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.

Rampage FC - the new MMA kid on the block.

Tucked in the corner of a first floor shop lot in Penampang, lies Sabah Top Team gym. Lead by Italian Antonio Battistessa, whom is married to a Sabahan and now calls Sabah his second home. Antonio was the first person to pioneer Muaythai in Sabah and from his MMA experience in Europe, was also among the first person to give MMA seminar in Borneo. Antonio is also the first person to bring Luta Livre, a form of grappling self defense ( with out Gi ) to this region. (Read about Antonio in my previous post)

Come this Saturday 13 MAY 201, Antonio will introduce Rampage FC. Although not the first MMA competition here, but it will be a first championship to be held in a cage inside a gym. 

Rampage is name for this championship, base on the name of the fight gear brand he founded just last year and Rampage FC will promote the brand to the martial arts community. Antonio finds that most fight gloves in the market are too thin. Rampage gloves are full leather fits snugly and are very suitable and safe for sparring practice and for amateur MMA competition. Rampage also produces shin guard which will be use at this championship too.

RAMPAGE fight gear

Rampage FC is also a platform for local referees to build more MMA judging experience. Antonio will be supervising the judging. Using his MMA experience, he wants to share his knowledge and equip the local referees and judges with more technical knowledge to judge an MMA fight. To do this, he will give a short seminar and coaching clinic to them before Rampage FC starts at 6pm.

The idea of a in-house MMA competition has been lingering in Antonio's head since last year. In order to make it a reality he needs a cage, and he began planning for a MMA cage to be built inside his gym. It was completed in Mac 2017 and has since became a training ground for his students to get use to fighting inside a cage.

The cage was also 'baptized' by an MMA seminar conducted by champion trainer and head coach from Team Lakay Philipine - Mark Sangiao in mac this year.

Mark Sangiao MMA seminar

Antonio has been growing Sabah Top Team (STT) steadily. To him STT is a work in progress, he is always looking for new ideas and new project to grow STT. On top of martial arts classes, STT now offers dance class, Pilloxing and functional fitness program. 

The new functional fitness gym is called Ape Box. Lead by Victor Lo, a local Sabahan that has experience in many Cross Fit competition. Although a independent gym, with members of its own, but STT members can enroll for the functional fitness program under one membership.

Injuries are common problems faced by martial artist and active people. Antonio believes that small injury if treated early will enable fighters to recover faster and always fighting fit rather than waiting for it to worsen. With this in mind STT now also offers physiotherapy and injury treatment. STT now house Borneo Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Centre run by Dr. Fadzil.

Another great addition to STT is a food area. Located at the balcony of the gym, Damn Good Burgers is run by Ash Ashraf, whom is Antonio's ex student. Damn GOod Burgers offers 100% ground beef from Australia and is also one of the sponsors for rampage FC. Fighters will get to savour the succulent and juicy meat patties tomorrow as they load up after weighing-in on Friday.

Damn Good Burgers

Going back to Rampage FC, this will also be the first time a grappling match for kids are organised. Antonio is targeting to have 21 kids to participate in the very first Little Grapplers, which is open only for kids 10 years and below. This will be held at 3 pm, ahead of Rampage FC.

MILO supporting the development of little grapplers

Exciting match up is on the cards for Rampage FC 1.

One of the bout to watch for is between two upcoming female MMA athletes.
Gloria Isabelle Hoong from Sabah Top Team vs Edilah Nadrah bt Johany from Borneo Tribal Squad.
Let's get to know them a bit more.

Edilah or better known as Ila to her friends is from Ranau of Dusun heritage. Very athletic since she was at a young age, joining sports in school from the influence of her family members whom all are athletic too.

Ila took up Taekwondo in primary school and won bronze and gold in a few inter-district tournament. In high school she dropped martial arts and became active in track and fields. It was non other than compatriot Sabahan Ann Osman whom inspired Ila to took up martial arts again. She started training at Ann's own gym Fitness Rites and later on progress to Borneo Tribal Squad (BTS) under head coach AJ Pyro as Ila wants to take up fighting seriously and BTS is fame to be the local elite MMA fight camp.

