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

BRYANT TAN : COMING BACK FOR A FIGHT

October last year was a bitter sweet time for Bryant Tan. Sweet because in his first foray into MMA. he managed to go all the way in MIMMA season 4 to the grand finals for the Middleweight category.

Bitter because, in the Grand Finals, going against the towering Muhd Meeraj ( defending Middleweight Champion ), Bryant lost by TKO in round 1. Meeraj clearly have the upperhand in the striking game from his years in Wushu and also a pro boxer.

Challenging Mirage Khan for MIMMA4 Middleweight title last year

(Click here to read about how Bryant started his martial arts journey) 

After all the hard training and preparation, no doubt Bryant felt dissapointed with the lost. Nevertheless he thank his grappling coach Albert Lim, his boss at that time Olivia Ling and his Muaythai coach Lucas Lau for being there supporting him through his MMA journey.
"As the Chinese saying goes..., for the 3 minutes show people see on the stage, there are 3 years of  hard work behind it. People usually only see the end result but not the process" 
uttered Bryant.

After MIMMA, returning back to Kuching, Bryant went back to training and coaching but he felt that something was not right. he was not in the right frame of mind,...somehow he felt he lacks motivation to go forward. Deep down inside he felt the the need for change too. A change not to something new but a change back to familiar ground. Bryant felt that he needs to go back to his home town Sibu and back to his home gym Borneo Top Team

The gym he was coaching at - URBAN APE went through partner changes, which gave birth to Rebel Fitness Studio in May this year. Bryant continue to work at Rebel Studio till July. After the break up with his girlfriend, he made the final decision to move back to Sibu.

"I want to thank Rebel Fitness Studio, for giving me chance to learn and work with them. They all are good! Special thanks to my boss Olivia Ling, my teammates; Andrew, Aaron Yung, Gerald Tan, Stephen Onn, Chloe Tay, Malcom Wu & Rafael."

with his ex colleagues at REBEL during its official opening

"I'm coming home to Sibu, as a fighter I felt Borneo Top Team (BTT) is best for me. It's a real fight gym. Since July I became the head instructor of BTT, teaching all the fitness class such as, Core Extreme, Boot Camp Circuit, Spartan 100, Abs Class and Combat Sport, Boxing and Muaythai. As for Brazilian Luta Livre (BLL) its handle by Brandon Song, a BLL Blue Belt, I myself am learning lots of great ground techniques from him."

Back home in Sibu, Bryant felt rejuvenated and the motivation to train now comes back to him.

In  August, Borneo Top Team invited top ONE Championship lightweight contender Ev Ting to their gym. Ev was on a holiday after his dominant victory from ONE Championship: Quest for Greatness in Kuala Lumpur.

with Ev Ting

Sibu is the hometown of Ev's parents and he was on a break visiting his grandmother and other relatives. After some great time savoring great food in Sibu, Ev wanted to put in some training too.  He was glad to see a growing martial arts gym such as BTT in Sibu and shared his knowledge and techniques with the members.

"We were all very grateful for Ev to drop by. There was a lot of sharing, joy and happiness during the class. Ev is a very humble guy! Learning lot of great thing from him! "
comment Bryant.

Bryant is always hungry for knowledge and he is the type of person that would not hesitate to go the extra mile to learn from the best. Back in his early days when he started Muaythai, he spend a month in Chiang Mai Thailand for a Muaythai Camp. 

In Sept while scrolling through Instagram, he saw that Ido Portal was organising a Movement Internship in Phuket Thailand cost at USD6250! Bryant immediately sign up and at the end of the course from Oct 9 - 16, Bryant felt it's all worth the money he spent.

with movement guru Ido Portal

For those who don't know who Ido Portal is, I believe you would have seen the funny looking movement or exercise Conor McGregor was doing while preparing for his fights. Lots of viral video and memes was spread around mocking him. But infact those funny looking movement was thought by Ido Portal and was one of the key factors that contribute to Conor's success in the fight game.

Check out Ido Portal's website www.idoportal.com/culture  to learn more.

"Ido is a best best best teacher met! His teaching skill, languages etc, all are good ! What I can said is, USD 6250 USD is worth every dollar! During the movement internship, I learn lot of different body movement, on his theory and how to control body well. Human are born to move. His movement teaching are very helpful for fighter!"

Bryant has been applying what he learn from Ido Portal's internship to his martial arts training. He is still in the process of improving and learning, but he definitely feels that it gave him better judgement of distance and fluidity of techniques.   

"I keep practice with the movement and footwork drill. Try to improve and move my body more efficiently and utilizing brain control and reaction."

Since returning back to Sibu, Bryant also has been training with former two times SUKMA Gold medalist,  Zurkanain Majidi Wong in boxing. Boxing is not new to Bryant as he has started it few years back under Fred Mandagi - former Sarawak state coach.

Bryant felt he made the right decision to go back Sibu. He has a new sense of motivation. He enjoys teaching in BTT and at the same time supplement his income with part time modelling and photo shooting.

Food is something Bryant is passionate about. He has great knowledge of meal prep using healthy ingredients and helps his clients and gym member on diet and meal advice. But Sibu being a haven for food, Bryant does occasionally break his diet plans to enjoy the numerous Sibu's delicacies such as Sarawak laksa, Kompia and Mi Sua.

He buys his own ingredients and prepares his own meal for the weekday. He would start off with two hard boil eggs before workout. Post workout is 2 scoop of whey protein shake. Come lunch he prefers to balance his meal at 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fats/fibers. End with dinner with protein (egg, fish, and meat) and fats (walnuts, bean, coconut oil, avocados).

He supplement his meal with fish oil, calsium and glucosamine, preferring the brand of supplements from AMWAY.

As for his work out regime:

"Week day normally I wake up at 6.30am and after a light breakfast start training at 7am. Mostly cardio at morning: skipping and jogging. 

After that I will do my another session of training at 2pm, start with mobility workout, then get into movement and slowly to technique, shadow boxing, padding, sparring. End my afternoon workout at 4pm.

My last workout will be at 5pm, sometimes 7pm. Normally I will go to stadium jogging if I go at 5pm, and if I go at 7pm, I will go for a swim. That’s weekday.

Saturday I will just work on one session that’s 4pm, jogging 30min at stadium and doing some light bodyweight workout: burpee, push up, sit up and others.

Cheat day is on Sunday, if no fight, I will just eat whatever I want. If fight coming up, I will just skip my cheat day, still prefer eating clean.
I believe proper nutrition is the key to get strong and live long!"

As a fighter, all those months of training will need an avenue to test the outcome and results. In end of November, Bryant has set to make a comeback to competitive combat sports and Golden Gloves will be his target.

Golden Gloves is a National amateur boxing tournament organised by Persatuan Tinju Malaysia. For the last two years it was held in Kuching. This year will be held in Dataran Sibu - phase 2 from 27 Nov - 3 Dec. This year will see the participation of more than 80 boxers from all over Malaysia.

Bryant will be competing in the 81kg-91kg category. This will be his journey back to the top and he wants to end 2017 with more competition under his belt. He will continue to compete in other combat sports. In plans are MMA and Kickboxing fights in December and also targeting MIMMA season 6 next year.

We wish to see more actions in the ring/cage by Bryant and wish him all the best in his journey back to combat sports glory.