MIMMA 5 GRAND FINALS : JAY MURAN USING MARTIAL ARTS TO COMBAT LEUKEMIA

Of all the weigh division in MMA, the flyweight is the most action pack due to their lighter weight. KO may not be a regular game ender in this category but submission and fast pace techniques is a guarantee.  Jay Muran is  a fighter in this category.

Fighting in the MIMMA’s 5 league, Jay Jay Anak Muran stands above the other 7 fighters in his division with 27 points. Jay was one of the most active fighters in the division. He fought 5 times before qualifying for the semis.

In that 5 times he loss one time to Naimul Amal, all his other 4 wins are by finishes. He extend his winning streak in the semis by choking out Muhd Iskandar.

Semi-finals victory for Jay

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Let’s get to know better this small dynamite from Sarawak.

Jay Jay Anak Muran. His father is an Iban from Sarawak while his mother is Indonesian whom grew up in Tawau, with Chinese and Toraja heritage. Born in a small town call Kanowit in Sibu Sarawak with four other older siblings.

Jay holds the life principle that if you work hard, success will follow. He did well academically and enroll in Mukah Polytechnic for petroluem production studies. After graduating in 2013, he was looking forward to apply his knowledge by working in the oil fields, as he was offered to further his studies in INSTEP (Institute Teknologi Petroluem PETRONAS). This required him to pass a medical test…which he failed as he was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

" End of 2013 I get offer continue my study with INSTEP but failed for medical checkup, and diagnosed with Leukemia so I went and get treatment."  

"After that I get offer again (for 2nd time) and I pass my medical test this time because my blood was stable. I studied for 1 year at INSTEP and graduated in June 2015, after that I went for Petronas interview and pass but my medical test again failed due to the condition of my blood.”

at INSTEP

He is on medication and is feeling physically fine. But the disappointment of not able to build a career in the lucrative oil and gas industry affect him emotionally. His hope was crushed and his mind was clouded with uncertainties. That was when he decided to use work out as a way to calm his mind.

He enroll in Muayfit Damansara Perdana and met his coach Lito Adiwang of Philipines, a professional MMA athlete. Lito uses martial arts to guide Jay to develop his physical health and also mental strength. Jay took on Lito’s teaching like fish to water. And soon within a year he was able to develop a career in the fitness industry as a trainer.

Jay now teaches at Fitness First iOi Mall Puchong. He has moved on from Muayfit to FightFam MMA gym lead by his captain Michael Mah. He also cross train at Marcos Escobar BJJ in Kota Damansara under Kenneth Lam.

Jay (L) having a career as a fitness trainer at Fitness First

training at MEBJJ

his fight gym at Fight Fam MMA

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vs Raziman at league 1

appearing with Azreel in HotFM promo

Jay holds a current MMA amateur record of 8-2-0. His 2 loss comes from, in 2016’s MIMMA season 4 to Eddey Kalai. The time when he barely have a few months of training under Lito.

His other loss was to Naimul during league 2.

choked out by Naimul in league 2

On how is his preparation for the rematch with Naimul, this time in the grand finals.

“I prepare more on my cardio and ground game...I know I lost to him by bulldog choke in league 1...but I believe my ground game is better than him." 

"This will be revenge time all out and I'm not even scared to get injure because this is the grand finals."

There seems to be a personal fued going on between Jay and Naimul. As both were involve in a short altercations during the shooting of the grand finals promo video.

This bad blood between the two of them is fueling Jay's determination to do his utmost best. To Jay whatever happens, he will lay it all out in the cage.

This will certainly be a bout not to be miss. Grab your tickets folks, and get ready for a busy night!

setting his eyes on the gold

MIMMA 5 GRAND FINALS - NATHANIEL LAKAI THE NEW FACE OF MMA LIGHTWEIGHT IN MALAYSIA

Nathaniel ‘The Sinister’ Lakai from Miri Sarawak is the new face of MIMMA lightweight. In MIMMA 5 league standings, he leads the table with 22 points. Going into the semi-finals he was supposed to fight the highly rated Jace Law (MIMMA3 Champion), but Jace pulled out and Nathaniel was left without an opponent for awhile. Until he was match up with Asuad bin Khalid, a fighter he beat in League 5. ( read more about him in my preSemi-finals coverage ).

