BAC4: SHOWDOWN IN LABUAN

Come Saturday 4 March, around 60 warriorsts from all over Borneo will again converge for the 4th time in the tiny island of Labuan. This is Borneo Amateur Challenge 4! ( BAC4)

BAC is organised by Borneo Combat Gym of Labuan. In one short year in 2016, BAC has successfully been organised 3 times. Held in the roof top of Labuan Times Square inside BCG, overlooking Labuan's scenic harbour view, it has steadily built a reputation as the premier amateur martial arts competition in Borneo.

Labuan's economy is in the doldrums this pass 2 years when oil price went low and affected badly the oil and gas industry which is the lifeline of Labuan's industry. The local authorities has since try to revive Labuan's tourism sector to liven back the business sector in Labuan.

In a way the economic downturn is good for the fitness industry. People tend to spend less in the club and night life and opt to vent out their stress in the gym...these creates good , motivated fighters. BAC also attract participants from Brunei, Sarawak & Sabah which brings in the much needed tourism revenue for Labuan, when these participants spend shopping and on food and beverages.

This year Ronald Tee is leading the BCG team as the Organising Chairman for BAC4. According to Ronald,
" Tourism Malaysia involvement will further strengthen our BAC branding and as well to establish better rapport for BCG not only in Labuan but as well in Malaysia. For this year, it will be the first time BAC event being listed in Calendar of Events 2017 by Tourism Malaysia. This strategy co-operation is ideal for mutual benefits and help to boost the local tourism industry"

Coach Alvin Chong, the founder of BCG is a visionary. He doesn't just want BCG to be a place where fighters come and train for fitness and be able to compete, but also building their confidence and character through martial arts. BAC is a way he builds this soft skills for his team of coaches.

Alvin and his BCG team promoting BAC4

Letting them lead in organising events and competition will help them develop good management skills that will help them to be better leaders. As leaders, in turn he hopes they will contribute back to the communities in helping others.

Ronald leading the BCG committee meeting

I ask Ronald on how is the experience so far as the organising chairman.

"It has been a privilege for being selected by Coach Alvin as BAC4 Organising Chairman. The experience is overwhelming but yet gratifying as I have been given a chance to learn on collaborating with sponsor, managing and working with the team, enabling and fostering interpersonal relationship and as well as building my leadership skills."

Aside from being a fighter and coach, Ronald is also a certified referee

BAC4 together with STAND & FIGHT FEST in Sabah, is also a continuation of selecting potential athletes for a place in the National K1 Championship, planned to the held in Labuan end of 2017. BAC is a offial ISKA sanction fight.

The hi-light of BCG4 is the Super4 MMA. The fighters involved are Ericorry of Keningau MMA, Shah Rizam of Labuan Tomoi, Md Noor Gani of Team Karabaw and Lu Yi representing Naga Knabalu.

The 1st leg of this Super4 MMA will see Ericcory vs Rizam, 2nd leg is Noor Gani vs Lu Yi.

The winner of 1st leg vs the winner of 2nd leg will be the main event of the night.

The champion will receive a championship cup sponsor by Keningau MMA (KMMA)

According to Mohd Bin Bakri, founder of KMMA, 

" I'm glad to sponsor the championship cup, as this will help develop the sports. KMMA has just moved to a newer and better premises and I'm happy that KMMA has grow and many of our fighters has gain much experience by participating in BAC. This is my way of giving back."

Mohd and his fight team

Ericcory of KMMA is from Tamparuli but has been in Keningau for the last 10 years. At 23 this year, martial arts has always been his interest but never had a chance to take it up until in 2015 when he walked in the doors of KMMA, following a friend.

Ever since, Ericcory has absorb all that has been taught and is raring to go. He participated in BCG and Fight Fest and has a current record of 2-1. Ericcory will rely on his grappling skills as he has develop it through Luta Livre taught by coach Mohd himself and coach Antonio Battistessa of Sabah Top Team. Recently he also took up a MMA seminar in Sabah Top Team taught by coach Mark Sangiao, the successful MMA coach of Team Lakay, Philipines.

In the 2nd leg, look out for Md Noor Gani of Team Karabaw. He is a striker with some amateur MMA experience from Jesselton Fight League. He also fought pro before in freestyle martial arts in the 2016 ONE Silat.

