MUAYTHAI PIALA YB DATUK ROSNAH - WAKING UP THE NEIGHBOURS IN PAPAR

Away from the bustling lights of Kota Kinabalu city  lies the grand Sabah Muaythai Camp, in the area of Papar. It's currently the only Muaythai camp in Borneo. This is the effort from Sabah Muaythai Association in the process of making Sabah a Muaythai powerhouse.

The Camp open in November last year with a Youth Muaythai Championship officiated by
Y. B. Datuk Rosnah Bte Abdul Rashid Shirlin, the member of parliament of Papar and Deputy Minister of The Works Ministry Malaysia. During that time YB Datuk Rosnah promise to continue supporting the development of Muaythai in her area specifically and Sabah in general.

That promise materialised in the organising of YB Datuk Rosnah Muaythai Trophy, which was organised on 17 March 2018. In the dark of the nights among the village houses, Sabah Muaythai Camp became alive with music and energetic music that accompany the 9 bouts contested under pro rules.

The boisterous cheering crowd and the thunderous voice of emcee extraordinaire Vallerio Gumbilai, truly makes the event happening!

YB Datuk Rosnah in her officiating speech

The attendance was unexpectedly good, curious spectators from around the villages packed the camp and enjoyed a night of combat sports action that combine new upstart young talent and also senior more experience fighters.

full attendance

It's a good development for the sports, exposing it to more new fans around Papar. Hoping that attendees see the potential of the sports to develop the mind and body of youngsters and support it by encouraging their children to take up Muaythai. Sabah Muaythai Camp is an ideal place for this as it houses good facilities and knowledgable team of trainers.

check out the training schedule for Sabah Muaythai Camp

Dolphina - SS Fighter Sarawak ( right ) getting a close decision win vs Mardeana - Revolution Gym

They may be still young, but their fighting spirit is top level!

Co-main event , Ady of Karabaw (left )  winning via split decision over Hafiz - 66 Unicorn

The hi-lights being the main card fight for YB Datuk Rosnah Cup, between Ali Hobbit ( Revolution Gym ) and Muliadan ( 66 Unicorn ). This is a come back fight for Ali as he has not been competing for close to 2 years.

Ali from Tanjung Aru, whom is 29 this year began his martial arts journey by learning Tae Kwon-Do from Muslee Tuah. 6 years ago. But as Muslee began to introduce Muaythai techniqes, he showed interest and has focus on making the art of the 8 Limbs his main style of martial arts.

He did dabbled into MMA too by competing in Jesselton Fight League and Fight Fest. But mostly seen his success in stand-up fight. Tasting success in Muayfit Warrior, STAND Kickboxing and his 1st pro Muaythai fight in a Boxxtomoi event in Penang.

Ali has a full time job in Nosoob Penampang, installing kitchen & bathroom accessories. But he supplement his income by teaching Muaythai in private training classes in The Peak condominium and also coach in Revolution Gym.

The title fight vs Muliadan on 17 March night currently is his biggest win. It was a sweet start for him after a long lay-off. It took him 4 round to secure the win via TKO. He is eager to continue being active in competition and want to aim to collect a title belt in future competition. Ali will see action again this end March in Sabah Fights Muaythai.

YB Datuk Rosnah present the prizes accompany by Sabah Muaythai president Hj Nazri (2nd from left ) and deputy president Ajman Ajmain

Revolution Gym head coach and founder Dhillon Tahing ( holding trophy ) with his team

The successful outing for SS Fighter from Kuching with 3 gold 

MFN Series 1 - Full Results

Muay Fight Night (MFN) has concluded on Saturday 8 April 2017. It was successfully organised by Sabah State Muaythai Association with the collaboration with Team Karabaw & Revolution Gym, at the place now known as Karabaw Mini Stadium at 88 Marketplace, Kepayan Kota Kinabalu.

This inaugural event was graced by president of Sabah Muaythai Tuan Haji Nazri, who gave away the medals to the winners.

According to Rayner Kinsiong, founder of Team Karabaw, whom is instrumental in making the 1st series of MFN a success, MFN will further try to develop young Muaythai exponents. The 2nd series is planned for junior series focusing on under 16 and under 12 participants.

