URCC COLOSSAL - ITS KOREA vs THE PHILIPINES

29 Sept.

The weigh-in for Philipine base Universal Reality Combat Championships (URCC) is done. Tonight's event dubbed URCC Colossal will be at at the Araneta Center,  this is going to be URCC's  biggest fight card with the featherweight title on the line as the main event.

3 times URCC Featherweight champion - Korean wonderboy Do Gyeom Lee will slug it out with Filipino-American Mark "Mugen" Striegl. 

Do Gyeom Lee first fought for URCC in 2015. Following that 1st fight victory he challenge and won the featherweight strap and defended it twice in 2017. In 2018, he moved up to lightweight and collected another convincing win via armbar in R2.

Mark Striegl is a MMA veteran of 17-2-0. He debut for URCC way back in 2011 in his 3rd fight as a Pro. Then left to fight for a number of Asia base regional MMA organisation. Fought against once in 2012, then left to fight in PXC and ONE Championship.

URCC Colossol ...will be battle of the 8 packs tonight

He returned to URCC Aug last year, won via submission in R1, in the same cards with Do Gyeom Lee in URCC XXX, where Do Gyeom Lee had the 2nd defense of his featherweight belt. Then in DEC 2017, Mark made a statement by defeated Do Gyeom Lee's compatriot Gi Sung Kim.

The beef between these two has been building up since they last fought in the same cards in URCCXXX. At the press conference 3 days ago, much trash talk and taunting happened even though it's through a Korean translator. Do Gyeom Lee even accused Mark of being a PED user and challenge him to take a test after the fight.

former ONE Championship fighter AJ Pyro of Borneo Tribal Squad will be cornering Mark tonight

Tonight will surely be a super pack night in the Araneta Center as both Do & Mark has huge number of fans in Philipines and around Asia.

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Also on the line tonight is the Welterweight title.
It will be decided between Philippines’ John “Outlaw” Adajar (3-1) and Afonso Cego (2-5) of Brazil. This is a classic match between striker and grappler. Adajar have the edge in the  striking department meanwhile Cego possessing a brown belt in BJJ and a black belt in Brazilian Luta Livre stands to dominate if the fights goes to the ground.

Cego told The Fight Nation

“John is a tall guy who will fall, I believe that this fight will be finished in the first or second round with my victory and me drinking a beer.”

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Another very fun to watch and uniquely URCC is the team fight. It's a three-versus-three fight guarantee to be madly entertaining with the chaotic sequence and all out street like brawl scenario. This time it will be between Team Pilipines (Brian Paule, Mark Palomar and Patrick Dos Santos) versus Team Korea (Seung Hae Lee, Bum Suk Jang and Jun Bae Kim).

Take a look at URCC XXX 3 on 3 battle , and you can see how crazy things can get.

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URCC is the 1st MMA promotions in South East Asia founded by Filipino BJJ black belt Alvin Aguilar. Recently It has relaunch itself as URCC Global. Stating it's bigger ambition to grow in Asia and other parts of the world. It has hold events in USA a couple of times before and just last year held it's first event in China.

In the press conference yesterday, URCC chairman Arnold Vegafria told The Manila Standard that URCC Global has made inroads in cities and countries outside the Philippines and said the first big URCC event could probably be in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He added that URCC Global hopes to penetrate the Southeast Asian region and forge long-term partnerships with its Asian counterparts, and eventually assemble a contingent of iconic fighters willing to take on their Caucasian counterparts.

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MARTIN NGUYEN NO LONGER ONE CHAMPIONSHIP LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMP

28 SEPT.

As the world is preparing for MMA's biggest fight this year this coming 6 OCT - at UFC 229 Conor vs McGregor....ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong dropped a surprising news for MMA in Asia.

He announced today via Facebook that two division champion Martin Nguyen has vacated his Lightweight title. This is due to a ligament injury to his knee.

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that right hand that sealed his victory as Lightweight champion 

Australian - Vietnamese won the title via a devastating KO of Filipino MMA idol Eduard Folayang, in Nov 2017. Making Martin the first fighter to became two division champion in ONE. He earlier in August 2017 using the same right hand, KO Marat Gafurov claiming the featherweight title.

In 2018, Martin decides to do the never before in MMA, vying for a third title. This time moving down to bantamweight by challenging Bibiano Fernandes. He lost a very close split decision.

Following that lost he goes back to his natural weight division to defend his featherweight strap against home town favourite & MMA prodigy - Christian Lee. It was a very cautious rematch fight between the two but Martin managed to edge a win by a split decision.

