NEW ERA FOR TEAM KARABAW

Moving into a new place, there's always mixed feelings. Leaving an old place behind is not easy due to familiarity and nostalgia where memories have been built over the years. 

New place means a new chapter, a new beginning, a new era. This is Team Karabaw Sabah. This 1 September 2018 will mark a milestone for Team Karabaw, as their headquarter will move into International Technology & Commercial Centre, Penampang (ITCC-Penampang). 

Team Karabaw is possibly the biggest gym network in Borneo.

Founded by Sensei Rayner Kinsiong (former national Malaysian Karateka and ONE Championship fighter ) in 2012 , that time was it was based in AllFit gym. It was together with his Karate brothers...  

"My main aim was to keep our Karate way of life/discipline and eventually to tap into MMA/muaythai/boxing scene.

The people who started the team and still with me now is Sensei Vallerio Gumbilai, Sensei Thomas Olin and Douglas Gumbilai." 

Founding members: from right Thomas Olin, Rayner Kinsiong, Vallerio Gumbilai, Daouglas Gumbilai 

Eventually Team Karabaw set up it's own home in 2012 at Market 88. It was a two shop lot space on the 1st floor. This was a place where have seen the blood and sweat of many fighters that train here for their fight camp and also a birthplace for many new prospect that eventually became regular in the local combat sports scene.

This venue in Market 88 also has seen several events being held here. MIMMA 5 Sabah trial selection, STAND Junior, Muay Fight Night (MFN) and MFN Ladies Cup.

Team Karabaw crew  at MIMMA 5 selection at Karabaw gym Market 88

Karabaw HQ at Market 88 : The boxing ring and sparring mat 

Karabaw HQ at Market 88

"I wanted to represent who we were... wanted to show that KARATE isn't a bad place to start with...  
We built the team and now we have some world ranking Muaythai fighter through teachings with the mixture of karate and other martial arts...

We still believe strongly in the way we were brought up."

With this believe...Team Karabaw further expand.

Tamparuli branch set up in 2013, Papar 2014, Sipitang 2014, Putatan 2016, Keningau 2016 and the latest addition...Labuan 2018.

Last year Rayner was hands-on involved in building Sabah Muaythai Camp. From clearing of land, sourcing of equipment, planning layout, etc to the day it open in November 2017 with a Youth Muaythai Competition. The Sabah Muaythai Camp is a sprawling huge well equipped facilities for fighter training in Papar, believe to be the first of it's kind in Borneo. It is also the new home for Team Karabaw Papar.

Sabah Muaythai Camp

Army of Karabaws in MIMMA 3 selection at 1Borneo

Tell us what is the significance of the name Karabaw.

Rayner explains...

"KARA (KARATE WAYS) + BAW (KERBAU - the Malay word for bull) because we believe in the spirit of a bull...  hardworking, a beast in a way)"

What is your fondest memories?

"Seeing our young ones achieve what they have achieve to date....THAT always will be my fondest memories, I am sure Val and Thomas will say the same thing."

What's your message to the new generations of Karabaws?
"Keep the Karabaw spirit alive, stay as one... We are stronger TOGETHER."

What's your vision for the team?

"I want TEAM KARABAW to be known as ONE powerhouse in any martial arts in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia...and someday be known around the world."

photo by Deb Gauges

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The new gym has a clean, minimalist white ambiance. The concept of white is actually a part of martial art. White gives a feeling of serenity. When you are a martial artist doing battle, calmness and serenity is the key to victory. Chaos is brashness that will lead most of the time to defeat.

White also symbolizes pure heart, humbleness and respect. A true martial artist will always carry themselves with honour and respect.

Team Karabaw HQ is located at ITCC Mall, Donggongon Penampang, 20 mins drive from Kota Kinabalu. It is the latest mall in Kota Kinabalu. It has ample parking space, spacious shopping area, many food outlets...and now you can go there and train in Team Karabaw Martial Arts and Fitness Academy.