According to BTS team manager Emily Barner, " Ila is very driven, she really wants to train hard and fight and she is willing to put in the hard work. She always shows up and I have never seen or hear her complain. She is tough! and this will be her first MMA fight, it's only the beginning for her."

Standing across the cage to Ila is Gloria. A Sino-Kadazan from Penampang. Martial arts was not her first sports. Gloria was into rock / sports climbing. In her Uni days in West Malaysia, she was the president of the climbing club and participated in numerous competition.

It was when she's back in Sabah that she took up martial arts. This young lady in her short time training under Antonio in Sabah Top Team has achieved much. STAND 3 K1 - Gold, Sabah Inter-District Muaythai 2016 - Gold, BAC 3 MMA - Gold, BAC4 K1 - Gold, Muay Fight Night 2017 - Gold and most recently Borneo Cup 2017 - Gold. All this won't happened if not for a Groupon voucher she got online. She dragged her friend together to STT for the first class.

It was initially fitness and basic Muaythai for her, but she picked up very fast and began to show good potential. After a few months Antonio signed her up for a kickboxing match in Fight Fest 3. Gloria was reluctant at first as she thinks that she doesn't train enough and was still juggling between her favorite activity of climbing. She lost her first fight. The fear to go back in the ring was there, but to overcome that fear...she deiced to face it head on and decided to joined more fights.

She prefers to keep the fight on the feet but is well prepared to go to the ground from the Luta Livre training Antonio has drilled her with. Gloria puts in hard training daily after her day job in the accounts and finance department of Dekojaya. But when it comes weekend she will rest at home and hang out with family and catching a movie to chill out.

When it comes to food, she is not choosy, adventurous with food and willing to give anything a try. Obviously being a Sino-Kadazan Butod (Sago worm) should not be a turn off for her, but she has only tried the deep fried one...not the live one yet...perhaps after she got victory on Saturday night.
As for Damn Good Burgers, Gloria said it definately lives up to its name.
" It's damn good ! Juicy and tasty!" She recommends the lamb burger and always order double patties!

For those of you whom have a stereotype of how fighters are, especially female fighters, let this be known that this female fight is between two very smart individuals. Gloria is a Monash University graduate, with a Medical Bioscience degree under a full scholarship program. Meanwhile Ila is doing her masters of science in University Malaysia Sabah in the field of biodiversity and biosystem, doing research on insects! This is a battle of the scientist!

The main card  fight in heavyweight is definately a must watch. We have Tham Yaw Kent from Team Karabaw will face New Zealander Yannis Yokkokis from Borneo Top Team Sibu. Kent is a familiar face in local MMA, he was two times MIMMA semi-finalist and in 2015 became JFL 1st Heavyweight champion.

Meanwhile Yannis is a new comer in MMA. The last time he was in Sabah was in October's 2016 Fight Fest 3 where he won by KO in round one. Then in Nov last year he was in Penang's Warrior FC which saw him overcame MIMMA 4 finalist Niker Tan in round two with ground and pound. Yannis has a day job as a helicopter pilot for the Flying Doctor service.

This heavyweight match will surely not go 3 full rounds with the amount of power both of this two hold in their hands, a KO is surely on the cards...let's see who gets it...it will be total Rampage!

Other fighters to look out for are Mohd Raziman, a prolific youngsters that is on the verge of greatness in MMA. He has a certain McGregor swagger in himself and is poised to a showman that will entertain fight fans.

From Keningau MMA, the team that always is ready to rumble will bring 4 fighters. Look out for Leo Kataposan's fight vs Alexander Fong of BTS. This will be a fast pace action as both this flyweight possess enough technical skills to have a back and fourth barn burner of a fight. A contender for fight of the night.

  

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 - KK tryout

pix by YK Tang

MIMMA 5 tryout tour reached Kota Kinabalu on the weekend of 29-30 April. Held at Team Karabaw 'mini stadium' in 88 Marketplace, Kepayan. This is the 3 location after Penang and Johor Bahru. This coming weekend, 6-7 May, the tryout will continue at Kuching's Plaza Merdeka and finally ending at Paradigm Mall, Kuala Lumpur on 13-14 May.

