WBC Boxing Fest in Malaysia : Borneo & MIMMA Warriors Looking to Dominate

There's no doubt that in combat sports, MMA has grown tremendously. As the world fastest growing sports it has created waves through UFC in the west and ONE Championship in Asia. But recently Boxing is getting back into the headline.

The upcoming fight between superstar champion from the MMA & Boxing field. WBC ( World Boxing Council ) welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather whom is coming out of retirement to fight UFC Featherweight & Lightweight Champion, Conor McGregor, is grabbing attention everywhere.

MMA event lead by MIMMA is growing, with plenty of competitions in Johor, Sabah and KL. But Malaysia hasn't seen a pro boxing event since 1975. That was in Merdeka Stadium when Boxing legend, the late Muhammad Ali defended his WBC Heavyweight title against Joe Bugner.

Aside from 1998 when Boxer Sapok Biki of Sarawak winning the Commonwealth Games gold medal. Boxing has not made much headline in Malaysia.

In fact it is down south in Singapore that brought back the resurgence of Boxing for Malaysia. In Feb 2016 Fight promoter Arvind Lalwani through Singapore Fighting Championship, organises WBF ( World Boxing Federation ) boxing matches. Which saw Sabahan Hisyam Sam of Borneo Tribal Squad emerged as the 1st Malaysian to win a WBF Asia Pacific Light Heavyweight Title.

Then Ringstar promoter Scott O'Ferrel brought the UBO ( Universal Boxing Organisations ) matches to Singapore, which saw MIMMA Middleweight Champion Mirage Khan becoming the 1st Malaysian to win UBO Inter-Continental Light Heavyweight title in Feb this year, but did not manage to hold on to the belt when he lost it in May this year in a fight in Resort World Singapore.

To have a WBC event back in Kuala Lumpur, after 42 years absence, featuring Malaysian pro boxers is definitely a significant accomplishment for Malaysia's boxing scene. Boxing promoter, BOXRANX is able to do this and this truly mark a new beginning for boxing in Malaysia.

In preparation for this major event, WBC-OPBF organised a referees & judges seminar in Oct 2016 at MuayFit. WBC previously in Jan 2017 held an event in Johor Bahru where Malaysian Mohd Farkhan was crowned as the WBC Asia Light Heavyweight Title.

Muhd Farkhan, 1st Malaysian WBC champion ( photo credit: Harian Metro )

WBC Boxing Fest will be on 8-9 July 2017, held in conjunction with Health Fitness and Beauty Expo in Midvalley Megamall Exhibition Center (MVEC)

WBC Boxing Fest will be at MVEC at Hall 1

On 8 July will see Semi-pro event featuring 10 bouts of new local talents.

As for 9 July 2017, will have WBC Professional Boxing matches featuring the best of Malaysian Pro Boxers and also the main event for the WBC-OPBF ( Oriental & Pacific Boxing Federation ) Silver Championship bout.

For the uninitiated WBC is one of four main governing bodies in Boxing globally, the others being WBO, IBF & WBA . WBC was formed in 1963, being the 2nd oldest Boxing organisations after WBA. Among some notable WBC champions are Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Gennady Golovkin.

It has regional sanctioning bodies affiliated to it and OPBF is the one overseeing Asia Pacific. The Silver Championship is a kind of interim or regional belt in which the Silver Champion can then progress to challenge for main belt.

This weekend will see Filipino veteran of 33 fights ( 21-9-3 ), Carlo Autentico Magali challenging for the WBC-OPBF Silver Championship in featherweight. His opponent is Indian Sandeep Balhara. Not much is known of Balhara, with only with 4 fights in his record, but 3 of it is via KO.

Fight of newbies

Borneo & MIMMA ( Malaysian Invasion MMA ) will be well represented for this event.
Sabahan Lesley Dulamit will debut as a pro in the first bout of the day on 9 July. Lesley hails from the town of Tuaran in Sabah, 45 mins from Kota Kinabalu. Now 22 he took up Taekwondo as a kid but was introduced to Boxing by his late uncle Jay.

He was with Tuaran Boxing Team but has since joined Team Karabaw Tamparuli led by coach Vallerio Gumbilai. Under his guidance, Lesley improve on his skills. When there's no boxing competition, Vallerio signed him up for MMA, Muaythai & Kickboxing competition.

