BORNEO KING OF THE CAGE

March 17 2018

There’s a raw vibe to watch fighting in a cage. In the early days of UFC it was label as human cock fighting. The cage was use to give it a very underground, no holds barred kind of feel. The birth of MMA was in a steel cage. But as the sports grow with better safety rulings and proper weight division, fighting in a cage is not something unusual anymore.

Last year in September, Johan Julian the founder of Fight Fest worked with venue owner of A Square Container Night Market to kick-start a new activities there. Cage fighting. A Square is a place where creative street food are serve from container shape kiosk. This venue used to be the popular Ocean Seafood restaurant, which has stopped operation many years ago due to changes in ownership.

Julian organized a cage fighting event named Borneo Battle Arena with Boxing and Muaythai bouts. They placed a steel cage (for cage boxing ) and a ring ( for Muaythai ) inside the hall where the restaurant used to be, which they now named the place The Arena. The idea is to make this place a hub for combat sports. Which fight fans can gather to watch fights and enjoy some good street food at the same time.

This 2nd event on 17 March 2018 was named Borneo King of the Cage. This event is to further promote combat sports in this region, giving newcomer a try to fight in a cage environment.

See the full results below

Borneo KOTC full results

The event was held at night and this time 19 bouts under amateur rules were contested. 9 cage boxing, 6 K1 Kickboxing and 4 MMA. This event was sanctioned by ISKA.

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Wira Boxing - Tawau

In the cage boxing event, out of 9 bouts, Wira Boxing from Tawau dominate with 3 Gold and 1 silver.

Young boxing prospect Hudzaifah Reitz, 22 from Tawau displayed very crisp and highly technical skills to win his match. He knocked down his opponent in finals a number of time until finally the ref stops the match & award the win by TKO. Hudzaifah is a UITM Sarawak graduate in Sports Science. He is now fully focusing on his boxing training.

Coming from a family of boxer where his father, Reitz Jakaria and grandfather, Jakaria Talad were former national boxers.

Hudzaifah is the youngest among his 3 brothers. Since his elder brother focus on their studies and the other one has a sinus problem, he is the only one continuing his family’s legacy in boxing.

He said he learn a lot from his father, not just in Boxing skills but also character building. His father emphasis discipline and humbleness.

Hudzaifah (R)

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In Kickboxing, Borneo Tigers MMA stand out, Liew Teck Seng won his fight in a blistering match at 75kg vs Kyo Kaeda. Liew with his stocky stature was able to connect with many powerful shot to win the fight by decision.

Kyo was a former fighter whom possess exiting style but has been inactive for some time. This was his first competition after a few years of lay off, but it was good to see him back in action and we hope he continue to train and compete.

Liew (R)

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Antonnio and his 3 Gold medalist

Sabah Top Team had a good result in bringing back 3 Gold. They participated in cage boxing, K1 and MMA.

In MMA, a debutant from Sabah Top Team (STT) caught attention of the referee when they did the initial body inspection before fighter enters the cage. Medical team was stunned to see Mohd Hanafi of Sabah Top Team, they discovered that his left feet, the toes and sole are missing. This was because of a motorcycle accident he had some time back. After Coach Antonio of STT assured the officials of his student capability to fight, Hanafi was given the green light to enter the cage.

Hanafi (Blue) 

Hanafi works as an assistant at CKS Supermarket, located just below STT. He was always curious about the training there but was rather shy in asking due to the condition of his feet. But finally he worked up the courage to ask Coach Antonio to teach him. That was only 6 months ago.

Fighting at flyweight, he faced Sylvester from Warmonger Miri. Despite his left feet’s inadequacy, Hanafi does not have a problem with his footwork. It was quite a funny situation when Coach Antonio was shouting instructions to guide him in the fight, but he stared back with a blank expressions on his face; because he does not understand English well. Then he holler back, asking his team to speak in Malay. With the guidance from his corner and the experience of training with Luta Livre grappling skills at Sabah Top Team, he managed to sunk in a standing choke that gave him the victory.

when you willing to work hard, nothing is impossible

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Johan Julian was very happy with the turn out from various gym across Sabah, Labuan, Brunei and Miri for the support they have shown for the event. He mentioned that the event was organized at night to ensure comfort as it is cooler. Crowds that came to enjoy food at A Square also walk in to catch a glimpse of what cage fighting is all about, and this he hopes will raise more awareness for the sports.

This is a great venue to promote the sports due to its central location in KK city. I personally I hoped that the venue owner can put in some effort to upgrade the ventilation of the hall and keep the place cleaner to ensure a win-win situation for all parties especially the visitors.

Deanver Randell (Kinabalu Fighters) - red corner, wins the Cage K1 80kg

Nigel Lakai (Warmonger) - red corner wins the MMA Lightheavyweight

Randell Kadayum (Kinabalu Fighter) wins cage boxing 60kg

Sofie 'Opie'(Tim's Muaythai) - blue corner wins Kickboxing 60kg vs Cindy Tiong (Labuan)

Magdeline (Tomoi Labuan) - blue corner, wins cage boxing female 50kg vs Erliana (Tim's Muaythai)

BORNEO BATTLE ARENA - FULL RESULTS

The martial arts scene in Sabah is alive and kicking! On Malaysia day 16 Sept 2017, the birth of Borneo Battle Arena.

Check out the intro video below.

This project was a collaboration between Axtrada, Persatuan Muaythai Daerah Kota Kinabalu (PMDKK) and Fight Fest. Axtrada is the owner of A Square Mart which sponsors the venue of the event.

