STAND - Time for The Junior to Come Out and Play

The rush beating of hearts, the hurried breathing from nervousness, heads spinning with so many thoughts of what you should or should not do...these are the feelings many experience before especially when they want to get in the ring to face their opponent. Most of this feeling is because of lack of experience. Usually after a few fights, most will learn how to deal with it and learn from the pass and move forward.

This is what STAND wants to achieve. To build the younger generation of fighters by giving them opportunity to fight. Fight among their peers, not someone older with more experience.

STAND Junior edition orgarnised by Karabaw and sponsored by Borneo Majubina and supported by MILO will go down this Saturday 20 May at Karabaw HQ gym in 88 Marketplace, Kota Kinabalu.

According to STAND founder Rayner Kinsiong, this is the first time in Malaysia Junior Title Belt are up for grab in 10 categories for boys and girls. The winners will need to defend their Title Belt in future STAND Junior event.

The fights are sanction by ISKA ( International Sports Karate Association ) and will be 2 mins x 3 rounds with 1 minute rest in between rounds, with amateur rules. Open to only fighters age below 18. Head gear, mouth guard and shin guard is a must to keep all fighters safe.

Team Karabaw Tamparuli, their Junior ready to come out and play!

STAND Junior edition will the fifth STAND event being organised. The original idea began with having a kickboxing event to be the platform to unearth and develop new talent in combat sports. Kickboxing under K1 rules are chosen because it uses rules that can benefit all type of stylist. Practioner of different style, such as Taekwon-Do, Karate, Silat, Kung Fu, Muaythai can get in the ring and compete in a common rules fight.

Rayner is very proud of the achievement and the progression of STAND so far, but he still harbour much hope that the state sports ministry are able to see the positive impact they are doing to the young people, and hope that the ministry will come in and support this effort.

He said he received many request from different districts such as Sandakan, Tambunan and Keningau to have STAND organised in their place because lots of people can see that STAND are able to move more young people to learn martial arts, to be active and live a healthy lifestyle.

He would love to full-fill their request, but obviously financing it is the biggest challenge. Organising a combat sports tournament is not a way to earn money. Many times he has to sacrifice his own time and invest his own money into making it happen. And he said without the constant supports from his family and his Karabaw family, STAND would not be what it is today.

MILO supporting the development of Junior Kickboxers. Myself with Rayner handing over the sponsored MILO

And most importantly too, is to have sponsors that are equally passionate about the event they are involve in. This is where he said he is very thankful to have Borneo Majubina Aidil Zakuan believing in the same objective and supporting the same cause as he does which together they have build STAND.

STAND is only in it's 2nd year, it is still in a developing stage but is surely charting it's course to have more events this year and years to come. With the support of all party, STAND hopes to make Borneo a powerhouse in Kickboxing, not just in producing more talents but also to become the premier Kickboxing event in Borneo.

Fight Fest to open the 2017 fight calender in Sabah

Usually the year end and beginning of the year is a busy time eating, feasting and holidaying...year end most people took leave to enjoy the holidays, Christmas and celebrating the coming of the new year. As we enter 2017, school starts and most people are back into the daily motion of work. Then, eating and feasting again was the main activities as Chinese new year celebration started last week on 28 Jan. 

But for some, during the pass few months, it was a time to prepare for battle as they train for their K1 Kickboxing match in Fight Fest. Happening at Likas Sports Complex, this is part of a bigger event which is the UNITAR-SIDMA Sports Carnival. This sports carnival will also feature other activities such as fun run, functional fitness competition, dance fitness and more.

It's going to be a busy martial arts weekend at Likas Sports Complex as Sabah Karate Association is also kick-starting their competition calender with their 16th edition of the Sabah State Cadet, Junior and Under-21 Karate Championship at the Badminton Hall of Likas Sports Complex.

FIGHT FEST - SIDMA K1 Kickboxing Championship is dubbed Young Guns as this is a tournament for fighters with less than 7 fight records and those that has not represented their state or the national team and not for finalist of pass Fight Fest.