Nguyen vs Lee 2

Two months later in July, he wanted to had another go at the bantamweight title. This time against Kevin Belingon. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.

vs Kevin Belingon

All these time, the Lightweight title has been put on hold since Nov 2017. The lightweight division is usually the most stack division in any major MMA organisation. In ONE Championship it's no different.

This Oct 6, Malaysian-Kiwi Ev Ting will battle it out against Japanese grappling sensation Shinya Aoki. This was announced earlier as a title eliminator, winner gets to challenge Martin. But now that Martin has vacate, it's left to be seen wheter this can turn out to be a title bout or not. Maybe for interim title. If Martin comes back, maybe he can challenge the title holder to determine the undisputed lightweight king in ONE.

Ev Ting has racked 3 win since he failed to dethrone Eduard Folayang in Apr 2017. As for Shinya, he is also on a surge after moving up to welterweight challenging Ben Askren in Nov 2017, he won twice with a R1 finish. Most recently convincingly beat Thai contender Shannon Wiratchai.

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Martin also had release a statement via his official Facebook account. 

“I was wrestling last Tuesday night, and I tore my PCL, MCL – a grade 2 tear – and strained my ACL.

“I don’t need surgery, thank the Lord. It’s going to be a long process, but I’m further along than I would have expected, so we’ll see what happens.”

Martin further explained that it could take between 8-12 weeks for his recovery. 

He also mentioned that of his endeavor to became 3 weight division champion, the toughest was cutting to bantamweight. When he took on Kevin Belingon, he had to cut close to 7kg in 7 weeks time. It took a toll on his body and he seems to loose the KO power. It's evident in his last two failed attempt in bantamweight.

Although moving up to lightweight is easier, Martin does not see himself fighting in that division again. Vacating the belt due to his injury he said is an honourable thing to do. Again it seems like a subtle dig by Martin to Conor McGregor. 

He first did that when he defended his featherweight strap against Christian Lee.

“Ultimately, I went one further than the person who everyone praises.” 

subtly referring to Conor. This time Martin reference to Conor that the Irishman didn't defend his lightweight belt, putting on hold the whole division in UFC. He never vacate his belt until he had to be stripped off the title.

Martin adds,

“It is what it is. I had my time in the lightweight division, I had my time in the bantamweight division. 

I’m back to my normal featherweight division, there’s no way I’m leaving the featherweight division, ever.

I will gladly take on all the featherweight contender one by one.” 

Martin will take his time off to spend quality time with his family, and also bask in the joy of winning the Asia MMA Awards for Male Fighter of the Year, which was just last two weeks ago on 14 Sept

But also having a close eye on the development & progress of all the featherweight contender.

with his wife at the ASIA MMA AWARDS 

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INTERVIEW WITH THEEBAAN G for PASKAL THE MOVIE

When we talk about Special Forces movie, generally the name Green Beret, Navy SEALs, British SAS will pop to our mind first. Those are the Special Forces in US & UK. In Malaysia, the name GGK (Grup Gerak Khas), VAT69 would mostly be recognisable. Little are known about another elite group in the Malaysian military, which is our Navy Special Force call PASKAL (Pasukan Khas Laut). This will soon change when PASKAL The Movie go on nation-wide premier this 27 Sept 2018.

PASKAL is a movie base on Malaysian Royal Navy Special Forces. This highly acclaimed local action movie directed by Adrian Teh are starred by Hairul Azreen, Ammar Alfian, Hafizul Kamal, Taufiq Hanafi, Gambit Saifullah, Theebaan Govindasamy, Henley Hii, Jasmine Suraya Chin.

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Being a media site that focus on the field of combat sports Warriors of Borneo interviewed Theebaan Govindsamy on his role in this breakthrough movie.

For the uninitiated Theeban is a two times SEA Games silver medalist and 7 times National Champion in Karate. Born in KL, raised in Ipoh, Theebaan was 'force' to take up Karate by his parents when he was 5.

"They would wake us up early in the morning to go for karate class when all I wanted to do was watch cartoons! 

After I got older, I realised the importance of martial arts and started to appreciate my parents efforts. I transitioned into MMA because I was intrigued by the sport and was ready to dip my feet into something new."

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A graduate from University Putra with a degree in Petroleum Chemistry. He now trains full time in Klinch MMA. Holding a current 12-5-0 in MMA, he became Malaysian Invasion MMA (MIMMA) Season 4 Welterweight Champion in 2016 defeating Gino Tan with guillotine choke.