Team Karabaw gym was home to Kk tryouts

In the two days tryouts at Sabah, saw 17 bouts held. Compare to previous years when it was held in 1 Borneo Mall, the numbers has significantly decrease. Partly maybe because there was a local BJJ competition at UNITY BJJ at the same weekend, which has basically draw the regional BJJ community there.

fighters registering

The decrease was also experienced in Penang & Johor too. This may seems like a negative aspect but in it's 5th year, MIMMA is evolving. MIMMA is looking for fighters that is seriously looking to build a amateur fight career. It no longer have the key objectives of creating awareness and reaching out to all but is moving towards producing high caliber Malaysia's MMA athlete.

To achieve this, the previous tournament format need to be changed. A new league format ( read about the new format in my previous post ) is created. This new league format requires much more serious commitment from fighters. From the tryout, 7 fighters will be selected for each weight category to fight each other in a round robin system.

The eighth fighters will be the previous year champion, if they choose to compete again this year. They are no longer the defending champion, but as one of the selected fighters in the league format. If the 2016 champions choose not to compete this year, then the eighth slot will be choosen from the 2017 tryouts.

According to Henry Goh, MIMMA's Head of Operations, the new league format is created in order to give amateur fighters more fight exposure. They must seriously think about committing to a monthly fight for around 8-9 months. Hence that's why the turnout may be low, as not everyone can commit to this kind of schedule.

Henry Goh 

" If you look at Muaythai, most Muaythai athletes have tens of fights before they turn pro. We want to give our MMA athletes this chance to gain those fight experience. In a tournament format, sometimes fighters have a bad day, or just plain unlucky and may lost a fight in the ladder or quarter-final rounds, which will end their journey immediately. But in league format, they can plan and improve on each coming fight to gain as much points as possible to be the top 4 highest in their category. These top 4 will progress into the semi-finals.

Fighters need to strategize with their coach to plan their training and fight better because in league format you have to fight almost everyone in your category. So analysing your opponent becomes an important aspect. No longer are you just training and training and hope to do your best, but you need to study your opponent's style and train smart to overcome that style. Fighters may choose to fight or not certain fighters if he feels that he has enough points to lead and facing certain fighters may be a disadvantage to him."

Henry also explained that obviously fighters may get injured or loose a few times in a row. In order to balance things out, he will have some other fighters selected as wild cards ready to enter the fight at any time.

The new format I believe is a good way to build experience fighters. In tournament format, fighters will fight 3 times only at ladder match, quarter-finals and semi-finals; and if they fight at the grand finals in total they only have 4 fights.

Fighters tested in stand -up

In the west, amateur fighters have tens of amateur fight records. This type of experience is valuable for them when they turn pro. Once they become a pro MMA athletes, they can utilise those experience to move ahead quickly.

Our local fighters may be attracted to turn pro due to the high publicity and fame of being a pro fighter, but if their pro debut are a lost, it may discourage them and put a damper on their development further. MIMMA wants to avoid this. They want to produce amateur champion that can hold their ground and excel when they decide to turn pro.

Fighters tested in ground position

At the moment, from the previous tournament format, MIMMA has produce pro fighters such as Allen Solomon Chong, Adrian Tham, Keannu Subba, Agilan Thani and Muhammad Aiman. Currently Agilan Thani is undefeated and  will be challenging for the ONE Championship welterweight title in Singapore this 26 May.

Henry also adds,
" Fighting in a league format ensure fighters appearance in a regular basis. This is a plus point for fighters to look for sponsors. As the more time they fight in the cage, the higher exposure they give to their sponsor's brand."

the hardworking crew - backbone of MIMMA

One week after the Kuala Lumpur tryouts, the selected fighters will be annouced. Fights will start after the Hari Raya celebration in July. This year will be very interesting for MIMMA. League format has been proven to be effective in retaining viewership and long term supports as shown in football, let's hope MIMMA's new format can create a bigger and loyal following for Malaysian MMA fans. Fighters too must be more strategic in their thinking and train smart. They must embrace the water theme and be like water.

This 6-7 May it's rumble in Kuching! Come Sarawakian show your warrior spirits!