The main objective according to organising chairman Johan Julian of Kinabalu Fighters is to give opportunity for new talent to test their skills, gain experience and ultimately to expose them more in a tournament with level playing field in terms of experience.

2016 was a breakthrough year for Fight Fest as it managed to organised a Martial Art Business Summit, the first of such event in this region and the hugely successful Fight Fest 3 : Kingdom Comes which combined MMA, Kickboxing and grappling tournament together with Cosplay and Dance Fitness activities

Fight Fest Business Summit speakers and participants 

Fight Fest 3...by the numbers

Julian said 2017 will be another exciting year for Fight Fest and this colloboration with SIDMA College is one of the events he has planned to grow the K1 Kickboxing sports among new comers in martial arts. 

The ultimate aim is to work with ISKA to make Borneo the power house of K1 Kickboxing in this region. This is will be done with the cooperation with other event organisers such as STAND and Borneo Amatuer Challenge of Labuan

Julian with SIDMA College representative

In 3 Jan, Julian was invited to give a talk on Fight Fest at Webcamp KK ( a gathering of people from various industry and background to share experience and passion on different subjects ). Julian shared with attendees on how he started Fight Fest, the challenges he goes through and the aspiration of one day seeing fighters that participated in Fight Fest making it big in the global martial arts scene.

Fight Fest - SIDMA K1 Weigh in was completed on Thursday and 18 categories will be competed. As of Thursday 125 fighters has registered. This is a good numbers despite having this competition just shortly after all the year end celebration and Chinese new year.

Cruz Fitness team at the weigh in

This competition is sanction under ISKA and ISKA Borneo representative Alvin Chong will be on the lookout for potential talent to be featured in the semi-pro cards of the National K1 Tourney schedule to be held at the end of the year.

Come and join in the fun at UNITAR-SIDMA Fitness Carnival and do drop by the boxing ring to watch great Kickboxing action. Worry about parking? Call for GRAB ride and reduce your headaches. 

Warriors of Borneo wishing all the fighters best of luck, fight hard, fight smart, fight with all your heart!

Layout of the event. Located at the Carpark to the jogging track , Likas Sports Complex

STAND 3: Kickin' it at Keningau

STAND is back with Kickboxing action to entertain us this weekend 26-27 Nov 2016, in the interior town of Keningau Sabah. This time it's for series 3 and it's held in conjunction with The Crocker Range Festival (TCRF ).

Started on 24 Nov, TCRF is a festival with plethora of events and activities such as Fitness Concert, Local Artist performance, Ms Crocker Range, Arm Wrestling, Fun Run and a whole lot more. And Kickboxing and boxing will be part of this fun and action packed festival.

STAND has established itself as a Kickboxing events that tie in with family carnival. Started with the 1st series at Nexus Karambunai Resort in April this year, erecting a boxing ring next to the beautiful beach of Karambunai, with few food & drinks stalls surrounding it really gives this fight event a different feel, a relax atmosphere that fighters can fight, and their supporters and family and chill out enjoying the cool breeze from the sea.

STAND Series 1

The series 2 continued this concept where STAND was part of the beach festival in Siok Bah Karnival in September, at Tg.Lipat Beach which gives good exposure to K1 Kickboxing to wider audience and a good platform for newcomer to gain experience.

Series 2

As part of a WSOF affiliated event , the organiser, TEAM KARABAW has announced a full calender for 2017 which will see 3 tournament held in April, June and September, which will lead to the year end closing of a Super series at November.

Keningau is around 109 Km away from Kota Kinabalu and takes 1.5 hour car ride via the Kimanis route which is steep but very scenic mountainous road that traverse through Sabah's back bone; the Crocker Range.

Although it's a distance away but as the founder of STAND, Sensei Rayner Kinsiong has a close affinity to Keningau; as this is his home town. He always wanted to do something for his home town. So bringing a home grown and internationally affiliated martial arts event is really the best thing to do.