Muaythai exponents in Thailand and other parts of Asia starts very young, some as young as 5 or 6 years old. They practically grow up in training camp and their will to succeed is very high as it's a way for them to make a living to provide for the family, to escape poverty and to achieve fame!

Countries like Russia and the Eastern European states are moving fast in developing fighters from a very young age. For Malaysia to succeed and produce a champion, fighters need to be exposed to more fights. The more fights they have, the more experience they gain and the more accustom they are to being in a competitive mode.

Muaythai Sabah is trying to give more opportunities to young exponents to gain experience through more competition and also through scientific method, where coaches with good knowledge of sports science and great technical skills are developed and trained to lead the new generations of fighters.

This effort requires much expenditure and with corporate company like Dihnar Group helping, and of course through the cooperation and support from the local gyms, slowly but surely Sabah is moving through the right direction.

M.Aidil (BLACK MAMBA GYM) - Champion - 48-51kg

Alexis Akang (KARABAW) - Champion 60-63kg

Gloria (SABAH TOP TEAM) Champion 48-51kg

Liew Teck Seng (BTMMA) Champion 63.5-67kg

Randal (KINABALU FIGHTERS) Champion 57-60kg

Vivian Teo (66 UNICORN) Champion 57-60kg

Participants and supporters of team 

MFN series 2 will be coming soon

ANIL MEHTA vs MUHD AFANDI for Fight Fest K1 belt

The 65Kg K1 Kickboxing Belt is on contention this weekend at Fight Fest 3: Kingdom Comes. A Super fight between Malaysian Muhammad Afandi and Indian fighter Anil Mehta will decides whether the belt stays in Malaysia or will be in India.

Afandi is a young but upcoming fighter in the muaythai circle. He represented Sabah at the National Muaythai Championship in Sept. Afandi's home state is in Pahang, but he is here in Sabah studying for his Bachelor in Sports Science in Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Afandi (5th from right with the Sabah Muaythai team lead by Dhillon Tahing ( 6th from right)

Afandi is considered a late comer to martial arts, in high school he mostly played, football, futsal and bowling. His experience watching muaythai fights in shopping complex and the news in local media and social media sparks his interest to try it out.

At 72kg, Afandi thought of looking for a place to get fit and cut his weight. These reason brought him to the closest gym to his Uni. REVOLUTION Gym in Alam Mesra, Kota Kinabalu. Under the watchful eye of Coach Dhillon Tahing, he improve on his fitness and gain muaythai skills and started to participate in many muaythai competition. he won a Bronze in Sept National muaythai competition.

Afandi acknowledge his opponent Anil's skill and know that he needs to be wary of Anil combos. But he promise that he will be giving his all out and be aggressive in his approach.

Afandi defeated muaythai veteran Alvin Chong in STAND series 1

Anil Mehta already tasted success in Kota Kinabalu. In Sept 2016 at STAND series 2, he won the 8 man tournament and became the K1 Kickboxing Light welterweight champion. Anil is in the Himachal Pradesh Police Force.

He started training boxing in India before starting MuayThai training. He has had 6 amateur boxing bouts. Anil started his MuayThai training at Santai MuayThai gym in Chiangmai and trained there for 7 months before fighting his 1st amateur MuayThai in Thape stadium in Thailand. He won his bout via KO. Heis  currently is under training with Team Relentless and looks to make a statement in Sabah by winning in Fight Fest 3.

Anil victorious in STAND series 2

Team Relentless lead by Jitendre Khare from India has been very supportive of martial arts events in Malaysia. They have been sending their fighters to compete in Sabah since 2014 in Borneo Fighting Championship, and recently in Jesselton Fight League, STAND and now Fight Fest. They also regularly participate in West Malaysia base promotions such as Johor's Ultimate Beatdown and Penang's Warriors FC.

Warriors of Borneo talked to TEAM RELENTLESS head coach Jitendre

"We in India didn't have many opportunities when we were starting off. I had the privilege of personally meeting and interacting with the movers and shakers of Malaysian MMA such as Melvin Yeoh (Ultimate Beatdown), Sensei Rayner (STAND, JFL) & Johan Julian (FIGHT FEST)

These people were very welcoming of me and my team and most importantly provided us with fair match ups. I have always felt comfortable dealing with these guys and trust them 100% to take care of my team while we are there too.

I think the Malaysian scene is growing the right way and I'm glad that we are a part of it in whatever little capacity we can."