His opponent has been change and the new confirmed one is Gerald Baiguen Salvador. Also debuting as a pro. Vallerio said their game plan stays the same and will focus on what Lesley can do rather play to the game of his opponent.

Fight of veterans

The most senior Malaysian boxer on 9 July is Sabahan soldier Rudy Petrus. Rudy is in the special forces unit of Malaysian Army and a seasoned boxer and has represented Malaysia in 2013 &  2015 SEA Games. This will be his pro debut.

His opponent is also a veteran in combat sports, with more than 70 fights to his name ( with close to 50 MMA fights ), is Will ' The Kill ' Chope. He is a former UFC featherweight and well known as the most active fighter in Asia, taking 3-4 fights a year, be it MMA, Kickboxing, Pro Silat, Muaythai or Boxing, Will does not care. As long as it provides him income to support his young family.

This will be his 2nd pro boxing bout and he is looking to use this height and reach advantage to get the victory.

Lesley's team mate from Team Karabaw Tham Yaw Kent will also participate in Boxing Fest. Also an MMA athlete, he will debut in boxing Semi-Pro on 8 July 2017. Tham is 2 times MIMMA heavyweight 2016 & 2015 semi-finalist.

Fight of Boxing Coaches

Another experience boxer is Eddey Kalai. A SEA Games and Malaysia Games Boxing Champion. This Sandakan lad is very excited for his pro debut. He has been looking to turn pro for a long time but the opportunity didn't appear until now. He has kept himself busy by using his boxing skills in MMA. He was the semi-finalist of MIMMA 3 and became the flyweight champion for Jesselton Fight League in 2015 and runners up in 2016 MIMMA.

Eddey's is a family man and makes a living coaching in his Kalai Brothers Boxing, together with his younger brother Effendy Kalai, whom will also fight in the semipro bout.

Eddey's pro debut will not be easy as he faced American Jonathan Clemons. Officially this is also Jonathan's pro Boxing debut, but make no mistake, he is a well experience boxers; Having fought in the American scene but some unsanctioned fight are not recorded.

Clemons is a boxing coach in Monarchy MMA Gym in KL and has trained Malaysia MMA star Agilan Thani. This will be a fight between two seasoned boxer which will produce plenty of action, so don't miss this fight which is the 8th bout on 9 July.

Fight of the big boys

Also from Borneo, Sarawakian emerging Boxing star is Stephen Onn Anak Jenggieng. Stephen was Malaysian Golden Glove champion and after some issues with state boxing association, decided to turn pro.

From his younger days as an overweight boy, Stephen overcome it with much determination and took up martial arts and weight lifting and became a trainer in The Gym Box Kuching. He took part in MIMMA tournament in 2014 and was the finalist.

This WBC fight at Cruiserweight will be his fourth fight. His first two pro fight was successful with KO victories. The set back was in May this year when he lost to Australian MMA & Kickboxing champion Ben Kelleher. Stephen learnt well from his mistakes and will be a smarter boxer this weekend going against fellow Malaysian Mohd Hanafi.

Fight of the night contender

Stephen's will be accompany by fellow Sarawakian , Daeloniel McDelon Bong. ( read my previous story on Daeloniel on his pro debut here ). Fondly known as Delon, this young lad of 18 just finished his SPM last year but already fought twice ( 1-1-0 ) as a pro boxer in Indonesia. Delon trains at Betong Boxing Academy. He use to travel for hours to Kuching to train under his mentor Fred Mandagi.

Now coach Fred is employed by MSN ( Majlis Sukan Negeri ) Sarawak and leads the training at Betong, which gave Delon more time and focus training under him. Delon is putting in plenty of conditioning work to ensure he can outlast and outpunch his opponent Jackson Lee.

Delon will need that as Jackson Lee is a seasoned MMA and Kickboxing fighter. He was MIMMA2 Semi-finalist and has actively fought in Ultimate Beatdown and F3 Championship. With a nickname Iron, Jackson is known to have heavy hands and always looking to finish the fight early. Their bout is no.4 , so don't visit the food booth or the loo when this happen or not you will miss out a potential fight of the night.