Aside from being the only Kickboxing promotions affiliated to WSOF, STAND is also a ISKA sanction event. ISKA representative of Borneo, Alving Chong will be present to guide the officials.

STAND 3 highlight will be the Super 8 70kg title fight. The fighter to watch out for is Anil Mehta from Team Relentless India. Sabah has been a successful place for Anil, with him winning the STAND series 2 Light Welterweigh title in September. He again was victorious in Fight Fest 3, winning the ISKA K1 Fight Fest 65kg title belt in October. Now for the 3rd month in a row, he is back in Sabah for fight. Will he win again for third time?

Anil's is expected to win his first fight against Lu Yi Ran of D-30. Lu may lack the experience compare to Anil, but what he lacks there he make it up with a never say die attitude.

Nidal Mahmood from Sampuri Gym will also be a fighter to watch in this Super 8. He won in STAND series 1 and is back with high intention to bring the belt back to Kuala Lumpur. Nidal is a muay thai specialist and will be capitalizing his long reach to score against Ronoldo Liew of Borneo Tiger MMA. Liew is no slouch, he has very heavy hands and may give Nidal trouble if he close the distance and connect in the pocket.

Another prospect is Mohd Eswandy from Gymbox, Kuching. Another muaythai specialist, Eswandy also dabbled in MMA and did well in reaching MIMMA 4 Semi-finals this year fighting at lightweight.

Eswandy will face Ronnie of Naga Kinabalu in the prelim.

For female showdown the high light will be the K1 Super Fight at 52kg between Shaznieffah of Team Karabaw vs Ainah of Team Revolution. Judging from pass female fights, usually they give their all out and sometimes are more relentless than their male counterparts. So with this fight promises plenty of fireworks!

According to Kaza Musa who arranges the fight card for STAND, 22 team has registered, with 80 fighters confirmed for showdown. 70 participating in amatuer K1 Kickboxing and another 10 for amatuer boxing.

Keningau MMA ( KMMA ) lead by Mohd Bakri,  this time will be sending 15 fighters, 13 for kickboxing and 2 for boxing. KMMA has been very active in participating in local fight events. Participating in fights in other town is always a challenge due to the long travel by car. But this time it's at their base and they have been preparing very intensely and expect a fine showing from KMMA.

Anil Mehta has spend time at KMMA to exchange some training tips and KMMA will be cornering him for the Super 8 fight

As for the new team of Kinabalu Kings lead by Bee Jay will be sending 9 fighters. As a new team that was just formed in feb this year, they have doing well in Kickboxing events. At STAND 1 winning 3 Gold and 2 silver, STAND 2, 2 Gold and 2 silver, BAC Labuan 3 Gold 2 silver and most recently in October - Fight Fest 3, 7 Gold 2 silver.

With a few muaythai champion in the team such as Faizal Boy Kicap, Reyan Abdul and Ben Banetto, which trains the newcomer, Kinabalu Kings has won the Inter-Club Muaythai in Sept at Sandakan. According to Bee Jay, his team comprises 2 newcomer and the other 7 fighters have no more than 4 fights in their record. He is looking to develop them further, but also confident that they will achieve the 4 gold he has set.

Fighters weigh in has been done at Friday and fight day in on 26-27 Nov. Let's show support for the fighters and cheer them on and support local fight events that bring fight action to us!

All the best to the fighters and organiser for a great STAND 3!

AN INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIO BATTISTESSA

If you see a tall, lean "orang putih" ( Caucasian ) whom is a regular at martial arts event. Go say hello. His name is Antonio Battistessa. Antonio is the founder of Sabah Top Team and the head instructor of Brazilian Luta Livre (BLL) Malaysia. 

Being an active fighter before, his wide knowledge in martial arts is well acknowledge where many martial arts events here regularly invite him as a referee or judge. He is also a well sought after instructor to conduct striking or grappling seminar.

