MIMMA5 GRAND FINALS - AZREEL ZZAT 'MALAYSIAN SUPERBOY' QUEST FOR VICTORY

Fondly call as Tum by his friends, Azreel Izzat Al-Hadi B. Azizul is MIMMA’s 5 heavyweight league leader. He collected 23 points to be on top of his division. From there, he qualified for the semis and defeated Niker Tan (season 3 finalist) via TKO in round 2, due to Niker not able to continue from his injury. Azreel now firmly planted his feet in the grand finals which he will face Sarawakian Tsan Nieng Khai @Khaiju (season 4 finalist)

Going into the grand finals, Azreel holds a sparkling record of 10-1-0. The sole loss in 2016, in his third fight in which he was still developing as a fighter.

Victory over Niker in the semis

------------------------

Hailing from Fair Park in Perak and born to a middle class family of 3 boys. He is the 2nd son and they all three are huge wrestling fans. Even his mother!

Growing up, Tum was a very shy kid. To the extent that his parents worry that he has autism. He loves sports but his low esteem and confidence made him become spectators most of the time in his school sports day. But deep down he dream of becoming a somebody in sports.


In SMK Anderson Perak, his size enabled him to be picked to join the weight lifting team. He did well and even won a silver medal in SUPER 2009 (Sukan Perak) in the above 105 category.

But it’s his love for wrestling provided that spark for his interest for martial arts. Growing up watching the attitude wrestlers’ era with the likes of Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold, Rikishi; Wrestlemania was an important bonding time for him and his family. Sometimes he even skip school to watch it at home. They will gather in the living room and cheer on for the wild antics of WWE.

Ask any sane kids who love wrestling will tell you crazy stories of how they emulate the moves of their wrestling idols at home. Azreel is the same.

“Me and my friends practice those move during recess. At home me and my brothers would stack up pillows and try out the extreme moves such as Swanton Bombs by Jeff Hardy. 

I once broke a hotel bed trying to copy a choke slam move hahaha...got scolded big time by my mom.”

And his all-time favorite wrestler is non other than The Rock!

The love for wrestling develop his interest for MMA by watching UFC & Bellator. Eventually it lead him to Lekir MMA. As the fee was affordable to him he began to take regular classes. As the saying goes, that was history. From a shy kid, now Azreel is living his dream of making a name of himself through sports. 

“Martial arts changed my life. I’m not shy anymore. More confident with people. But still working on my PR skills. But I made a lot of new friends through martial arts. "

While training in Lekir, he dabbled into rugby while studying In MSU (formerly known as PTLP - Shah Alam) for his culinary course. In time he began to work in the food & beverage industry. But as the food industry required him to work night shift till late night at times, this took away his time from MMA training. 

He decided to quit the work & look for a job that can give him the time to train. Azreel now work as a marketing officer in a printing firm during the day and still get to put in his training hours at night.

 

vs Niker Tan

with giants of MIMMA 5 , all semi-finalist

colliding with foreign giants in Ultimate Beatdown

But Azreel can still cook up some mean dish. 

“I’m more into barbeque. So my favourite dish is all lambs and all cheese dish. Hahaha...the reason why I’m a heavyweight, haha”

Why his friends call him Tum? It actually is a short form of the name Tumulak.

It’s a character in local movie called 'Kongsi'. Tumulak played by Shaheizy Sam as the main character in the movie. My college friends called me Tumulak coz of my Mohawk hair. It’s hard for them to remember my real name, Azreel so they decided to give me that name during my first week in college. 

But in the cage, Azreel carries the fight name of Malaysian Superboy.

“I choose that fight name for myself as I’m a fan of All Marvel and DC super heroes; and I like UFC fighter Korean Superboy so I guess Malaysia needs its own SuperBoy too. Haha”

Ask about how he feel facing Tsan Nieng Khai, in the upcoming grand finals?

I have nothing but respect for Nieng Khai. He is a great fighter. A strong brawler. I know he is good in stand-up fight. So I will use my advantage on the ground as me and my coaches are working more on the ground. My focus is of course, cardio. It’s a 5 round fight and I need a lot of stamina to face him. 

As a warm up to the finals, Azreel has prepared for battle in another promotion call Pusaka Ultimate Fight. A freestyle concept fight, wIth MMA rules minus the ground and pound and just 10 to 15 second of grappling on the ground. In the Feb fight, Azreel was crowned the champion of the Super 4 heavyweight, winning himself the Best of the Best title. 

in action during PUSAKA's fight

Champion of PUSAKA Super 4

This win does not satisfy Azreel, in-fact it serve as a motivation and gives him confidence to do well in the grand finals to add MIMMA’s heavyweight belt to his collection.