His opponent Lu Yi was train by Master Tang of D-30 Muay Thai Miri. He has since moved to Kota Kinabalu and now represent Naga Kinabalu. This young lad is ferocious in terms of learning. What he lacks in techniques he made it up with relentless spirit, which saw him participating in various martial arts events such as BJJ, Pro Muaythai, No Gi Grappling, MMA and Kickboxing.

In the co-main event is the MMA Super Fight of Joel Nickolson Lawrence (Sabah Top Team) vs Mohd Rizal ( Team Karabaw ). This is a good match as both are strikers. Joel is more technical from his background in Taekwondo.

Joel initially wanted to fight at 56kg but organiser could not find him a match at that weight and Rizal stepped up and they agree to fight at 62kg.

Joel is the semi-finalist of 2016 MIMMA4 losing to eventual champion Damon Soo. He has a record of 3-2. In last year's Jesselton Fight League in 1 Borneo, Joel defeated Australian Nathan Hynes with a standing guillotine, a month later he fought in Fight Fest 3 but lost to Mohd Hasbullah in a thrilling match.

Joel will be relying on the great learning he got from Coach Mark Sangiao in the MMA seminar he attended at Sabah Top team with Ericcory.

Mohd Rizal or known as Ladda to his friends was also feature in JFL last year. He fought Indian Rudranash but lost in a 3 rounds decision. In that fight Rizal has still not fully recovered from his fight a few weeks before in National Muaythai selection, but Rizal showed tremendous fighting spirit...always moving forward and actively looking to engage.

To those who knows him, they attribute one of his strength to his mental fortitude. Rizal has a never retreat never surrender attitude. His is not bothered by pain and taunt. He says he will turn into a beast when he enter the cage. But outside it, he says he is a friendly person. Rizal has experience in Muaythai, Kyokushinkai Karate and K1 and Pro Silat in ONE Silat tournament.

In Sabah Fight last Dec, Rizal fought in the co-main event vs Madjais Opong. He executed an excellent combos of kicks and punches in the fourth round to end the fight with a TKO.

Expect fireworks tomorrow when this two meet!

Competition will start at 9am tomorrow till 7pm. Stay tuned to Warriors of Borneo Blog FB for updates.

KK is the new Sabah Inter-District Muaythai Champion

The two day Muaythai tournament gave a good closing for Muaythai in Sabah, with Kota Kinabalu (KK) emerging as the new overall champion among the 12 district that competed. 2015 Champion , Tawau took 6th placing.

It was a close fight between KK and Sandakan, both district won 15 medals each but KK edge Sandakan with 1 extra gold medal to be the champion.

KK Muaythai presiden Muslee Tuah receiveing the champion award from Sabah Muaythai president Hj Nazri. Looking on is Maman Ajamain (R) vice President Sabah Muaythai and Zamalani (L), secretary general of Sabah Muaythai & Sabah Fight organiser

The Inter-District was organised by Sabah Muaythai Association, Kota Kinabalu Muaythai Association and Kaza Musa Fight Management to unearth new talent for Sabah. Sabah Muaythai has seen a busy 2016, with Inter-Club championship being organised in August at Sandakan.  Followed by sending a team to the national championship in September, a month later, Tawau Muaythai Championship. In November, Sabah Muaythai team brought back the Borneo Cup to Sabah.

The Inter-District Championship was also held together with Sabah Fight. A pro Muaythai fight event organised by Kelab Sukan Inspirasi Kinabalu and Kaza Musa Fight Management. According to Kaza Musa, the pro fight card was organised with 5 pro bouts per night with Pro Muaythai athletes from Sabah, Labuan, Miri and India. 

Not only does it add the hype to the championship but these pro fights also showcase the best of Muaythai in this region and act as a motivating factor and inspiration to the amateur Muaythai athletes.

Datuk Idris Jumat closed the event on the evening of 11 Dec at Karamunsing Complex by giving away the Datuk Idris Jumat Cup sponsored by Parliament 171 Sepanggar to the winner of the main event of the night Anil Mehta of Team Relentless India vs Ronald Tee of Borneo Combat Gym Labuan. Anil emerged the winner.

Anil Mehta of Team Relentless India won the Datuk Idris Jumat Cup

Datuk Idris commented that Muaythai is gaining popularity in Sabah and he believes this is a good sign and will always be willing to support healthy sports activities that targets the youth. he congratulated Sabah Muaythai Association for successfully organising the Inter-District Championship 2016. 

