ADI ERAWAN vs AWANGKU : ISKA BMAEX 51kgs Title Fight

ADI ERAWAN vs AWANGKU : ISKA BMAEX 51kgs Title Fight .

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Adi Erawan comes from Tuaran. A town half an hour away from Kota Kinabalu. He is a former Sabah state boxer. He now trains at Team Karabaw Tamparuli which he joined in 2014. 

He has quite a colourful record of achievement, among the notable:

• Free Style Full Contact (F3 Championship ) - Silver
• JFL Amateur MMA - quarter-finalis
• Amatuer Muaythai Inter-District Sabah (2015) - Silver
• STAND 1 (2016) - Gold
• Borneo Amateur Challenge 2 - Gold
• Elopura Fights (pro muaythai) - Silver
• Borneo Cup Muaythai 2016 - Silver
• STAND 3 (2016) - Gold
• Amatuer Muaythai Inter-District Sabah (2016) - Silver
• Borneo Amateur Challenge 3 - Gold
• D1 Fighting Championship 2017 (pro Muaythai) - Silver 
• STAND Amateur Boxing (2017) - Gold
• Borneo Battle Arena (cage boxing)- Gold

Although he fights fiercely in the ring, Adi is a down to earth and humble guy. His coach, Vallerio Gumbilai explained , 

" I didnt even know  he was a ex-state boxer, when he first join Karabaw Tamparuli.  He never told anyone. About a year after then only I found out, that too because other people informed me.

I asked him why he didn't tell me. He told me he come here to learn new things. True enough when he first train with us, he didn't know how to throw a proper kick 😅,... but after only a year or so he is really good at kicking."

Adi's family are not well off, he work hard to support his family and his own training. He had work in a tyre service shop for years and would take his bicycle to work tirelessly.

He would also cycle to Karabaw Tamparuli to train and would hid it behind the Dojo.

Everytime he has a competition, Vallerio would help him write a letter to his employer to request for leave. After two years, his employer became annoyed as Adi takes regular leave to go and fight. Eventually Adi quit the job and Vallerio quickly sets him up for another job at a service center own by a friend.

Ever since then, Adi was able to train and compete without much stress with an understanding boss. He also works hard and now able to buy himself a motorbike.
Vallerio adds, " Persoanlly to me he is the most dedicated fighter I have ever seen. He's the real definition of Team Karabaw Tamparuli. Iron will and iron horns."

Most recently Adi was awarded by DSP Madius Tangau, Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah as Boxer of the year 2018 for his consistency in participation of any combat sports competition.

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CELEBRATE MERDEKA DAY WITH MFN2

This year's Merdeka Day will be very special for combat sports fans in Sabah. Muay Fight Night (MFN) will returns with its 2nd edition. This competition will be held at the Team Karabaw Gym HQ at 88 Marketplace, Kepayan, Kota Kinabalu.

This edition will be special as it's offering the first ever Muay Thai Ladies Cup. This Ladies Cup competition is the first women only Muay Thai tournament held in Malaysia.

On top of that a Wai Khru  competition which is open to both male & female will also be first time competed in Borneo. This competition is open to all Muay Thai association club and gym.

Wai Khru is the form of patterns or ritual which is commonly display before a Muay Thai competition (check out the link for more information)

MFN 2 is a continuous development program set in place by Muaythai Association of Sabah, headed by Hj Nazri Razak, the president.

MFN 2 - Ladies Cup intend to give female Muay Thai participants a chance to display their skills in the ring at an amatuer level. Female Muay Thai practitioner will be able to showcase what they have learn over the few months of preparation by their respective team.

click to watch the intro videos from some of the Ladies Cup participants

This competition also intends to be a catalyst for female to pick up Muay Thai as a form of self defense, building a healthier & fit body and as a way to boost their confidence and self believe.

It takes courage to enter the ring. Many fighting on this Merdeka day will be a first timer which is a good sign as this shows that more and more newbies are participating.

MuayThai Sabah has many program to unearth and develop Muay Thai talent through tournament such as Inter-District and Inter-Club, in MFN 2 Muaythai Sabah decided to introduce Wai Khru as a competition to encourage Muay Thai practitioner to learn the art aspect of Muay Thai.