His itinerary is tight lately. He just finished a BLL seminar at Keningau MMA and is preparing for BLL free seminar / grading tomorrow at Fight Fest 3 @  Suria Sabah and also preparing his team for competition. STT will be sending 8 fighters to compete in Fight Fest

Warriors of Borneo is glad to able to catch up with Antonio despite his busy schedule

Hi Coach Antonio, tell readers a bit about your background
I'm born in Pescara Italy. Currently 36 years young...: )

Pescara is 2 hours drive from Roma in the East Cost. It’s a sea side city and the mountain is only 1 hour drive away and it’s incredible because we can ski in the winter and swim in the summer.

Tell us about your martial arts journey.

In 1997 I have been in Japan for 1 month visiting a friend and I saw the PRIDE (MMA) on TV, it was love at first sight….

Unfortunately I could not find any MMA gym 19 years ago so I decided to start training in Muay Thai. The name of the gym was “Karate Do” it was a Karate Gym and my friend Massimiliano Violante was the Muay Thai Instructor.

How did you came to this part of the world?
I have always been fascinated by Asia especially South East Asia and my dream was to travel to all parts of S.E. Asia. So in 2001 at 21 yrs young, I travel to Phuket. I was there for 2 weeks but soon I come back to Italy after 1 month I fly back to Thailand, I have been there for 4 years.

During these 4 years a lot of things happened, I started my business and I started to seriously train and fight in Muay Thai competition. I had 8 pro fight in Thailand.

At that time, fights in Thailand were not like now. Fighting a foreigner was like a big thing for the local Thai fighters. Foreigners were like meat. The Thais take great pride winning over foreigners 

You never know who you going to meet and how strong your opponent is going to be. It was always a surprise, you may be matched with some one whom has 100 fight records before. It was never easy. 

Now martial art becomes one of the best tourist business in Phuket. And event organizers and gyms are more careful with the match making, so that they won't scare the foreigners away.

Muay thai is life

So what was your best memories when you were in Thailand?
Among the amazing memories of fighting, I also got few sad memories.

I was living in Phuket when the tsunami hit. It was December 2004…I lost some of my friends and the economy collapsed. 

At that time I was running a bar near the beach and it was completely destroyed by the waves. Luckily I was alive and my fighting spirit help me to overcome the bad situation. So I took over a guest house and I started an Italian restaurant, it was hard for a while but I managed to survived.

Several months after the Tsunami the economy started to pick up so I was able to sell the business and moved back to Italy in 2005.

From 2005 to 2007 I was working and studying and whenever I got few weeks off and enough money saved, I grabbed my backpack and travel to S.E.Asia.

I was working hard and doing 2 or 3 job so I could pay for my studies and afford my holidays.

In that period I was still training Muay Thai but I also started to explore other Martial arts. 

I trained Wrestling with a Ukrainian coach, I trained Kali Arnis / Escrima; a wonderful Philippine Martial arts using knives and rattan stick. 

And I was working out with kettlebell probably the best workout tools I ever used. As well I was doing Parkour and Kite surfing…I was very active as always I have been in my life.

Living an active lifestyle

Finally in 2007 I found an MMA gym and I started Vale Tudo training (traditional MMA from Brazil without gloves and with most of the technique allowed).

The Instructor name was Maurizio D’Aloia. The gym name at that time was Elite Gym now changed to Fight Clubbing.

Since that day, I never stop training MMA and Brazilian Luta Livre and together with my coach and team we join many competitions: Boxing, K1, Muay Thai, Grappling, MMA with great result for the team.

It is consider one of the best MMA gym in Italy with some athlete World and European ISKA pro champion in K1 and several MMA Italian champion titles won, now one of the fighter is been selected for Bellator.

I was lucky to grown up in a great gym with a great coach. my experience definately recieved a great boost.

So how did you end up in Sabah?
During this period in 2006 I met my wife Barbara, she is Sabahan. Her mom from Kota Belud and father from Kampung Kiau at the foothills of Mountain Kinabalu. 