The heavyweight actions will hit like tidal waves in the MIMMA cage when Malaysian Superboy takes on Sarawak Khaiju, so get your tickets and witness the crowning of a new champion on 30 March 2018.

---------------------

MIMMA 5 GRAND FINALS - KHAIJU DOMINATION

There’s a genre in Japanese movies that features huge giant monsters. Then few years back when Pacific Rim movie was released, the word Kaiju becomes more well-known as it refer to the big giant alien monsters that terrorized earth. This March Pacific Rim 2 is out and Kaiju again will be the talk of town as it rampage through the cities in the movie.

In Malaysia we also have a Kaiju. Tsan Neing Khai aka ‘Khaiju’ from Sarawak! He is a heavyweight MMA fighter and will be terrorizing the MIMMA cage in the grand finals on 30 March.

 

------------------------------

Tsan started participating in MIMMA since 2015 in season 3. Stumbling at semi-finals to Sabahan Tham Yaw Kent Following in season 4, he came back with much fire and rematch Kent in the semis but this time victorious. Following that he beat NIker Tan of Penang in the contender fight and met heavyweight favourite Darren Low in the grand finals.

It was a heavyweight fight that went down MIMMA history as the most closely contested. Giving Darren a tough night. It went the distance to 5 rounds with unanimous decision going to Darren.

---------------------------

Season 5, again Tsan is back! He is determined to win the heavyweight title this time. With 3 finishes win in the league, Tsan was positioned 3rd in the league standings. He qualified for the semis and overcame Steven Yeoh of Johor in 3 hard rounds. 

MIMMA5 semi-finals vs Steven Yeoh

---------------------------

Tsan’s dream was to make the heavyweight fight a Borneo showdown again by rematch with Darren Low for the grand finals. But this was not meant to be as Darren didn’t accumulate enough points to reach the semis (read about Darren Low’s story here).

For this time Tsan will need to defeat league leader Azrel Izzat of Perak to fulfill his dream of bringing the title back to Kuching. 

---------------------

Martial arts has not been part of his life until only in 2014 when he started doing Muaythai, all for the reason of losing weight as he was weighing around 140kg then. He just became a father of a new baby girl and at the same time running the business of few cyber cafes. Hardly any exercise made him pile on the pounds. 

“One Day when I was bringing my toddler for a walk, I felt tired and my lower back hurts just by caring my daughter for a few minutes. That's when I started to realised that I need to keep fit so that I can see my daughter grow up n be there for my family." 

From that experience Tsan started going for Muaythai classes introduced by a friend at a local martial art gym.
“I fall in love with Muaythai, I started going for classes every day , 6 classes a week , and I lost 30kg in the first 3 months." 

Tsan’s Muaythai gives him a solid foundation for MMA. He is among the pioneers of MMA in Sarawak. Training at Gymbox Kuching under Matt Pellino with Jace Law, Stephen Onn Jenggeing, Aaron Lo & Aaron Tan. Each of them pushing each other out of their comfort zone in order to improve each other.

His love for martial arts lead him to convert a store room in his shop to become a personal training room. That was the initial intentions anyway. 

“Started up with my friends coming in, but as times goes by friends bring along friends, then friend's friend's friends and so on until today my gym is way too small already. This was the beginnings of MAD Fight Club." 

“I trained by myself and with Aaron Tan, I went to Labuan’s Borneo Amatuer Challenge taking the ISKA trainer course level 1. I even imported a friend from Indonesia as my boxing coach, then I will be teaching Muaythai class." 

"I enjoy sharing knowledge with people. That’s what keeps me going on teaching classes. Tsan quest for knowledge also lead him to cross train with Warmonger Gym in Miri and also improving his grappling and BJJ with Albert Lim’s Studio 23." 

----------------------

Tsan is now a very busy business man. MAD Fight Club is now one of the top fight gym in Kuching. MAD.net cyber café is in its 10th year of operations, and since last year expanded his business to serve food & beverage in MAD Food Factory, all in the same block of building.

"MAD’s name is from my elder brothers company MADTechnologies, I loved their design n term so I just use their design as to help them do branding." 

"MAD means that we have crazy ideas, doing things differently, dare to challenge the new frontier." 

------------------------------

On how he feels that the rematch with Darren didn’t materialized.
“Yeah that sucks big time, during the leagues my initial strategy is to skip battles with Darren as to minimize the changes for both of us to be injured so that we can had a rematch during the grand finals, but during the early league as we were chatting along, he told me that he will be very busy with work so maybe can't fight during Chinese New Year."

"I think its league 5 that I wanna get a rematch with him, but sadly accident happens, he got injured when he was training about 1 week off our scheduled fight day." 