Through learning of Wai Khru, participants are able to learn the deeper meaning & roots of Muay Thai, delving into it's history and tradition and learning the cultural & art aspect. At the same time, building ethics, etiquette and respect.

It is also a very good sign that many of Wai Khru participants are teenagers, these is a positive sign as to build a strong foundation you need to mold them from young.

It will certainly be a entertaining fight night with these two new competition first time held here. Don't miss out the event, celebrate Merdeka by supporting your local martial art event!

STAND : JUNIOR EDITION FULL RESULTS

STAND Junior edition concluded on 20 MAY 2017. Read about the pre-event story here:
A total of 12 teams send their junior warriors (below 18 years ) to Karabaw Gym in Kepayan.
1. Persatuan Tomoi Labuan - Labuan
2. TeamX - Kuala Lumpur
3. Teamkarabaw Papar - Papar
4. Kalai Brothers Gym - Kuala Lumpur
5. Teamkarabaw Keningau - Keningau
6. Teamkarabaw Tamparuli - Tamparuli
7. Kinabalu Kings - Kota Kinabalu
8. Klinch MMA - Kuala Lumpur
9. Teamkarabaw HQ - Kota kinabalu
10. D30 - Sarawak
11. Borneo Phoenix Muaythai - Putatan
12. Sabah Top Team - Kota Kinabalu

Below is the full results

Skills wise, these juniors may not technically be polished due to their age and lack of experience, but many of them show good fighting spirit and lots of heart in the fight. STAND is here to provide that platform for them to gain that valueable fighting experience.

Some pictures of winners below.

Champions from Karabaw Tamparuli : Wesley Oliver, Kallen Jafili & Kenny Jafili

D-30 Muay Thai team from Miri, Sarawak. A regular in fight events in Sabah

D-30 head coach Master Tang Hui Ding with his champion Aurora Chai ( right ) & Maurien Hii ( left )

48kg finals, both are from Kinabalu Kings , and they are twin brothers! Shah Aryan (right) won the fight. His brother Areen Khan on the left

MILO was there to energize the juniors and their team

The Juniors is the future, let's all come together to build great foundation for martial arts in Borneo. ( pix courtesy of Bee Jay - Kinabalu Kings )

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.

BORNEO CUP MUAYTHAI 2017

Muaythai is an ancient martial arts originated from Thailand. It is also known as the art of 8 limbs as its the 8 points of contact namely ; 2 hands, 2 legs , 2 elbows and 2 knees that a Muaythai exponent will use as it’s arsenal of combat. It is widely considered the most effective striking / stand up style of martial arts.

In Malaysia, especially in northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia, which is closer to Thailand, Muaythai has long been established and is very popular especially in the northern region. As compare to Borneo region Muaythai is a relatively new sports, but it is gaining grown and is growing fast. This is due to the efforts put in by many local coaches and also the state associations.

To fast track Muaythai popularity, in early 2015, Borneo Cup was an idea mooted when Sabah Muaythai Association, Sarawak Muaythai Association and Labuan Tomoi Association come together to discuss how to popularize Muaythai in Borneo region; hence the idea of a competition that involve all the stake holders in Borneo, namely Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and East Kalimantan to promote this ancient martial arts to more wider audience.

Sarawak was the inaugural champion in 2015 and last year Sabah managed to bring back the cup to the Land Below the Wind when Sarawak hosted the championship for the 2nd year. As the host this year, Sabah Muaythai has made preparation early.

Lead by its president Hj Nazri Razak, it’s plan started rolling to select the best to represent Sabah starting from last year. Numerous competition was organized, such as the Inter-Club, Inter-District and most recently Muay Fight Night in collaboration with Team Karabaw & Revolution Gym, finally a strong Sabah team has been selected to make sure the Borneo Cup maintain in Sabah.

Haji Nazri

Sabah team is lead by Team Captain – Tuan Ajman Ajmain ( 66 Unicorn ), Team Coach – Rayner Kinsiong ( Team Karabaw ) and Dhillon Tahing ( Revolution Gym ), assisted by E. Rudi and Mohd Faizal. Also helping them out as padders are Hamzah ( Kinabalu Kings ), Max & Lucky ( Clownbox ) and Jonathan Quan ( Rhino Kickboxing ) Sabah is sending fighters to compete in all 13 categories, 8 for male and 5 for female.