In 2017 while actively fighting in MIMMA 5 league, he was selected as the sole Malaysian representative to IMMAF (International MMA Federation) World Championship in Bahrain. He qualified for the Grand Finals of MIMMA 5 in March 2018 & fought his team mate Ahmed Zahreh. It was a close battle and after 5 rounds of back & fourth Ahmed won by unanimous decision. 

Theebaan bounced back a few weeks later and emerged as Astro's VALLAVAR Season 4 Champion (an obstacle challenge game show that pitted athletes from various field against each other). 

Representing Malaysia in Bahrain. Accompanied by his girlfriend Darshanaa in IMMAF World Championship 2017

Anti-clockwise from top: Becoming MIMMA 4 Welterweight Champion, fighting team mate Ahmed in MIMMA 5, winning Vallavar S4 

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Following that Theebaan was nominated in the Asia MMA Awards 2018 for the Amateur Fighter of the Year and he made Malaysia proud by emerging the winner. 

Winner: Asia MMA Awards 2018 - Amateur Fighter of the Year

He told me about his experience in Hong Kong for the award night on 15 Sept.

"It was surreal! I first got the news of the nomination when I was in Sarawak for a holiday and I still remember I felt all sorts of gratitude towards everyone that has helped me come this far. 

The Fight Nation flew me in and put me up in a hotel in Hong Kong as well. They were a very accommodating host.

The experience there was truly a once in a lifetime thing for any fighter coming from this part of the world. I met so many big names and even UFC representatives at the awards. It was truly priceless."

Theebaan & Darshanaa accompany by TUNE TALKS reps , Shawn & Mary

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So when did he got involved with movie making?

Apparently PASKAL is not his first foray into acting...
4 years back, Theebaan starred in a local made Tamil action movie titled VICTORY. He did a lot of action fights in the movie as it's a story about the struggle & sacrifice of a Karate Champion.

"The casting team for PASKAL saw that and contacted me. They asked me to come in for auditions and I did. That's how it all began."

After the gap of 4 years from your first movie, do you have to take acting lessons?
Tell us about your character Shailesh in PASKAL?
"I did not take acting lessons but the rest of the cast were more than supportive of the fact that I'm a new actor and gave me as much guidance as they could.
Shailesh or his military call sign - Misi in the movie is part of the Alpha Team, lead by their commander Lt Arman Rahmat a.k.a Jerung. Misi is the medic in the team of 7."

How much does your martial arts background help in preparing for the role ?
How much fighting scene you have to do in the movie? Who choreograph the fight scene?
I believe you are the one with most experience in martial arts among all the main characters...did you teach them a move or two?
"My martial arts background definitely helped in the sense that I would never give up on a particular scene and also constantly try to get the best take by taking in as much input as I can. But for fight scenes there were professionals to help choreograph. 

They could, however, give me anything and I could pretty much do it.
The lead actor, Hairul, is very experienced in stunts himself so the two of us would show the team some tricks."

Executing the armbar - Applying his knowledge from MMA in the movie 

How much of PASKAL do you know before you took up the role in this movie? Did you ever attend any military training?
"I had no idea what PASKAL was before this. I had absolutely no military training although my mother used to serve in the Malaysian Air Force during her younger days."

All of you undergo training in Lumut Naval base, of all the training, which part is the most tough? Tel us about the firearms training?

How many stunts you have to do by yourself? Which is the most memorable?

"Training in Lumut was intense. Even if we only did some 10-20% of what the real PASKAL would do. 

The hardest of them all has to be the drown proofing exercise. Our hands and legs would be tied and we would be thrown into the water. We were required to get to the other side all whist remaining as calm as possible. 

Of course we were taught the best way to swim in such a situation before that and also has extensive safety measures in place during every exercise. Our safety was always the number 1 priority. If we weren't confident with ourselves, we didn't have to do it. Of course, all of us did. LOL."

"The firearm training was the most fun of course. We were taught how to dissemble and assemble a Glock, a M4 and an MP5. All of which we could do with our eyes closed at the end of the day."

How many stunts you have to do by yourself?

"We did about 99% of the stunts by ourselves." 

The movie also is about friendship among the characters...tell us about the actual friendship you build among the stars / crew / production of PASKAL.
"All of my co-stars and I are extremely tight right now. The guys have known each other for a hell of a long time by the time I got into the picture but they were so very warm and welcoming toward me."

From left:Henley Hi, Ammar Alfian, Theebaan G, Hairul Azreen, Taufiq Hanafi, Hafizul Kamal, Gambit Saifullah

"We still hang out and do things other than just attending press releases and interviews together today.

Of course the crew as well. The director has become a good friend as well. Absolutely everything about this experience was a good one."