"He messaged me personal telling me that he was injured and was unable to fight and pulled out last minute. I was unhappy at first because I bought flight tickets at RM600 and I was then very busy with my café." 

"I can only do day trips for my fight, the semi-finals fight. I had to wake up at 5am, flight at 7 am, then had to get ready to fight at 1pm. After the fight I need to get ready to pack up and rush back to the airport for the 10pm flight, I reached home that day at 1am midnight. Then have to go cafe cook the next day! Thing we do for the sport we loved LOL! , oh yeah I do the cooking myself too, I learn it from Aaron Tan… : ) "

Khaiju preparing for war

Through the love of MMA, Tsan and Darren are now close friends.
"Me and Darren, I think we are looking at this sports, somehow in a similar point of view as we both took it as a hobby. We do it so that we can eat more delicious foods, LOL. We both are the giants of Borneo, and most importantly with the love for the sports, we want to see it grow in our homeland."

the giants of Borneo

What do you think of the challenge Azreel present?
“I have been looking at his fights because I see him as potential opponent in the near future but he too choose to pullout during our matched ups, he is quite a tanky fighting styles with light feet. I think it will be a quite interesting match for us in the grand finals."

---------------------

Big-D's take on MIMMA 5 Heavyweight

photo by Ong Chen fai

After more than 8 months since its tryout in early 2017, MIMMA5  has now reached the sudden death stage, the Semi-finals.

This year MIMMA introduce the new league format. Fighters fought among each other (in their own division) for 7 league rounds of almost every month, to get as much points as possible.

The ultimate aim is to give amateur fighters as many fights as possible to gain exposure and experience.

Personally I was looking forward to Battle of the Borneo Giants in the heavyweight category.
Last year grand finals saw a truly epic fight between Darren Low of Sabah vs Tsan Nieng Khai of Sarawak. Very rarely will the heavyweight go 5 rounds, but both stand their ground and a slugfest ensued. The fight that shook the MIMMA cage!

But looks like my wish not fulfilled, as defending champion Darren has not qualify for finals due to short on points as only the top 4 enters the semi.

As you can see, Darren miss out on points because 5 of the times, his opponent either withdraw or gave him a walkover. Darren only fought twice. Both victory by submission against Niker Tan and Steven Yeoh.

Tsan and Niker holds the advantage of experience.

Tsan (9-2-0) lost to Darren in last year grand finals.

Niker ( 12-5-0 ) lost to Darren in MIMMA3 grand finals.

MIMMA 4 - Tsan  vs Darren ( photo by Mahesan )

MIMMA 3 - Niker vs Darren ( photo by YK Tang )

Warriors of Borneo catch up with Darren to get his thoughts on MIMMA5 heavyweight fights.
   

Hi Darren, I know you miss some fights which makes you had less point to qualify for semi. What was the main reason for this?

Hey Wallace! Well, just a combination of bad timing and bad luck I guess.

I missed the first league due to work commitments during the Hari Raya period.

Then I fought Niker and Steven before having to face Tsan in League 4 – a rematch I was really motivated and training hard for. Unfortunately I injured myself in a freak training accident 1 week before the fight.

League 5 was during a friend’s wedding which I attended in Sabah, and I thought I’d still be able to make the points in League 6 and 7.

Regrettably my opponents both got injured and had to pull out, so I didn’t get enough points to make it to the semi-finals.

How did you feel about the miss? Were you dissapointed not able to defend the title? 

It is what it is man. That’s life and another lesson on takings things in stride. Being upset doesn’t solve anything. Just got to keep training and enjoying what I do. 

Defending the belt is like a bonus that came with dedication to a sport I love. Sure is an awesome experience, but if it happens, then it happens. 

I practice MMA to make my life better, not to be my entire life and I think it’s that mind-set that keeps me going in the sport.

I know Tsan is looking forward actually to battle you again for the belt, do you think without you there Tsan will be the most potential to win among the 4 contender?

I have nothing but respect for Tsan. More so than a fighter, he is a gentleman and carries himself with dignity and good conduct. He’s also the only opponent I haven’t been able to finish and because of my first match with him, I am now a better person and dedicated the time to close a lot of holes in my game. If he can stay healthy and push the fight to where he is strong, then I see him winning Season 5 without me there.

Which semi fight interest you more? Tsan vs Steven or Azreel vs Niker?

With all due respect, I would just like to clarify that this is just my opinion and nothing more. 

Steven is a brawler and has a big heart but I don’t think he can handle Tsan’s technical work, size or resilience. 

Azreel is a brawler with a massive weight advantage and the ability to smother opponents. Niker will have to stick and move to be effective as the smaller man. He also has to not get caught up against the cage, which is easier said than done against a man the size of a fridge (I say that respectfully). This will be the more competitive match to me.