Opening hours is 10am - 10pm. Currently classes available are for Muaythai, Muaythai Kids (below 13years old), Brazillian Jiujitsu, Capoiera, Personal training (Muaythai and Fitness)

There are lockers for rent, hot & cold shower rooms and changing room available.

Grand opening is on 1st Sept, which will be officiated by Datuk Seri Panglima Clarence Bongkos Malakun at 2pm. 

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MALAYSIAN BORNEO WARRIORS BATTLE iN LEGAZPI

From the land of the headhunters where Mount Kinabalu stands proud, two Malaysian Borneo warriors will travel to Philipines where the beautiful conical volcano - Mount Mayon raised up in the horizon of Albay province, to do battle in Cage Wars - Battle in Legazpi.

Tonight in Ibalong Centrium of Legazpi City, Mohd Rashidin (Rash) who works as a mechanic in Sabah will be the main card feature in Cage Wars. Rash is no stranger to the local Malaysian fight scene.

Rash has extensive ring experience in 17 undefeated Muaythai fight. He build his cage experience in Jesselton Fight League and MIMMA. His first Pro fight was in India's Yodhha FC. He will represent Kuda Hitam MMA - Team Karabaw

At 23, his opponent is a very experience Jayson E. Margallo with a 3-6-0 record. Jayson is a veteran from many top promotion in Philipines & Thailand such as UGB, PXC Laban, FMD & Primal FC.

This will be a battle of styles as Rash prefers to stand & strike while Jayson is superior in the grappling department. Which fighter will walk out with his hand raise?

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As for Sarawakian Magedelina Meding (Mag), this is her debut Pro fight. I last saw Mag fight in Ultimate Beatdown Borneo in May. She lost a very close fight to fellow Sarawakian Emilia E. Rayner. Mag is known for her endurance and durability. She is a high output fighter that does not back down from a slugfest.

Mag work as a safety officer in the oil and gas industry. She is base in Labuan, and is representing the newly formed Team Karabaw Labuan. She is facing a formidable opponent in Rocel Catalan from the fame Catalan Fighting System. She is the siblings of ONE Championship athlete Rene & Robin Catalan. Rocel works as coach in Elite Fitness Vietnam.

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Cage Wars - Battle in Legazpi will feature 8 pro fight (male) + 1 female pro fight.
Watch out for plenty of action from some of the Philipines top MMA prospect.

Another Catalan siblings will also enter the cage tonight. Rocel's brother, Ruel Catalan, former ONE Championship fighter and the head coach of Ramirez Mixed Martial Arts by Catalan Fighting Systems will eagerly look for a win after a long 4 fight losing streak.

Follow BIG3 MMA Production facebook page for more update.

From the words of BIG 3 MMA itself ..." Meet the official Cage Beauties of Guerrilla Evolution Cage Wars. Because every warrior needs a beautiful inspiration and War will be boring without a beautiful distraction."

It will also be a night of great live music from local Pinoy band

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Stepping into the cage in front of the very passionate Pinoy crowd is certainly a daunting task especially for pro newbies like Rash and Mag. But they are bringing the fighting spirit from Borneo and the support of fellow Malaysian behind their back.

Warriors of Borneo wishes Rashidin and Magdelina all the best in the Philipines.

ULTIMATE BEATDOWN BORNEO FEATURING RYAN FELTNER

Redemption. It’s on Ryan Feltner’s mind. He wants to wipe off the horrible lost in FMD 13 last year. It was a 5 second lost via TKO. Ever since then, American Ryan ‘Bodat’ Feltner has been focusing on training to get better and seek a fight to erase that nightmare in Bangkok.

Come 12 May, he will have his chance. Ryan will be featured in the main card for ULTIMATE BEATDOWN 28 : BORNEO. He will be fighting pro at middleweight against local Malaysian from Sabah pro debutant Mike Sidis.

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At 29 years old, Ryan has 4 MMA fights experience. 1-1 at pro. But his journey began when he was very young. At 8 years old struggling to focus on his studies and getting bullied regularly, his aunt signed him up for Taekwondo classes.