We had a chat with him as he prepares for his grand finals appearance this Friday.

Congratulations on your semi-finals win. Please take us through your semi-finals fight...did it go as plan or you had to adjust?

“1st round I was pacing myself, figuring out if he'd change his game plan for this second match, nothing changed much. So I just set up my take-downs and controlled him on the ground. Could have finished him but I couldn't find any openings as I remembered Asuad is a hell of a fighter, he didn't tap to any of my chokes on the first match, so I was looking to submit through joint locks.”

With this win, he was schedule to face last year champion Hui Keng Fai in the grand finals. Again fate has it that his opponent was changed. This time due to Keng Fai’s contractual agreement with Ringstar which deters him from taking a fight so close to his pro boxing title match in April.

Did you celebrate the win?

“Not really, I went home poured me a huge glass of wine and played Player's Unknown Battleground. I was really tired and I’m on fight season so you'd see me in cyber cafes or at home playing games, so no big partying.”

He will be facing Syafiq Jamal. Whom was 2^nd in the league standings. Syafiq lost to Keng Fai the in semi-finals via submission and has been given another chance to redeem his loss.

The grand finals fight will be a rematch as Nathaniel met Syafiq during league 2 and have a 2^nd round submission win over him.

Although he is very much at home on the ground, while preparing to face Keng Fai, Nathaniel has been focusing on his striking under his mentor and Coach Trevor Salang in Warmonger. Nathaniel is eager to bust a few moves to add to his grappling game.

with his coach Trevor (R) and team mates Emilia

success for Nathaniel & Emilia ( Warmonger ) in grappling comp Sabah Grappling Quest last year

cornering his brother Nigel and other Warmonger team mates in Borneo King of The Cage in mid March 

looking for the win

Aside from preparation on physical sides, do you do any mental preparation?

“I listen to alot of DhyaanGuru's music to keep me calm and focused."

What about walkout song? Do u have one confirm for MIMMA final?

"J. Cole’s  FIRE SQUAD. I haven't told them yet. But hopefully they approve it with all the cussing in it."

Haha so what's your back up if it gets banned?

“ Jay-Z Hard Knock Life. Pretty hard with all these rap songs and cuss words in it, LOL”

Nathaniel has serious cravings for his mum’s cooking of pork in soy sauce…his mum is very much waiting to cook him that very dish, once he bring back the Lightweight belt home to Miri.

MIMMA 5 GRAND FINALS - KHAIJU DOMINATION

There’s a genre in Japanese movies that features huge giant monsters. Then few years back when Pacific Rim movie was released, the word Kaiju becomes more well-known as it refer to the big giant alien monsters that terrorized earth. This March Pacific Rim 2 is out and Kaiju again will be the talk of town as it rampage through the cities in the movie.

In Malaysia we also have a Kaiju. Tsan Neing Khai aka ‘Khaiju’ from Sarawak! He is a heavyweight MMA fighter and will be terrorizing the MIMMA cage in the grand finals on 30 March.

 

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Tsan started participating in MIMMA since 2015 in season 3. Stumbling at semi-finals to Sabahan Tham Yaw Kent Following in season 4, he came back with much fire and rematch Kent in the semis but this time victorious. Following that he beat NIker Tan of Penang in the contender fight and met heavyweight favourite Darren Low in the grand finals.

It was a heavyweight fight that went down MIMMA history as the most closely contested. Giving Darren a tough night. It went the distance to 5 rounds with unanimous decision going to Darren.

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Season 5, again Tsan is back! He is determined to win the heavyweight title this time. With 3 finishes win in the league, Tsan was positioned 3rd in the league standings. He qualified for the semis and overcame Steven Yeoh of Johor in 3 hard rounds. 

MIMMA5 semi-finals vs Steven Yeoh

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Tsan’s dream was to make the heavyweight fight a Borneo showdown again by rematch with Darren Low for the grand finals. But this was not meant to be as Darren didn’t accumulate enough points to reach the semis (read about Darren Low’s story here).