At the Gala premier of PASKAL with his family & friends

with his firlfriend Darshanaa Chellaiah, his strongest supporter in his martial arts & acting career

PASKAL the movie will premier nationwide tomorrow 27 Sept 2018. It has gain many good review and has spark the interest of  Malaysian of all races to go watch a local action movie.

So move your butt and go to the nearest GSC Cinemas to grab yourself tickets to PASKAL the movie.

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VICTORIA TATTOO EXPO -1st in LABUAN

Good news for tattoo lovers in Borneo!

For the first time in Labuan, close to 40 tattoo artist will converge in Aifa Hotel for the 1st VICTORIA ISLAND TATTOO EXPO. Tattoo artist attending will be from Sabah, Sarawak, West Malaysia , Thailand and Indonesia.

There are traditional type of tattoos that have cultural or spiritual connotations but tattoo also has become a work of art that many enthusiast says is a form of self expressions.
 
As a blogger who cover the combat sports scene in this region, I have seen the boom of tattoo on fighters body. Tattoo of certain designs either give inspiration to the fighters themselves or a form of expressions they want to convey to public.

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Take a look at some of the famous UFC fighters with their work of art

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More than 30 booths featuring talented tattoo artist from around the region will be at Victoria Island Tattoo Expo . Victoria is the old name for Labuan island during the British colonial era. Having it in Labuan is strategic as Labuan lies in the middle of Sabah & Sarawak, two regions that historically have age old tradition of tattoo.

Guest artist whom will be present is Boy Skrang (Skrang Tattoo Studio - Kuching) & Slyvester Juli (Engkeruakman Tattoo, Miri).
Boy Skrang is one of the tattoo artist doing traditional hand tap tattoo and ever do tattoo for the late Anthony Bourdain when he visited Sarawak few years back.

They will also be tattoo contest. The guest judges are, Andreas Majakil, Nelson Winches and Felix Dixon.

Those who prefer to have female tattoo artist, 3 of them will be there.

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Warriors of Borneo talk to Mike Sidis who handles the marketing for the event.
Mike works in the oil & gas industry but is also an active fighter whom compete in pro MMA, Kickboxing & Muaythai.

Mike is a tattoo lover since childhood and has attend many tattoo convention. One of the unique tattoo Mike spot is a Mental Alchemy symbol  on his chest.

Upon asking, Mike explained,
"Mental Alchemy is the process of transmuting your thoughts to improve a person's life and expand their mind"

Mike is practicing Mental Alchemy through self learning. According to him it involves lots of meditation. It creates positivity in a person, he is still learning about it. He said it helps him in his work and martial arts training, and the tattoo helps him focus.

"My close friend Nelson Winches of Rockstar Tattoo, whom is the Chairman of the organising committee for Victoria Island Tattoo Expo is the only tattoo artist in Labuan. He is a very talented tattoo artist who has been in this industry since he was 13. Me, him and a few other tattoo lover friends decided to organised a tattoo convention in Labuan."

"Our primary reason of doing this events are;

• To change the general perception toward 

   people who have tattoo, that they are not as  

   bad hats. Many with tattoos are well 

   employed and have a successful career and  

   have a loving family.

• To promote tattoo as a form of art.

• To promote Labuan as a tourism attraction.  

  Visitors to the tattoo expo can enjoy duty free    shopping, eat fresh seafood, visit the beautiful    beaches and many more."

" Victoria Island Tattoo Expo will also do it's part in helping the community by having charity fund raising. Parts of the proceeds will go to two NGO in Labuan, Persatuan Autisme Labuan & Persatuan Orang Pekak Labuan."

Mike also want to emphasis that health & safety are utmost importance in this field and steps are taken to ensure all aspect of hygiene are followed. New needles are use on each customers and all needles used are discarded properly. Hand gloves are also a must.

Aside from getting their tattoo done in Victoria Tattoo Expo, Mike explained that visitors can also enjoy the various activities arranged such as traditional dance, traditional hand tap tattoo performance, live band & guest DJs from Brunei spinning awesome tunes.

Food & beverage will be available through Aifa Hotel's catering.

Got a design in mind?  Do talk to the artist. Tell them what you have in your mind and in your heart. They will sketch out your idea and discuss it with you. If you don't have ready design, rest assured these artist have plenty of ideas and beautiful designs for you to choose. 

Come and get yourself a tattoo at VICTORIA TATTOO EXPO but If you are not thinking of getting one, just drop by and soak in the atmosphere. Enjoy good music, have a beer or two, witness great artist executing their art & feast your eyes on beautiful work of art executed on the human canvas.

Click here to check out VICTORIA TATTOO EXPO Facebook for updates and more infor.

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