When he turned 11 he moved from Arkansas in the south to Michigan in the north, but things didn't gets better. The bullying got worse, mainly because southerners speak a different slang than northerners.

It was on a fateful day in a playground that 7 older kids jump him. Ryan did not concede defeat, he fought back even though the odds was against him. He managed to knocked out 3 of them before he was taken to the ground as they kicked and stomped on him. It was fated that the teacher on duty that day, Mr. Hutchinson saw what happened and came to break off the fight and chase the delinquent away.

He sat Ryan up and asked whether he was okay. He said Ryan was really tough and brave but that he need to learn control. Turned out that Mr Hutchinson was the school’s wrestling coach. From then on he joined the after school Wrestling Club program, in which he gets to train with the high school wrestlers.

“ I'll never forget the act of kindness and understanding that coach Hutchinson showed me. It paved a way for me to become a better person.”

Ryan didn’t compete in wrestling when he was in Michigan because he started at a considerably late age compare to others in Michigan where they train at a very early age and the local competition circuit is very high level at his age group. But the exposure and the chance to be able to train with other athletes gave him a good foundation in martial arts.

Ever since then Ryan has trained in American Kenpo (considered as one of the first MMA systems introduced to North America consists of Goju-Ryu Karate, Chinese kenpo and Judo.) He has also started training in BJJ 3 years ago along with Muaythai, Sanda and western boxing.

Jobs opportunity was tough back then and he being a person with high principle and an independent attitude, Ryan at one time was homeless and live out of his truck. He even experience rummaging through garbage bin for food just because he does not want to beg for food.

Making a huge decision one day to just leave America and use whatever little money he has, he board a flight to Malaysia. Seeing that Malaysia MMA scene is growing, Ryan felt that he found a place close to his heart, he found a place to develop his art and also to contribute his knowledge to the local Malaysian combat sports. It is also a place that he found love, where he met his wife from Penang.

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He is now a certified personal trainer and specialize in nutrition and rehabilitation. He is currently training at Batam Fighter Club with 70kg Indonesian One Pride MMA Champion Jeka Saragih.

Recently Ryan travelled to the north eastern part of Thailand ( the Issan province close the the Lap border). It is where many Thais start their careers as Thai boxers. The training here is more raw and hardcore but not many gyms here openly accept foreigners. He search around and was rejected by all until finally he found Kru Kreed.

Ryan considered the experience with Kru Kreed as the best striking coach he ever had. 

“He said I can kick and punch but I'm not using any technique. So he started me from very basic training and in my one month my technique got better than from a year of training anywhere else.
But it was not easy. The training was very hardcore and intense. My legs was bruised and battered so bad, I could hardly walk.”

But it was a no pain, no gain journey for Ryan. He felt his striking improve leaps and bounds.

Ryan is looking to showcase what he has learn from Thailand on Saturday night, combining his improved striking with his strong grappling.

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On his fight with Mike Sidis, 

“It's a classic match-up between striker and grappler. I have worked extensively on my submissions and to refine my stand-up techniques. 

I understand that my opponent is a kickboxer. You never want to underestimate someone but I've watched his tape and I'm not really impressed with his stand-up skills.

I am confident of victory. I feel I'm more athletic and more experienced and more well-rounded. I have the ability to take the fight to the ground and keep it there. Fighting against a strong wrestler is completely different than a BJJ guy. There's nothing more embarrassing than getting thrown like a child and being held on the ground knowing you can't get back up."

Ryan says that he believe that people are underestimating him quite a lot because they are judging his ability based on his last fight, the 5 second loss in FMD 13. He does not mind being the underdog. It gives him more motivation to proof them wrong.

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About Ultimate Beatdown

Ultimate Beatdown is base in Johor Bahru. It is the most successful and the longest running MMA promotions in Malaysia. Founded by Melvin Yeoh, former ONE Championship fighter and widely considered as the pioneer of MMA in Malaysia. It started off as an MMA only promotions, but has these pass few events evolved to a multi style promotions which include cage boxing and Kickboxing. There was even a cage grappling super fight in pass event.