Another two Sarawakian featuring on the pro cards are featherweight Ahmad Amirulfadzli Bin Pendi from SS Fighter and light flyweight Syafiq Hazziman Bin Abdullah Jefri of the Sarawak Boxing Team.

Fight of the new breed vs old master

Bout 7 promise to be fireworks. Hui Keng Fai (2 -0-0, 2 KOs) who is a current boxing champion in Singapore as well as an amateur MMA champion in MIMMA, will be fighting Professional Boxing for the first time in his home of Kuala Lumpur and in WBC.

Keng Fai started in MMA and was a regular in MIMMA. He managed to reach MIMMA's semi-finals for 2014 & 2015. Looking at how promising he was, MIMMA decided to feature him in the 2015 Grand Finals. He won the fight convincingly with a standing guillotine.

From then on he came back in 2016 very strong, reaching the finals meeting defending Lightweight Champion Jace Law. That fight was considered one of the best fight in MIMMA's history. Both fighters showed tremendous fighting spirit and high boxing skills as they slug it out for most of the rounds. Keng Fai emerge as Champion with a submission win. With growing confidence of his boxing skills, Keng Fai seek more action and fought pro boxing in Singapore.

In only his 2nd pro fight in Singapore recently in May, Keng Fai achieved success by winning the UBO Asia Pacific Welterweight title.

He will be facing professional MMA veteran and Pro Boxing debutant Sam Chan. Sam is one of the pioneer in Malaysian MMA scene. He fought in the now defunct Malaysian Fighting Championship.

Equip with lots of heart and high spirit despite the lack of proper technique. He lost his debut MMA fight against Malaysian MMA pioneer Melvin Yeoh in 2011.

Not a person of ego, he knows that the only way to improve is to learn from the best...and he went to learn from Melvin. And along the way also train and learn from Matt Pellino and Will Chope.

Sam last fought MMA in 2013, with a win in Legend Fighting Championship 11. He partnered a friend and decided to start a gym in 2014. It took up a lot of his time. Things got worst when his partnership didnt worked out. Sorting out all this and starting another business venture into furniture took more of his time away from training.

But Sam's heart never left the fighting scene. He made a decision to come back. And has been putting in countless hour to sharpen back his skills. Ring rust is anticipated, but Sam is not looking to pressure himself with a must win results. He just wants to relax and enjoy himself in the ring. Like Bruce Lee said, to have no techniques as your techniques, ...just go with the flow.

At 29, this may be considered late for a come back, but Sam is determined that with discipline and commitment he knows this will be a new beginning for him.

Come fight fans...do some healthy activities this weekend, visit the Health expo and catch this historic Malaysian Boxing event. get more infor on tickets at Tickets Pro.

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.

REIGN IN POWER MMA CHINA : THE MALAYSIAN MIMMA CONNECTION

There's no doubt that martial arts is synonym to China. Being the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Wushu Sanda and counteless other martial arts, it has become part of Chinese culture. With the growing popularity of MMA due to the influence of UFC, China is a market definately any MMA promotions would like to penetrate.

China has seen it's first MMA promotions in 2005 through Art of War Fighting Championship, Then came Legend FC, with it's first event  in 2010 at Hong Kong, which saw  Adrain Pang ( current ONE Championchip Lightweight stalwart ) draw against Yul Chul Nam of Korea. In 2011 Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF) enter the picture with it's first event in Shanghai.

Then in 2013, the big boy...UFC enter the game by producing The Ultimate Fighter China, which saw MIMMA Season 1 lightweight champion Allen Solomon Chong being the 1st South East Asian qualify for the selection. TUF China climax at the finale in Macau in 2014 with the main fight card of Dong Hyung Kim vs John Hathaway.

Allen during TUF China photoshoot

In Dec 2014, Asia MMA powerhouse, ONE Championship held Dynasty of Champions in Beijing, which saw a featherweight & flyweight tournament being organised and the emergence of China MMA star Li Kai Wen.

Kunlun Fight, primarily a Kickboxing promotions but they introduce MMA in April 2015. Rebel FC: The Promised One was organised in Qingdao in June 2015.  In Nov 2015, another global organisations, WSOF ( World Series of Fighting ) entered China by launching it's first WSOF Global Championship in Haikou.