Sabah team consist of:

TEAM A

MALE
45-48kg: Shah Aryan Shahzam - KINABALU KINGS
48-51kg: Muhammad Aidil Aiman - BLACK MAMBA
51-54kg: Mohd Shazmiel - KINABALU KINGS
54-57kg: Kallens Barthez Jafili - KARABAW
57-60kg: Aziz Ho Gwo Jye - KINABALU FIGHTERS
60-63kg: Alexis - KARABAW
63-67kg: Sheldon Aaron George - KARABAW
67-71kg: Liew Teck Seng - BTMMA

Female
45-48kg: Nur Naznerah Jailuddin - BORNEO PHOENIX
48-51kg: Gloria Isabelle Hoong - SABAH TOP TEAM
51-54kg: Siti Nurfazilah - KINABALU KINGS
54-57kg: Rozelyne Sandar - KARABAW
57-60kg: Vivian 66 - UNICORN

TEAM B

Male
45-48: Javier Phile Jeffery-  KARABAW
48-51kg: Mohammad Raziman Hamsa
51-54kg: Muliadan Danny - 66 UNICORN
54-57kg: Jeary Sius Jenus
57-60kg: Sheon Paul - BLACK MAMBA
60-63kg: Joel Nickolson - SABAH TOP TEAM
                Mohd Rashiddin Hamsa
63-67kg: Mohd Rosdee Bin Mohd Yusof - BLACK MAMBA
68-71kg: Kenny Jafili - KARABAW

Female
45-48kg: Cyvilnie Angian - RHINO
48-51kg: Nurul Khairunnisa - KARABAW
54-57kg: Nur Ainni Syameem Zulhelmy - REVO
57-60kg: Gloria Nate Freddy - BTMMA

The team has been going through centralized training at Team Karabaw gym for the last two weeks and are now ready to rumble!

MIMMA 5 - Be Like Water

This year 2017, MIMMA is into its 5th season this year. Incorporating the element of water into its theme, let's understand why water is important in martial arts as we listen to Bruce Lee  ( click on the link below )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTnSEFsInp0

watch MIMMA 5 intro video click here : https://www.facebook.com/MalaysianInvasion/videos/1276128652422163/

Before we talked about what's new for 2017, let's revisit history...

When MIMMA started in 2013, the MMA awareness in Malaysia is still at its infancy. Only the hardcore of fans understand about how MMA fights utilizes not only stand up striking techniques but also grappling art to win the match.

The amateur tournament attracted lots of attention from the curious crowd as it was held in mall. But many people who watched it does not understand or enjoy it when the fights goes to the ground.

The first Grand Finals was held in Stadium Negara where 3 pro cards was mixed into the 7 amateur title fights to create more media attention and attracting more martial arts fans to watch. The pioneering first batch of champions eventually became the idols of many fight fans across Malaysia.

Season 2 was a time where the concept was further expanded. Tryout tours in various cities in Malaysia was executed. Participants began to take tryout more seriously and came more prepared, but at this time, most are still either strong in just their stand up or grappling. 

Season 2 Grand Finale was a dream for MMA fans as it featured raising star; Kai Kar France and Mark Striegl and not forgetting the main card where Matt Pellino's made his pro debut vs Will Chope - ex UFC vet. 

This is also the season where we see the emergence of Agilan Thani as a formidable welterweight and Keannu Subba establishing himself as a fighter to watch., They are both now fighting as pro in ONE Championship.

In Season 3, MIMMA was already on every martial artist target as they train hard and equiped themselves with more skills to impress the judges in the tryouts. Fighters skills further improve and this can be seen in the tournament round as fights became more intense and close.

Season 3 was also a milestone for MIMMA as they expanded the category to Female and Foreign Pride. RTM became broadcast partner and aired the tournament regularly in RTM1. This enable MIMMA to reach out to more audience across Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

The theme used was electricity, as MIMMA aimed to electrify the audience with more quality fights by putting up a grander show. The Grand finals was held the day after ONE Championship in Oct at Stadium Putra. It was a packed venue and many tuned into RTM to catch the fights live. 

No pro fights was on the cards as the fighters now are deemed good enough to put up a good show on their own for the audience. A publicity fight between two DJ from Hitz FM was organised to create fun, excitement and publicity. Feature fights was introduce before the title fights to whipped up the appetite of fight fans. 

