killer instinct.

But Hisyam take all this with stride. Fight camp went very well for him and cutting weight was smooth, he was full of confident and eager to record a win in the oval cage.

His parents flew in to Jakarta to support him, getting themselves cage side seats to cheer on Hisyam. Thursday weigh in was done and he was happy to have his parent around, able to joke and have light moments with them to get his mind away from the pressure of the fight.

Then a message from his mother on Friday morning asking him to come to the hospital to see his father, broke his quiet morning. Hisyam did not expect anything serious. On the back of his mind, he was thinking that his father was perhaps exhausted from the travelling.

As he arrived at the hospital, the feelings changed. He was told of the sorrowful news that his father has pass on. What a shock this news was to his mind. His father was only 66 and without any illness,... Hisyam could not accept this lost.

His first thought was to cancel the fight, go home and be with his mother. But his mother knew that his father would not want Hisyam to give up. He came to see him win, maybe physically he is now not able to do so, but spiritually he is with Hisyam and the fight must go on.

The last photo Hisyam father the late Mr Samsudin  took on Thursday in Jakarta

Hisyam made the decision to keep all this news to him and his family only. The only one outside his family that he informed was coach AJ. He didn't even inform ONE Championship management, as he does not want pity and does not want to give excuse to cancel the fight.

His mother and family made arrangement for his father's body to be sent back and made funeral arrangements. They ask him to focus on getting the win in memory of his father.

No one knew how much pressure and mental anguish was in Hisyam's head when he enter the cage to face Jeremy. The sound of booing from the crowds as Hisyam name was introduced, was enough to discourage anyone.

AJ whom has seen him grow from an overweight kid to 'Zephyrus' was a pillar of strength, as he look into Hisyam eyes, without saying much, but it was enough to calm Hisyam down and allow Hisyam mind to focus on the task at hand.



They have studied Jeremy before from his first fight as he rushed his opponent. Thinking he won't do the same mistake, initially it surprised Hisyam that Jeremy followed the same game plan as he leap across the cage and charge at Hisyam trying to connect with a flying knee.

Both exchanged furious strikes, aggressively change position as both tries to exert control. The fight went to the ground and as Hisyam tries to escape Jeremy immediately uses his grappling prowess to attack Hisyam's leg. Locking in tight for leg locks and variations of heel hook. The crowd went wild cheering on Jeremy as he relentlessly trying to break Hisyam's leg.

Hisyam can hear his knee cracking, he tries to drown the noise of the Indonesian crowd with the thoughts of his father. He then visualized his father's face in front of him, he can hear his voice cheering him on, drowning out the Indonesian supporters noise.

Deep in his heart, he knew that he needs to stay calm and change position to release the pressure and buying time and wait till Jeremy tires up.

The plan worked, as soon as his leg was free, Hisyam took side control and rained damaging knees on Jeremy's head. A couple more impactful elbows to Jeremy's face finally urged the referee to stop the fight at 2:47 Round 1.

Pix by Singapore Maven - David Ash

What a triumphant win that was for Hisyam, as all the emotion now rushes to his mind, the sorrow of his father's passing mixed with the joy of bringing home the win.

In his victory speech, barely holding back his tears, Hisyam revealed to all present that the win was dedicated to his father that just pass away the day before. Viewers was taken aback and now understand that indeed a victory like this means more than winning any championship belt.

Hisyam does not have a specific special memories of his father, to him every moment with him was special. He wants to have more fights to established himself, to slowly climb up the featherweight category and to eventually one day become the Champion.

Hisyam meaningful win is a story that I hope will give motivation and inspire readers out there to never give up, to not have excuses, to fight against all odds.

with his beloved mother

He celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday 20 Sept 2017. Even though without his father by his side, his mother's and other family members celebrated with him and reminded him that the only way to make his father proud is to keep on fighting.

AJ and his BTS team members are always there too to support him all the way, and Warriors of Borneo will always be here to chart his journey of becoming a world champion one day.

Happy Birthday Hisyam!

Hisyam proudly wearing the BTS fight shorts ; sporting the ethnic native motifs of Sabah

HISYAM SAM: WANTS TO BE THE AGGRESOR

On 16 Sept 2017, Malaysia will celebrate it's 54 years of formation. On that day in 1963, Sabah together with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore came together to form the federation of Malaysia.