MIMMA5 League 3 . Steven Yeoh vs Darren Low

MIMMA5 League 5 . Azreel  vs Niker

Tell me what u think about the league format? Yes I agree its good as it gives more fights to amateur fighters, but I feel it sort of loose its lustre as it drags a bit and only appeal to hardcore fans.
For an AMATEUR MMA platform, I truly believe a league format is the way to go. 

Amateurs need the fights. They need the cage time and the opportunities to use their skills in a truly competitive setting. The pressure, stress and adrenaline – you just can’t emulate that in training. 

Having said that, I believe there NEEDS to be some changes. 

1) MOST OF ALL, MIMMA HAS TO GIVE THEIR FIGHTERS LONGER BREAKS BETWEEN FIGHTS. You can’t fight a 3 round MMA match every 4 weeks for 9 months without injury – which is exactly what has happened to some of the MIMMA fighters. 

These are grass roots amateur fighters who want to be serious prospects. That won’t happen if they blow out a joint or get brain damaged. The serious guys are sparring 2-3 times a week and the non-heavyweight fighters are cutting weight every month. That’s a HUGE stress on the body and inflammation is GUARANTEED. 

2) If they want to have a monthly event, then split the weight classes such that you get a group of fighters fighting one month and another group fighting the next. This way they get 8 weeks between fights, of which 2 weeks is for recovery. 

3) Adopt the ONE FC weight cut system. MIMMA currently does not have a Light Heavyweight category. Move everyone up one weight class and take their weight 1 week before the fight to make sure they are not cutting a dangerous amount of weight. 

Sorry for the long spill, but I genuinely love this sport and believe MIMMA is mostly on the right track. Fighters don’t complain, so MIMMA doesn’t know. Well here I am telling everyone as a fighter myself.


What advice u have for the Heavyweight in the current rostrum?

Train Hard (and smart). Fight Easy.
Simple . 

Which gym / team actually are you affiliated to? I believe you Damon Soo and Keng Fai are team mates
I represent and train primarily at Marcos Escobar BJJ and Alex’s Gym. Damon is from MEBJJ and Keng Fai is from Alex’s gym, but we all cross train with each other. “As iron sharpens iron, so friends sharpen each other's faces.” Proverbs 27:17 

In KL I also trained at Pushmore for conditioning, Art of Submission and Monarchy MMA. 

In Sabah I train at Sabah Top Team, Team Karabaw and Valor Martial Arts.

You still running your security firm? Fishing looks like your thing,...is it a recent acquired interest? Or Its been a hobby all this while? Why fishing appeal to you?

Yes, K&K Security Services. We provide close protection services as well as armed and unarmed static guard services.

I train all our close protection personnel in hand to hand combat myself.
They are amongst the best in Malaysia. I can say that with confidence.

As for fishing…Fishing is my Religion.

It doesn’t make sense. It’s not the logical thing to do. It’s a waste of time and money.
…but it makes me happy beyond reason.

So what's your plan for future? In terms of your fights and also personal life?

I’m going to just keep training as usual.
Boxing, Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling and MMA.

Also going to take some time to monitor my diet…
..which I always say I’ll do but never do. Feeling a bit Guilty now.

Also going to get Married this year…
...so who knows what the future holds!?!?!

Hahaha. Aramaitii !!!

Darren with his pillar of strength - Elaine Yap

To cap this,...tell me which ' fight' is toughest for you? And why ( Fishing ).
How big was the fella and what kinda MF ( mother fish...) was it?

Hahahaha!

That's a tough question! Fishing is like a game with many factors.
The hardest fights I've had are all the ones I've lost!!!

Usually fish fight super hard near structure like coral reef to try and cut the line.

I lose most of those fights to Big Dogtooth Tuna (actually a giant mackerel), but managed to land a 55kg one by pure luck when it died from a hook somehow catching its gills. The fish was not wasted as we donated all the meat to an orphanage.

But I would say the most back breaking fight I've had is probably with an estimated 140kg Bullshark on a spinning reel in 200m of water.

Sharks don't fight like fish that run and run until they get tired. Sharks are tricky and know how to conserve energy.

They will swim to the boat easily to confuse you, then run away into the depths and use their large surface area to make you work again - so you have to put a lot of pressure on them and work hard like an MMA fight.

After taking some photos, we cut the hook and let him go to swim again.

Warriors of Borneo thank Darren for his time for this interview and wishes him all the best for all his undertakings.

Darren will be working this Saturday hence will not be present at the semis, but come the grand final in March, he surely will be at the corner of his team mates.

For MMA fans, don't miss MIMMA 5 Semi-finals happening at Paradigm Mall, this Saturday ( 23 FEB 2018 )