This Saturday event is the first time UB venture out of Johor. Working together with Team Karabaw lead by Rayner Kinsiong, this special edition will be located at 1st floor, convention center of the new high-tech mall – ITCC in Penampang

Come and experience the new Ultimate Beatdown Borneo edition this Saturday 12 May. UBB will feature 14 bouts of Amateur Cage Kickboxing. 10 bouts of Cage Boxing. 10 Amateur MMA . It promise to be a night full of actions as many season fighters from Sabah, Brunei, Sarawak, Japan and from India will showcase their skills and showmanship. 

Fights starts at 1pm to 6pm. 6pm onwards is MMA bouts. 

Tickets are still available at only RM10 ( free seatings ) Please call 019-8128379

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SABAH YOUTH MUAYTHAI C'PIONSHIP @ SABAH MUAYTHAI CAMP

Sabah Muaythai Association ends 2017 with a bang by the organizing of Sabah Youth Muaythai Championship. The Youth Championship was held on 25-26 Nov at the spanking new Sabah Muaythai Camp. It is certainly a great year for Sabah Muaythai in 2017 and having it ends with this youth program sets the tone for future in which the youth certainly ARE the future! 

2017 has been a good year for Sabah Muaythai. Started with Sabah retain the Borneo Cup this year in April and strike gold in 1st World Youth Martial Arts Mastership in Korea by contributing 2 gold and 1 silver to total medal haul for Malaysia early this month.

In Oct the Sabah team captured 3 Challenge trophy at the Borneo Cup Pro Muaythai Championship in Bintulu plus 1 silver & 3 bronze.

In August - successful organising of 1st Muay Fight Night Ladies Cup and 1st Youth Wai Khru Competition.

Sabah team also contribute to the Malaysia team's 1 Gold, 2 silver & 3 bronze for IFMA World Youth Muaythai Championship. Sabah team won 4 Gold, 2 silver & 3 bronze during the National Youth Muaythai Championship.

In the National Muaythai Inter-state and National Muaythai Junior Championship, Sabah team bag 8 Gold medals.

According to Sabah Muaythai president, Ir Hj Nazri Razak, Muaythai is relatively new in Sabah with around 8-9 years of history compare to the other state in Malaysia especially West Malaysia, but Sabah Muaythai has grown tremendously fast. This is due to the Sabah Muaythai Association working well as a team.

Him together with his deputy, Maman Ajmain and the rest of the committee has put in very solid planning and hard work to make sure the plan works. And all these cannot be accomplished without the good support from Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Sabah Sports Council; and the various gym in and around Sabah.

Development program set by the association is now bearing fruit, more needs to be done to ensure Sabah produce more high caliber Muaythai athletes. The big target for next year is to have a great showing for SUKMA in Perak. 

The feather in the cap for 2017 is the new Sabah Muaythai Camp. It is located 3 km away from Papar town. This is also the home for Team Karabaw Papar. The camp occupies a land area of 8000 sq feet and house facilities for Muaythai training under Team Karabaw and also strength & conditioning facilities under Rhinobox. Food and beverage is available from the in house Bobheads Café.

Regular class will start soon in December for Muaythai & fitness but the camp main objective is to be a venue for fight camp. With it’s surrounding of greenery and laid back village life and a flowing river nearby serves as a great place for athletes to have their focus centralized training.

The timely completion of Sabah Muaythai Camp owes a lot to project leader Rayner Kinsiong. Rayner whom is also the founder of Team Karabaw has been overseeing the construction of the camp from day 1. Amidst his busy schedule of running a gym in Kota Kinabalu and Papar, training his fight team and being part of Sabah Muaythai team that represent Malaysia to IFMA World Youth Muaythai in Bangkok and 1st World Youth Martial Arts Mastership in Korea, he has spent sleepness night making sure the camp is built on time and to the specification that meet global standard.