Sabah Muaythai president, Hj Nazri said that Sabah will be the host for 2017 Borneo Cup, which will see participation from Sarawak, Kalimantan and Brunei and is looking forward to have a successful event in Likas Stadium in April. Sabah Muaythai has also identified potential talent that will represent Sabah to defend the Borneo Cup that Sabah has won this year.

Sabah Fight pro cards review coming soon in next blog post.

SABAH FIGHT - PRESENTING THE BEST OF SABAH MUAYTHAI

D1 Fighting Championship brought new height for Muaythai in Sabah during 2014/2015. As D1FC took a breather this year, the gap has been filled with new Muaythai events.

With D1FC' s chairman Haji Nazri in the helm as the President for Persatuan Muaythai Negeri Sabah, Sabah has seen a very busy year for Muaythai. In August, Elopura Fights brought the action to the Eastern side of Sabah. It was held together with Sabah's Inter-Club Muaythai Championship which saw Kinabalu Kings emerge as the Champion.

Hj Nazri

In September, Sabah Muaythai send a state team to the National Championship and brought home 6 medals (1-Gold, 4 - Silver , 4 bronze) taking the 5th placing nationally.

Muaythai Sabah's team to National Muaythai Championship 2016

In October, the action went back to eastern Sabah with Tawau Muaythai Championship held in conjunction with National Sports Day.

In November, Sabah Muaythai sent a team to Lundu Sarawak for the Borneo Cup challenge and emerge victorious with 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze to bring the Borneo Cup to Sabah.

Sabah - Borneo Cup Champion 2016

Come this weekend ( 10-11 Dec 2016 ) The Inter-District Muaythai Championship will go down in Karamunsing Complex. This is held together with Sabah Fights ; pro Muaythai cards.

The inter-district will see 12 district from Sabah battling for amateur Muaythai supremacy. Will Tawau defend their title won last year? 

As for Sabah Fights, these pro cards has been schedule to go down from 7pm onwards to keep fight fans occupied and inspire the young ones to perform well. 

Sabah Fights is organised together with Kelab Sukan Inspirasi Kinabalu ( Inspirasi), Parliament P17 Sepanggar Office and Kaza Musa Fight Event Management.

Inspirasi and Parliament P17 organised Sabah Fights with the objective to get more youth into healthy activities especially sports, with their moto: Inspiring People Through Sports.

As for Kaza Musa or his real name Zamalani Masulin, is no stranger to Sabah's fight events. To those that does not realised that he has been managing most fight events here, you may have heard his sharp loud cheery voice over the mic in fight events. Aside from announcing for fights, his emceeing style that uses local dialect and slang plus the ability to insert humour provide entertaining value to the casual fans.

This young lad from Kota Marudu is a qualified dive instructor and started martial arts in Shotokan Karate. 4 years ago he took up Muaythai. He was among the pioneering group of people that took up Muaythai in Sabah; among them are Randal Kadayum, Dean Hamsah, Johan Julian, Maman, Erexy, Shah 66.

His passion in martial arts especially Muaythai saw him winning bronze in Borneo Cup Championship 2015 and being elected as the Muaythai Sabah's secretary general for 2015-2017. This passion also is the one that drives him to go into fight event management.

The weigh-in was done on Friday at Youth Arena, Kepayan. The planned event hi-light of Super 4 for Datuk Jumat Idris Cup has been dampen with one of the fighters, Ronny Shah not making weight for 60 kg. This is not the first time Ronny missed weigh, the most recent one was in STAND 3 Keningau.

The original planned Super 4 fight now canceled

To salvage the main event, the Super 4 has been dropped and Super Fight has been arranged. The main event now will see Ronald Tee of Borneo Combat Gym Labuan (BCG) vs Anil Mehta of Team Relentless India.

Ronald Tee is only 20 years old but already posses a pro Muaythai record of 5-1 and Pro K1 Kickboxing 4-0. He started fighting pro K1 when he was 16 and Pro Muaythai 2 years ago. He most recently won in Elopura Fights against a nak muay from Kelantan in August.

Ronald works as a full time instructor in BCG under the tutelage of Coach Alvin Chong. Ronald wants to win this Datuk Idris Jumat Cup for BCG and for his coach. It was coach Alvin that help him when he turned to the dark side.

As a young teen Ronald got into fights and was a rebel rouser in high school. His notorious attitude finally got him expelled from school when he was in form 4 and he started hanging out with bad hats and spend his times in clubs partying, drinking and smoking.