I meet her online first using skype because I was collecting info about Sabah for my next travel. We met up in Kuala Lumpur and my stay in KL from 3 days planned was extended for 10 days. That was the beginning of our life together, she become my life partner and we shared many good memories and many wonderful travel together.

In 2007 I started my own business in Italy and I took over a restaurant / club named “Hosteria del 3° Cerchio” , I had this business until 2 years ago 2014. 

I usually close for summer break with 3 months holiday since during Summer in Italy the night life move to the sea side only, so from June to Aug, I have nearly 3 months off, that I could spend travelling.

So you took that time to travel to Sabah?

Yes, I came to Sabah for Holidays with Barbara in 2007

How did you got involve with the local martial arts scene?

I was looking for a place to train MMA to keep active, and I found Trinity Self Defense.  When I introduce myself to ask the permission to train in the gym, the owner Mr. Faresh Onn ask me if I could teach Muay Thai, so I accepted and for 3 months I teach Muay Thai, it was the first Muay Thai class in all Sabah, there was no Muay Thai trainer and class that time, we were the pioneer.

Teaching at Trinity Self Defense in 2007

Among my students at that times there was few name that become icon in the martial arts scene in Sabah some of them become pro fighters and coaches with great result, so proud of them.

Some of the names: AJ Pyro, Azrin Kadri, Genn Lai, Faresh, Neil Stephen among the first batch of around 15 students.

At Trinity Self Defense. Among the pioneers. AJ Pyro (left), Genn Lai (2nd from left), Azrin Kadri ( 3rd frm left) 

So you didn't want to go back Italy?
Since 2007 I always spend at least half of my holiday period in Sabah . Between 2007-2014 I was a roving trainer. I taught in various gym around KK, giving seminars, PT, Muay Thai and MMA classes.

In 2014 finally I moved to Sabah and for 1 year I had the pleasure to work with some of the best gym ie; Kuda Hitam, Kinabalu Fighters, BTS, Alpha MMA, Karabaw, Cruz Fitness etc

Giving training and seminar during his days as a roving trainer

What about Sabah Top Team, when did this came to fruition?

In 2015, I decided to open my own gym, I scouted a few place and discussed with a few potential partner, but in the end I decided to do it on my own and got a venue in Taman Millenium, on top of CKS Supermarket. That's the birth of SABAH TOP TEAM.

Sabah Top Team at Plaza Grand Millenium

How was the response when you first open?
The response of the people was quite good since the beginning and in 1 year of activity we were able to double the number of the members. What makes me really happy was, that we were able to create a community of family.

Now we have around 100 active members but when we organize a party even the non active members will come back to have fun together.




I see that now STT even offer dance class.

2016 July after the first year, STT got a boost and we decided to open a studio next door so we can perform some extra classes base on the high demand of the people. So we started Yoga, Zumba, Piloxing, Hip-Hop dance and Latin Dance.





What does the future hold for STT?
SABAH TOP TEAM now is at only 50% of my vision and soon as I can I will push the gym to the next stage

You went to Brazil to learn more about BLL, share with readers the experience there.
I start practice Luta Livre since I start to train in Vale Tudo / MMA so back in 2007 but I was more active doing MMA, not as a grappler.  

So in 2011 I went for the first time in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro…..it was amazing! There are so many gyms and the level is so high. I was there for 3 months and I had the pleasure to train with the fathers of Luta Livre “Roberto Leitao” and “Joao Ricardo” owner of Academia Budokan RJ

with Roberto Leitoa of Academia Budokan

Even with my 4 years experience, in Brazil it was like being the last of the class but I love the feeling. I love being a white belt forever because I want to learn as much as I can. The learning process never ends, this is what I love about martial arts.

That period in Brazil was the beginning of a great relationship with the fathers of Luta livre…it was amazing! I trained in the best LL gym in RJ and I meet many extraordinary fighters/grapplers. 

I trained in RFT with Master Cromado, in Rio Fighters with Milton Vieria, Hugo Duarte (the General of LL) and Master Joao Ricardo (Academia Budokan RJ). He rewarded me with the brown belt in LL. It is an honor receiving the belt from Master Joao and to represent LL in SEA.