Rayner Kinsiong

YB Datuk Rosnah in her opening speech. ( inset: Hj Nazri )

The Youth Championship was launched by YB Datuk Rosnah Binti Haji Abdul Rashid Shirlin, the member of Parliament for Papar and also Deputy Work Minister. In the launch she announced the support of RM3000 for the building of the hostel for Sabah Muaythai Camp. When fully completed, the two storey hostel can accommodate 26 athletes.

The Youth Championship saw the participation from various local gym from all over Sabah and also from Miri. Total 15 gyms / clubs took part and D’Sha from Tawau emerged champion with the medal haul of 4 Gold, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze.

Full medals tally

This is the first Championship for D’Sha Gym’s kids. Established in 2016, D’Sha is owned by former Sabah state bowler Sharon Andrea Gerald. Sharon switched to running after her competitive bowling days. She then went into her own construction business for a few years. But her heart still lies in sports. Trained as a personal fitness coach, she started coaching and also began training in Muaythai under her nephew at Alamgir Gym. 

Sharon with her D Sha Ladies Fitness Gym members

Her achievement in Muaythai was a silver in 2016 Tawau Muaythai Championship, Bronze in Sabah Inter-District 2016 and most recently in Sept, Bronze in MFN Ladies Cup 

She is also the secretary of Tawau Muaythai Association and are committed to produce more quality young Muaythai athletes from Tawau. She started D’Sha last year and focus on ladies fitness, as she felt that Tawau lack a place where the women folks can trained together comfortably as most other gym are dominated by male.

Sharon, making sure her students are well prepared

From there, as most of her female gym members are mothers, she started a Muaythai class for their children. She focus on kids from 6 to 16 years old and train them in getting all the basics right. When the kids grow older and has reached a good skill level that require more advance techniques and harder sparring session, she will pass them to her nephew Fazren Timmy who operates Tim’s Muaythai. 

Tim's Muaythai is also home to Daniel Fiedians Maideh @ Olan Todak, the sole Gold medalist in Muaythai IFMA Youth World Championship Bangkok in August.

For this 2017 Sabah Youth Muaythai, Sharon’s main objective was to expose the children to competition, to enable them to build confidence in the ring and letting them learn to perform under pressure. Also to let them meet other Muaythai exponent from other districts to exchange infor and make friends. She spend her own money to rent a van and drove her own car all the way from Tawau to Papar in an 8 hours drive.

She is definitely proud of her Muaythai kids’ performance. As a reward she spend an extra day with them, bringing them sight seeing, shop and eat in Kota Kinabalu. 

Having fun playing bowling

Hanging out at CentrePoint mall

Happy faces from participants

Team Karabaw Tamparuli took home 3 gold out of the three participants sent

Borneo Phoneix with 3 Gold, 1 Silver & 1 Bronze

Black Mamba Gym , 2 Gold, 2 Silver & 1 bronze

Team Karabaw Keningau & Papar, together took home 5 Gold, 7 Silver & 3 Bronze

Revolution Gym, with 2 Gold and 1 Silver

The future of Muaythai Sabah...Faiz Iskandar (66 Unicorn Sandakan ) on the left has been meeting Hazmie ( Black Mamba Gym ) - on the left for numerous time. The epic rivalry similar to Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan in badminton has push these two to perform at their very best . Both only 12 years old, the talent they possessed will need to be sharpened properly and we could be looking at potential future World Champion here.

The team that ensure the technical aspect and the event run smoothly.

Technical team lead by Muaythai Sabah vice president Reza Readwan ( fourth from right)

Referee and judges team lead by Rudy ( middle )

Floor Manager Dhilon Tahing ( in black tee 

Crowds was able to get some delicious food from Bobhead's Cafe, which serve Rayner Kinsiong's mother recipe.

Cold MILO drinks was also available for all from sponsor Nestle Products Sdn Bhd.

Damn Good Burger also sets up a stall there run by Team Karabaw's Deana.

Bobhead Cafe open from 8am to 8pm. Do order their house specialty Nasi Katok Mama or Ngau Chap Mama 

Damn Good Burger

MILO always on the forefront of youth sports development