For a couple of months he wasted his youth until he happen to bump into his BCG mate jogging to prepare for a tournament. It hit him hard that the partying life is not what he wants. He sucked up his pride, face up to his problem and went back to coach Alvin to apologize for his behavior. He wanted back in.

Ronald is also a qualified ISKA MMA & Kickboxing referee. Seen here with Coach Alvin ( 2nd right ) 

Alvin sees himself in Ronald as he once also went through the same problem. He took him back into BCG, helped him get into a new school to finish his SPM. and made sure he occupied himself in training and focusing his studies.

This Super fight for the Datuk Idris Jumat Cup will be a big motivation for Ronald to show the deep appreciation of what Coach Alvin has done for him. But his opponent is not easy meat. On the other end of the ring will be Anil Mehta. 

Living true to his team's name Relentless, Anil serve as a police in his home state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. He travels close to 1800 km to Mumbai to train under coach Jitendre Khare, India's MMA pioneer.

with Jitendre ( right )

winning STAND 2, light welterweigh

In September Anil won the K1 Light welterweight fight in STAND Series 2. In October he was back in Kota Kinabalu, winning his Super Fight and brought home the Fight Fest 3 65kg title belt.

Anil winning the Fight Fest 3 title

Not wanting to stop there, he return again to Sabah in November to participate in STAND series 3 Super 8. Moving up to 70kg. But it was not third time lucky as he lost in the final by point to Nidal Mahmoud.

Now he is in KK again, with the aim of ending 2016 with another title from The Land Below the Wind. 

This Super fight will be very exciting. Anil is relentless in his approach and will keep pushing forward with combos. His favorite weapons is his elbow and will maximize use his long reach to find his target. As for Ronald, shorter in height but he will be making this up with his speed. Ronald is a skill boxer and will utilise his fast hands to mess up Anil's rhythm.

This main card will be feature on 11 DEC 2016.

The co-main event on Day 2 will see Mohd Rizal of Team Karabaw fighting Madjias Lim aka Opong the Maphlindo.

Rizal 32 years this year but is still fighting fit. Working as a technician that require him to travel all over Sabah it does poses a challenge for him to get regular training, but his attitude of never say die always carry him through.He was just in Manila last week for Philipine International Kyokushinkai Karate Championship.

He started off his martial arts journey with boxing and picked up Muaythai. This will be his 2nd pro Muaythai fight, with the 1st fight in F3 Borneo Series last year which he lost by points. Rizal was in the Sabah state Muaythai team in November that won the Borneo Cup, Rizal contributing a bronze.

For Day 1 the spotlight will see seasoned Muaythai fighters Randal Kadayum of Kinabalu Fighters vs Reyan Abdul of Kinabalu Kings. 

Randal has achieved a lot in Muaythai among it, winning 4 D1FC title, Sarawak TYT Cup 2015, Borneo Cup 2016 , Elopura Fights 2016. But he has a score to settle with Reyan, as he lost to Reyan last year in F3 Borneo Series.

Randal would like to end 2016 with another trophy in his collection, this time for the 66 Askar Hantu Trophy. Find out whether 'The Slayer' Randal able to slay Reyan ' The Shadow Hunter'

Women fight hi-light will see a good match up of Aurora Chai of D-30 Miri vs Nurul 'Chiko' Khairunnisa of Team Karabaw.

Judging from pass women fight, it has always been very fast pace and non-stop action, at times more action than the men's fight. This match up is good as it's a fight between a new comer in martial arts; Aurora and an experience fighter in Chiko.

Aurora trains at D-30 under Master Tang Hui Ding. She is only 16 but has a great appetite for martial arts. In Fight Fest 3, she participated in 3 events, BJJ, Kickboxing and MMA. She manage to reach semi-finals for her Kickboxing and for the SuperFight MMA, she lost a close decision to Barbara of Sabah Top team in a action packed fight.

Chiko has fought MMA numerous time in MIMMA. And in JFL she was the Grand Finalist in 2015. In Sept she won the straweight fight in STAND series 2. Chiko fight with passion and a great focus. She has a no retreat no surrender attitude.
This fight promise to provide plenty of fireworks.

Thanks to all the sponsors and the organisers, the event will be free, no ticket charge. So come down to Karamunsing Complex and support your fighters. Check out SABAH FIGHT FB for more updates.

and don't forget to buy yourself a limited edition t-shirt for souvenir