Can you share with readers on BLL so that they understand more about it.
BRAZILIAN LUTA LIVRE is an independent martial arts with origin, history and roots back to the Greek Pankration and wrestling, unfortunately it get often confused and simplified with BJJ NO GI, generalized and call it BJJ NO GI. This makes years of history disappear.

This is a common mistake and a wrong interpretation of the martial arts. BJJ is a great arts. Complex and beautiful but it was born with the GI and the GI is part of their roots. As for Luta livre, it was born with NO GI and it is a false saying I can do Luta Livre with GI as much as you can say BJJ NO GI.

Back in the past there was a war between BJJ and LL…politics killed the sports, luckily now there is a great respect from both side. To be a black belt require a lot of sacrifice and training in any martial arts.

What is your aspiration for Luta Livre?
My mission is to teach and develop LL in all SEA. Since 1 years ago we made huge steps towards this. 

Now we have 2 black belts directly from Brazil, one is Afonso Cego in Manila Philippines(Extreme Martial Arts) and Gustavo Muniz in Sibu, Sarawak (Borneo Top Team) 

Plus we have a brown Belt in Saigon, Vietnam, a brown belt in Hong Kong, 2 purple belts in Jakarta, several blue belts.

In Sabah there are 2 blue belts: Matt Buvvart of Keningau MMA, Julian Lee in Kinabalu Fighters, and Orange belt Ricky Cheong from Karabaw Sipitang and Rodzaimi from Karabaw Papar.

LL is growing up fast and strong. The reasons behind it in my opinion is the effectiveness of the arts, simple, sharp and aggressive.  

We prefer to play on top the opponent instead to keep our back on the ground, we train our wrestling and plus all our technique can easily been apply even if the opponent is extremely sweaty, slippery and hard to control, so you can see why it's very suitable for MMA; and MMA now is the fastest growing sport in the world, so LL really fit into the need.

Recently in early August, we had a Brazilian Luta Livre Summer camp for 1 week with 2 LL black Belts: Afonso Cego from Brazil and Nicholas Renier from France (World Champion) and The former coach of Philippines National Wrestling Team Violeto Agustin.

We had nearly 30 people joining from all over S.E.Asia and also from overseas (USA). We had a great impact and a wonderful feedback, next year will be even bigger.

If you want to learn more about LL, I will be conducting a  FREE LUTA LIVRE SEMINAR on 28 OCTOBER FRIDAY just before Fight Fest. It's free, so will be a good occasion for those interested to come and try LL.




Coming from your fight days in Thailand and Italy and surviving the tsunami, what is your principle on life? 
My moto is LIFE IS A FIGHT and even our Sabah Top Team T-Shirt got this sentence on the back. I believe Life keep giving us tests and obstacles and it’s like a fight. If you give up, you will lose So you have to keep fighting always.

Aside from your wife...hehe, what in Sabah that makes you like this place?
Sabah is a wonderfull place, full of nature with a good lifestyle. I am not comfortable in busy and chaotic metropolis. I prefer smaller cities and Kota Kinabalu is perfect for me. Furthermore local Sabahan are friendly and open minded and I feel more comfortable than when I was in Thailand.

You promote Italian food a lot through your cafe....do you yourself cook? What do you think of the standard of Italian food in Sabah?
We close the cafe because the commitment was too high and with 2 kids everything become more complicated. We decided to focus on the gym. 

I can cook, but the real chef is Barbara. She used to work as a chef in Italy so she knows perfectly how to cook Italian food. I am so lucky I can have it every day at home, that’s why I never eat Italian food out so I cannot judge the local standard.

What about local Sabahan ethnic food? Do u like it? What Asian food do you like why?
Yes I do I love it, I like noodles most; and among the ethnic food I like is Hinava.




Thank you sir for your time.

All the best for the seminar and STT's participation in Fight Fest 3