It was a grand night. We saw Muhd Aiman achieved his dream to became the featherweight champion after 3 years trying and absolute war in flyweight as Seah Zhang Yu defended his title against a very game opponent in Dhiaaul Amal. 

With excellent  media coverage and  publicity plus high production quality, MIMMA has set a very high bench mark for other championship to follow.

When MIMMA 4 came in 2016, it has established itself as the pinnacle of amateur MMA tournament in this region. The successful format of tryouts in different states managed to rally supporters from various Malaysian states to come out to fully support their home town heroes.

The theme for 2016 was fire, as fighters uses their burning desire to excel and outdo them self, blazing the path to glory. Fighters came very well prepared and definately more well rounded as their coaches prepare them well to take the fights to whichever level.

MIMMA's grand finals went back to Stadium Negara and what a night it was as fight fans was entertained to the fullest with very high level of fights from all the finalist. Many records was made... Seah Zhang Yu from Penang and Sabahan Darren Low achieved greatness as they became 3 times champion in flyweight and heavyweight respectively.

And of course the fight that took everyone off their seats, Lightweight title fight between Jace Law and Hui Keng Fai, in my book I would say is The Fight of The Years ( in the 4 years of MIMMA ) .

So this year water is the theme. According to Jason Lo, the CEO of Tune Talk

“It is 2017 and we now have 3 MIMMA Champions fighting and making waves in professional MMA. Keanu Subba, Agilan Thani and Muhammad Aiman were among talented fighters discovered through MIMMA and at the moment, we have a collection of impressive champions who are ready to dominate the professional MMA scene in the region. 

Tune Talk is still the front-runner of both the amateur and professional MMA scene in Malaysia and this will continue as it will take the Malaysian MMA scene to the next level, ensuring our goal of making Malaysia the MMA hub of the region completely materialize in the near future.” 

Water is the theme chosen as water represent calm mind and the maturity of spirit of the fighters. It also signify the coming together of their techniques becoming more fluid and flexible, as they become more skillful.

This year also see a total revamp of the format. The changes starts at the tryouts, There will no longer be a grappling and striking test. Fighters will be judged based on their sparring session in the cage. 

The sparring session is a total of 3 rounds and each round will last for 2 minutes. 

• 1st round: normal standing sparring 
• 2nd round: start on the ground with Red inside the guard.
• 3rd round: start on ground with Blue inside the guard. 

This format ensures everyone will have the chance to prove themselves.

pix by YK TANG

From the tryouts, 7 fighters will be chosen for each weight category. These 7 will have to battle it out among each other in a league format. This will eliminate any complaints of fighters have lucky shot or mismatch of skills which happens in previous tournament format.

Pass champion will no longer be the defending champion as they are allowed to go into the league formats. This will ensure past champion have more fights. 

Fighters will collect various amount of point base on how they win or lose. In each categories, only 4 fighters with the highest points will advance into the semi-finals.

This new league formats is created to ensure amateur fighters get as much exposure as possible. Parallel to IMMAF's standard where those who qualify to fight in IMMAF tournament will already have plenty of amateur fights. 

Fighters need to commit to a longer period of fights which will last till year end and the grand finals will only be held in 2018. To ensure fighters to be fighting fit, they are encourage to fight at their walking weight and if they choose to cut weight, to only go down one weight class from their walking weight.

There's 3 more tryout to go, Kota Kinabalu 29-30 April, Kuching 6-7 May and final one in Kuala Lumpur 13-14 May.

Kota Kinabalu's venue will be held at Team Karabaw's mini stadium at 99 Market Place Kepayan.

Kuching's venue is yet to be confirmed. As for KL,  Paradigm Mall will continue to be home to MIMMA's tryout and the league fights.

Warriors of Borneo hopes to see more Sabahan and Sarawakian participating in the tryouts and get selected to fight in the league. Let's hope the legacy of  Hall of Famers such as Allen Solomon Chong, Adrian Tham, Darren Low, Joanna Yap and Jace Law will be continued by new generations of Borneo Warriors!

Official fight gear - VENUM , keeping fighters safe, unless you are on the receiving end

Energise with Power Root Extra like how head judge Olivier Coste demonstrate here