For this time Tsan will need to defeat league leader Azrel Izzat of Perak to fulfill his dream of bringing the title back to Kuching. 

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Martial arts has not been part of his life until only in 2014 when he started doing Muaythai, all for the reason of losing weight as he was weighing around 140kg then. He just became a father of a new baby girl and at the same time running the business of few cyber cafes. Hardly any exercise made him pile on the pounds. 

“One Day when I was bringing my toddler for a walk, I felt tired and my lower back hurts just by caring my daughter for a few minutes. That's when I started to realised that I need to keep fit so that I can see my daughter grow up n be there for my family." 

From that experience Tsan started going for Muaythai classes introduced by a friend at a local martial art gym.
“I fall in love with Muaythai, I started going for classes every day , 6 classes a week , and I lost 30kg in the first 3 months." 

Tsan’s Muaythai gives him a solid foundation for MMA. He is among the pioneers of MMA in Sarawak. Training at Gymbox Kuching under Matt Pellino with Jace Law, Stephen Onn Jenggeing, Aaron Lo & Aaron Tan. Each of them pushing each other out of their comfort zone in order to improve each other.

His love for martial arts lead him to convert a store room in his shop to become a personal training room. That was the initial intentions anyway. 

“Started up with my friends coming in, but as times goes by friends bring along friends, then friend's friend's friends and so on until today my gym is way too small already. This was the beginnings of MAD Fight Club." 

“I trained by myself and with Aaron Tan, I went to Labuan’s Borneo Amatuer Challenge taking the ISKA trainer course level 1. I even imported a friend from Indonesia as my boxing coach, then I will be teaching Muaythai class." 

"I enjoy sharing knowledge with people. That’s what keeps me going on teaching classes. Tsan quest for knowledge also lead him to cross train with Warmonger Gym in Miri and also improving his grappling and BJJ with Albert Lim’s Studio 23." 

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Tsan is now a very busy business man. MAD Fight Club is now one of the top fight gym in Kuching. MAD.net cyber café is in its 10th year of operations, and since last year expanded his business to serve food & beverage in MAD Food Factory, all in the same block of building.

"MAD’s name is from my elder brothers company MADTechnologies, I loved their design n term so I just use their design as to help them do branding." 

"MAD means that we have crazy ideas, doing things differently, dare to challenge the new frontier." 

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On how he feels that the rematch with Darren didn’t materialized.
“Yeah that sucks big time, during the leagues my initial strategy is to skip battles with Darren as to minimize the changes for both of us to be injured so that we can had a rematch during the grand finals, but during the early league as we were chatting along, he told me that he will be very busy with work so maybe can't fight during Chinese New Year."

"I think its league 5 that I wanna get a rematch with him, but sadly accident happens, he got injured when he was training about 1 week off our scheduled fight day." 

"He messaged me personal telling me that he was injured and was unable to fight and pulled out last minute. I was unhappy at first because I bought flight tickets at RM600 and I was then very busy with my café." 

"I can only do day trips for my fight, the semi-finals fight. I had to wake up at 5am, flight at 7 am, then had to get ready to fight at 1pm. After the fight I need to get ready to pack up and rush back to the airport for the 10pm flight, I reached home that day at 1am midnight. Then have to go cafe cook the next day! Thing we do for the sport we loved LOL! , oh yeah I do the cooking myself too, I learn it from Aaron Tan… : ) "

Khaiju preparing for war

Through the love of MMA, Tsan and Darren are now close friends.
"Me and Darren, I think we are looking at this sports, somehow in a similar point of view as we both took it as a hobby. We do it so that we can eat more delicious foods, LOL. We both are the giants of Borneo, and most importantly with the love for the sports, we want to see it grow in our homeland."

the giants of Borneo

What do you think of the challenge Azreel present?
“I have been looking at his fights because I see him as potential opponent in the near future but he too choose to pullout during our matched ups, he is quite a tanky fighting styles with light feet. I think it will be a quite interesting match for us in the grand finals."

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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