But all the above are professional MMA promotions. There is still no local Chinese MMA promotions at amateur level,...till now, enter Reign in Power Fighting Championship ( RIP-FC ).

Reign in Power Fighting Championship ( RIP-FC ) has been formed to unearth local China MMA athletes. Aiming to give a platform to Chinese fighters  to perform and gain experience before moving to the pro field.

The RIP-FC press con in Sept annoucing the event

Their first event is on this Sunday 20 NOV at Kunming, the largest city in the province of Yunnan in southern China. This first event, named Decisive Battle will feature 12 bouts, 2 being pro fight cards.

The Malaysian MIMMA connection here is that the core operation & production team are from MIMMA Malaysia. Yes the people behind MIMMA are collaborating with Wu Jie Sports Development Company to organise, run and produce the show.

The success of Tune Talk's MIMMA since 2013 being the biggest and best run amateur MMA tournament has attract the interest of Chinese sports authorities. They are looking to replicate the same format in China. China with it's martial arts roots and countless martial artists present a huge pool of potential MMA talent. All they need is a tournament to perform and gain the much needed experience.

The MIMMA team is bringing 3 MIMMA fighters for RIP-FC's inaugural event. Reigning and 3 times Flyweight Champion Seah Zhang Yu of 3S MMA will be facing his toughest challenge to date in facing an experience Thai muaythai specialist.

Penangite Seah is on top form as he look to continue his 3 fight winning streak to 4. Seah also recently emerged champion in Optimum Nutrition: Show of True Strength, an exercise contest of fitness and strength.

Also fighting at Flyweight will see MIMMA season 3 Contender Fight Challenger Naimul Othman facing a Filipino muaythai stylist. Naimul has been active in 2016 participating in ONE Silat and most recently he lost a close match in a catchweight MMA fight in Jesselton Fight League. Naimul is fighting out of CTR313 & Monarchy MMA .

At Featherweight, Ridzuan Dahari, is fighting out of Kalai Bother Boxing will face American Cash Barnes of Team Quest Thailand. Ridzuan is MIMMA Season 4 semi-finalist with a 4-4-0 records.

Groomed by Eddey Kalai with great boxing, Ridzuan is a pro boxer. His most recent boxing match was at Singapore Fighting Championship 2 in the final of WBF Asia Pacific Light heavyweight title fight, which he lost to Sabahan Hisyam Sam.

Ridzuan is from Labuan. He left his home island to Kuala Lumpur when his mother pass away and has gone through lots of challenges in life. He use to hang out with Naimul when he was in his early 20s and they used to got into many street fights.

Martials arts in a way saved him and Naimul, as it instill discipline, respect and honour into their life. Furthermore Ridzuan felt it's better to fight in the cage as it's safer and get rewarded.



Another Borneon, Mohd Hasbullah Sanmin from Team Karabaw Keningau will also be feature, facing another Filipino in Flyweight. Hasbullah was MIMMA 4 Semi-Finalist. But in Sabah he has achieved much, being the Jesselton Fight League 2015 Bantamweight champion and Fight Fest 2 Super-4 Champion. He most recently won Fight Fest 3 Flyweight Superfight vs Joel Nickolson of Sabah Top Team with a ground and pound finish.

In the main event pro cards, Welterweight action will feature Glenn Sparv of Finland fighting out of AKA Thailand with a 12-4-0 vs American James Chaney. James fought in The Utimate Fighter 16 (2012) and was known for controversially biting his opponent in order to escape a choke.

In the 2nd pro card will see American Edmund Bordes vs Artur Taruharov. Edmund is muaythai specialist and a familiar face to Malaysian fight fans. He fought pro muaythai in D1 Fighting Championship and was in Sabah few months ago, training Brazilian Luta Livre under Antonio Battistessa at Sabah Top Team before he moved to KL to teach in  Gymba Muaythai.



Warriors of Borneo wishes all the Malaysian fighters all the best. Fight hard, fight smart, fight with all your heart.

All the best to the Malaysian fighters

Seah, Naimul & Ridzuan with the Malaysian team

Ridzuan & Naimul proudly showing their support to their sponsor RANGER

MIMMA fight photo team of YK Tang & Mahesan with Seah, his coach  Kenny Ng and MMA referee Isaac Yap