On this Saturday as we Malaysians celebrate the historic date, Sabahan Hisyam Sams will be on a mission in Jakarta to make that date not only a day to celebrate Malaysia day, but also a day for him to celebrate his first victory in ONE Championship oval cage.

Hisyam represent Borneo Tribal Squad base in Kota Kinabalu. He is trained by ONE Championship Malaysian national featherweight champion AJ Pyro. Hisyam debut in the oval cage last year Sept against fellow Malaysian, MIMMA champion Muhd Aiman. It was a 3 round hard battle which goes to Aiman.

Hisyam story of going against the odds from a overweight kid to a pro MMA fighter has captured many headlines and inspired many youth to believe in themselves to succeed. 

Warriors of Borneo talked to Hisyam as he prepare for this Saturday.

Any difference in your training compare to your first fight?

The difference between this fight and my first ONE fight is that this time I am more prepared and ready to fight in such a big event. 

What did you learn from that first fight?

From my last fight with Aiman, I learned that I don't have much aggression going into the fight. 

After the fight with Aiman, I was doing the usual. I train everyday and teaching classes at the BTS. Because of injuries I need to have a good rest before going to fight again. 

What do you think of ONE Championship featherweight category?

There's a lot of good fighters in the category. I think it is the most exciting category to watch in ONE. 

I've heard a comment before that you are one of the nicest person in MMA. That you are not aggressive enough, what do you think of that?

Yes that's actually my biggest problem. I was too nice even with my opponent. But that's old news now. I've been through a lot. This fight I will let go my killer instinct to get the win. 

Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS)has experience a number of losses recently, how do you and team deal with this?

Yes we have been some few losses. But that's natural. That's sport. You can win and you can lose. 

We just have to learn from the past fight and improve on the next. That's how we manage the losses. 

You also have been training in Tawau right?

Yes I have been to Tawau training there. It's was just me spending my time in Tawau while taking a holiday. But for the fight I train in BTS. Here I have many elite teammates who know how to train with me. Coach AJ also helping me to push myself and getting that killer instinct out.

with AJ Pyro

Hisyam with his BTS team mates

promoted to Blue Belt by Prof Adam Kayoom last week

Hisyam will be facing a newcomer Jeremy Meciaz. Jeremy record is 0-1-0, and he will be looking to improve on that with the home crowd support.

Warriors of Borneo wishes Hisyam the best in Jakarta!

THREE MALAYSIAN QUEST FOR GLORY IN HEX FIGHT SERIES 10

World's attention will be on MMA on 29 July 2017 as the much anticipated UFC214 will feature the rematch of Daniel Cormier vs Jon Jones in California. At the same day in Washington, the rebirth of World Series of Fighting ( WSOF ) to Professional Fighters League will see it's first event being held with a featherweight title fight.

But on the other side of the world, in Perth Australia, MMA fans will be feasted to a 12 bouts pro MMA fight in Hex Fight Series 10, that will feature fighters from around the region.

Notably for Malaysia, 3 MMA athletes will do combat in the Australian hexagon.

2 will be from Sabah's Borneo Tribal Squad; Allen Solomon Chong and Edilah Johanny.
Allen will fight in a catchweight bout of 59kg vs Perth home boy Ryan Robertson. Edilah will also face a local from Perth, Kim Piper. Another Malaysian is Sam Chan from Kuala Lumpur. He will face Suman Mokhtarian.

Allen is no stranger in the Malaysian MMA scene. With background in TaeKwon-Do Allen discovered BJJ when he was studying in Australia. He brought back BJJ to his home state Sabah and practically started a BJJ craze among the martial art fraternity there. He went on to formed the first BJJ association in Malaysia and organizes many tournament that grew the sports in Malaysia.

He made his name winning the lightweight title in Asia biggest amateur tournament, MIMMA 1 back in 2013. Went on to be the only South East Asian to be selected for UFC's The Ultimate Fighter China.

Allen went on the fight in the local promotions. Earning himself a 3-2-0 record as of date. One of the lost comes from Aussie Aidan Auguilera in Hex Fight Series 6. That was a fight Allen took in a very short notice. He is determined to erase that KO lost and return to the hexagon cage fully prepared to continue his two fight winning streak.

He is well prepared this time around. Fight camp at Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS) under coach AJ Pyro has been great improvement for him. BTS with it's stable of pro fighters gave Allen plenty of quality sparring and a mean conditioning work from CrossFit 1722.