Johan Julian of Fight Fest explained that this project main objective is to grow the combat sports scene in this region. Fight Fest already have a running cooperation with PMDKK on Muaythai tournament, so this project is to further enhance the cooperation by organizing a Super 8 Muaythai competition.

from (L to R) Johan Julian, Muslee Tuah PMDKK President and Edmund Lai of Axtrada

Axtrada came in as the sponsor for venue. The venue which is name A Square Mart is a new unique concept of night market - food court in Borneo; where food kiosk are place inside special designed container. These food kiosk are specially selected for their food uniqueness and specialty. 

The food kiosk is located in an open air car park while the fight event is located inside a hall just next to it. This venue was previously the popular Ocean Seafood Restaurant, which is situated next to Promenade Hotel.

Visitors that came to watch the fight were able to get delicious refreshment from the food kiosk and as for those who came for the food only was in for a nice surprise to experience watching combat sports.

Food kiosk offering delicious and yummy street food

Inside the hall, a MMA cage and a Boxing ring was set up. The octagon shape MMA cage is where cage boxing is held and the Muaythai Super 8 under amateur rules was conducted inside the square boxing ring.

Muaythai Super-8

The Super 8 Muaythai, which is contested under amateur rules, saw a very stacked card. A mixture of newcomer and experience exponents. In fact 60kg is considered the most stack and challenging category in Muaythai.

Every fighters gave a good show and it's a matter of who had their best day on 16.9.2017. In the final saw the meeting of a veteran Mohd Shah of 66 Unicorn Sandakan vs young talent Morris Hii of Miri's D-30 Muaythai team.

Shah rested for 5 months to recover from an injury after winning the D1FC Main Title in May against a formidable Robin Catalan of the Philipine. For Borneo Battle Arena, Shah came in underweight, but his fighting spirit was over the chart.

Shah fought twice to reach the finals. Win over Jijie in the early round and then in semis fought & overcame Dean Hamsah. Morris path was defeating the experience Madjais in the early round and then in semis secure the win over Sean Alexander.

In the final, Shah executed clean techniques to bring home the Championship trophy.  The trophy was sponsored by Fight Fest.

Shah is a multiple Muaythai Champion and a veteran in the sports. This was his warm up fight before he goes to Johor in October. He will represent Sabah in Johor Open Muaythai in 28 October.

As for Morris, this young up-coming fighter is an ex Sarawak state swimmer turned fighter. He is a regular with his team D-30 from Miri  in the combat sports scene in Sabah. A multi discipline martial artist, he competed in Muaythai, MMA, JiuJitSu & Kickboxing. We hope to see more of him and his team in action in the future as they continue to improve.

Muaythai Super-8 full results

Shah with 66 UNicorn Team manager Maman (L) and Johan Julian (R)

Savouring the moment with his hard earned trophy

As for Cage Boxing, this is the 2nd time we see it happening in Borneo. The first time was in Jesselton Fight League 2 years ago in their Grand Final event. For Borneo Battle Arena, there was 11 total bouts for Cage Boxing; 3 female and 8 male. It's 3 rounds with 3 minutes per round.

In the female bouts, an exciting bout between boxer Stephanie Vung of Kinabalu Fighters and Muaythai specialist Baeby of Borneo Red Lion. Stephenie executed more volume and techniques, but Baeby brawling style had cleaner and accurate shots which earned her the win.

One of the highlight for Cage Boxing was the bout between veteran boxer and Muaythai champion Randall Kadayum and Lesley Albert of Team Karabaw whom debuted as a pro boxer in WBC Boxing Fest in July.

Lesley with some heavy shots was able to drop Randall twice in round 1 which he was given an 8 count. In round 2 & 3, Randall rebound and using slicker techniques and better game plan to score more points to take home the win.

Lesley (L) with Randall

One of the bout that received attention was between Zamalani Masulin or better known as Kaza vs Glenn Elvin. 

Kaza is well known in the combat sports scene. You might have heard his voice and funny commentary in local Muaythai event, STAND and Fight Fest. Last year Kaza and his team organised a successful  Sabah Fight Muaythai.

After a year of involving as a secretary for Sabah Muaythai Association, he concentrated on his diving instructor career. He last fought representing the Sabah team in 2015 Borneo Cup which he got a bronze medal. This was his come back fight after a long hiatus.

Glenn himself also works in the tourism industry as a Zipline operator and he also freelance as z boxing and fitness instructor.

He trained before at Monarchy MMA gym, trained under ex national boxer Eddey Kalai and also learn Luta Livre from coach Antonio Battistessa of Sabah Top Team. Glen is on a personal journey of continuous improvement in boxing and grappling.

The winner of the bout was Kaza. This fight for Glenn was a step for him to test himself and measure his own capabilities. To him this is a learning ground. Glen mentioned that it was an honour to be able to step into the ring to fight Kaza. They have mutually agree to both give their best in the fight to push and test each other.

We hope this fight will be a spark to light the fire inside both of them to be back competing actively in Borneo's fight scene.

Glenn Elvin vs Kaza Musa

Cage Boxing full results

Axtrada, PMDKK and Fight Fest are all happy with their first event and will be planning for future event at the same venue. They hope the venue can be a center for combat sports. The hall will be call The ARENA and the aspiration is that it can become the Sabah version of  Lumpinee Stadium .

Axtrada is also continuously getting more interesting food vendor to open up offering unique food and we hope they will further improve on the hall facilities to make the place more condusive for visitors.

Me with Johan Julian (L) and Edmund Lai of Axtrada (R)