Allen's opponent, Ryan Robertson is eager to showcase his skills at home in Western Australia's first caged event in since the ban was recently lifted. Robertson's 2 MMA wins have both come via stoppage, with 1 submission and 1 knockout. He will look to showcase more of those well rounded skills for his hometown fans. He believe his striking skills will be the key to victory.

watch the pre fight promo video 

Edilah Nadrah Johanny, Allen's team mate from Borneo Tribal Squad is debuting her pro fight in Perth. Fondly call Ila by her friends, this Dusun girl from the town of Ranau at the foothills of Mt Kinabalu has been athletic since young. Picked up TaeKwon-Do as a kid and participated in local tournaments. Entering secondary schools she moved to track & field. 

It was Ann Osman ( Malaysia's 1st female pro MMA fighter ) that inspired Ila to pick up martial arts again. At first she joined Ann's own gym Fitness Rites, eventually her hunger to fight moved her to join Borneo Tribal Squad, as team mates of Ann. She participated in Kickboxing and Muaythai tournament but at BTS, AJ trained his fighters to be well rounded and eventually Ila got into MMA.

Carrying the nickname Fire Storm given by her coach AJ Pyro, Ila may be small in size but Ila has an explosive style of fighting. But her mind is always calms even when she is pull into the deep ends. This comes from her attitude as a scientist. Ila is studying for her masters in Biodiversity and Biosytematic. Researching on insects require her to be details, analytical and have lots of patience.

Across the hexagon cage to Ila will be Kim Piper. At 40 years of age, she is still fighting fit. A personal trainer at Evolution MMA, Perth, she ply her trade in Eternal MMA with a two amateur victory. Standing at 160 cm Kim will have height and reach advantage over Ila.

Kim's pro debut will have rousing support from Australian as she is also the founder of Sxy MMA. A company that provides ring card models and glamorous fitness models for fight events in Australia. 

As for the third Malaysian on the card, it's Sam Chan. Representing Vim Fight Team, this is Sam's 2nd fight after a long lay off. He just competed in WBC Boxing match in Kuala Lumpur last month. 

Sam's was one of the pioneer of Malaysian MMA. In those early days there was no MMA gym. Sam was training here and there switching places, learning different arts from different coaches and developing his own fighting styles. As he got into business, he was off training for awhile but decided to live back his glory days of fighting. 

It's going to be an uphill task for Sam as his opponent Suman Moktharian is on a 6 fight winning streak with zero loss. Suman made headlines at Hex Fight Series 9 when he choked out Magana Kiewon with a dazzling Teepee Triangle. The submission marked a world first for MMA, and created ripples throughout the globe. The history making choke hold was acknowledged by the likes of world class UFC coach & grappling wizard, Eddie Bravo. 

Now, the Australian Top Team prospect will look to put on another thrilling performance when he fights Sam Chan.

watch the 1st Tepee submission in MMA 

Founder & promoter of Hex Fight Series, Charles Fernandez is very excited for this 10th edition, and first time in Perth after the ban on cage fighting was lifted recently.

MMA fight in cage was illegal in Perth and in Melbourne, since 2013 and 2008 respectively, whilst the bans were in place, MMA matches were conducted  in a traditional boxing ring. But due to complaint of safety from fighters and the raising awareness of UFC and MMA generally globally, with the fact that Australian has produce MMA athletes like Anthony Perosh, Mark Hunt and most recently Robert Whitaker winning the UFC's interim middleweight title has changed the mind of decision maker.

UFC has hold events in Sydney and Melbourne before and with the ban lifted Perth is already in their radar and this will surely bring lots of attention to Western Australia. 

As for Hex, Charles said that in 2017, Hex has already completed two events in Mach and June; and looking to staged 5 events altogether ( as per dates below ).

• July 29 - Hex 10
• Sept 1 - Hex 11
• Nov 24 - Hex 12

Charles continue to add that MMA has plenty of room for growth still in Australia, and at this stage he is looking to accomplish more within Australia but there are future plans for the region.

Charles is particularly proud to have Robert Whitaker in Hex Fight Series 10.

"Rob will attend as a special guest of Hex Fight Series. He will open the cage at the event and he is excited to attend. There will also be an opportunity for fans to get a photo and meet Australia’s first UFC champion."

Malaysian and other outside Australia fight fans can log onto EPICENTER TV for live streaming