B-MAEX: Alvin Chong's journey to unite Borneo's martial arts

Alvin Chong, or popularly known as AC Poseidon has a lofty vision for martial arts in Borneo. A vision not for himself personally but for the Borneo martial arts community as a whole. He is taking the first step into making this vision a reality by organising Borneo Martial Arts Expo (B-MAEX) this 29 - 31 DEC 2017 in Palm Beach Hotel, Labuan.

The vision: to unite the martial arts community in Borneo.

When Alvin organised the 1st pro Muaythai event in Miri 7 years ago, there was virtually no big combat sports event in Borneo. He was the first doing so and he brought in 20 fighter from 9 different country, 4 of them World Champion.

Fast forward to 2017, combat sports events has become a norm. This is because for the pass 5-6 years, the martial arts industry has seen a tremendous growth in Borneo. Many combat sports event are being held from time to time and location wise Kota Kinabalu being the hotbed for many of these events.

The fastest growing sports in the world is MMA. In Malaysia MIMMA has boosted this growth. Through it's nationwide selection roadshow, has lead to many martial artists cross training between stand up style with grappling art such as BJJ, Judo and now Luta Livre. Selected qualifier will need to attend all their fights in Kuala Lumpur, which pose financial challenge for most fighters.

The demand for local base MMA promotions gave rise to Borneo Fighting Championship. Then other promotions sprouted; Jesselton Fighting Championship (JFL), Borneo Amatuer Challenge (BAC), Fight Fest and most recently Rampage FC.

Amateurs Muaythai events are very consistently held in Borneo, driven by Sabah Muaythai Association and Sarawak Muaythai Association. Fight fans also are serve with regular pro Muaythai events with D1 Fighting Championship establishing itself as a front runner.

The grappling art is also a growing segment. Pioneered by Persatuan BJJ Negeri Sabah's Headhunters, we now have Sabah BJJ open, Fight Fest - Mata Leao, and most recently two huge international event ; Sabah Grappling Quest and Copa De Borneo, which happened on the exact same dates on 9-10 Dec 2017.

K1 Kickboxing and boxing events are also on the rise. Among the promotions holding such events are STAND, FIGHT FEST and BAC.

The above list of promotions looks extensive isn't it? This does not even take into account the local Karate, TaekwonDo, Silat, Boxing tournament under their respective association.

To the outsider this looks like a healthy situation, but the fact is, it has become a problem on to itself. Why? because, generally the contestant that is taking part are of the same people. Population wise Borneo numbers are still small.

The number of competitors taking part in combat sports are only a fraction of the population and now that the concept of cross training is the norm, hence making the same competitors wanting to take part in many different promotions. This situation worsen when events dates are close to each other, worst still when they clash.

If this goes on, sooner or later, these events may face challenge in getting enough participants or crowd to make ends meet.

So how would B-MAEX solve this problem?

First of all, as a venue, Labuan serve as a perfect location as it's neutral ground and is in between Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah. As the organising chairman Alvin believe one of the way to solve the above problem is to have an event that house all the promotions, enabling B-MAEX to give recognition to Borneo's combat sports promoter. Recognise them as a pioneer, innovator and a leader in their field.

For instance, STAND - as the leading amateur kickboxing and boxing promotions. FIGHT FEST - as the hybrid event hi-lighting K1 Super Fight, amateur Muaythai and No-Gi grappling. RAMPAGE - as the progressive amatuer MMA promotions, JFL - as the premier MMA promotions with pro fights, BAC - as Labuan amatuer kickboxing and MMA event that combine referee course and seminar. D1 FC - as the region's premier pro Muaythai promotions.

With this recognition, the plan is to sit down all organisers and plan out a schedule of events that can benefit each other. Co-promoting and cross promoting, supporting each other's event.

For example; STAND can focus on boxing and have quarterly fights in a year and the champions of each quarter to meet in a year end climax in B-MAEX to crown a grand champion. Fight Fest with their Kickboxing and Rampage with their MMA.

Every organiser get to showcase their own event and all climax in a year end show down of quality fights and coming together in one event to celebrate unity in diversity.

The welcoming dinner on 29 DEC to launch B-MAEX will be the night for the martial arts community in Borneo to come together as one and recognise each other's contributions in the industry.

For Warriors of Borneo, I have shared before my own dream of having an award night to crown perhaps, Fight of the Year, Fighter of the Year, Best Rookie, Best KO of the Year, etc,...thankfully Alvin shared the same aspiration, with the first gala night in B-MAEX this year, will set the ball rolling to make the award night a good possibility in future B-MAEX.

The welcoming dinner and opening ceremony will be grace by Labuan member of parliament, YB Datuk Rozman Bin Datuk Haji Isli

B-MAEX is not just about competitions on the mat / ring, it's also about educating and sharing of knowledge. Pioneered by BAC the ISKA referee course for Kickboxing and MMA under the tutelage of Master Khoo will continue to produce more qualified officials. For B-MAEX the referee course will be conducted on 29 DEC.

On 30 DEC night a seminar will be held with speakers from various field sharing their knowledge and experience, it's free and open to all to attend to broaden their mind and learn something that will benefit the martial arts community.

I am honour to be invited as a speaker to share a topic on Relationship with Media. And feel humble to be among these great minds.

Technique workshops will also be held. For this first B-MAEX, it presents Chinese Wresting under Master Wang of China and Luta Livre grappling under Coach Antonio Battistessa

But that is not all, B-MAEX also aim to broaden the activities of martial arts in Borneo. As a representative of International Sports Karate Association (ISKA) for Borneo, Alvin has the support of his mentor Master Khoo Meng Yang (ISKA rep for South Eat Asia), will introduce new events such as free style martial arts forms performance, power breaking competition lead by Coach Adey of Brunei, under the sanctioning of ISKA. Sanda, Silat and other martial arts are also in the plan.

A pro K1 Kickboxing match, sanctioned by ISKA and co-promoted by Boxxtomoi will be the hi-light of this first B-MAEX. Just look at the fight cards, bringing the best of the best from West Malaysia, Australia, Philipines, Labuan and Sabah.

Super 4 57kg will be the main card

Brothers Jordan Boy and Nidal 'The Joker' of Sampuri Gym KL has won the previous STAND semi-pro belt. They will be back determine to bring back the inaugural B-MAEX pro belt

Below is the program for B-MAEX. 3 days of martial arts action, learning, will end with a year end party!

It is certainly not an easy task to make this dream come through. Aside from the coming together of all martial artist helping out, sponsors are keys in making this event a reality. We salute the sponsors in supporting this dream. This is the first step to make history in Malaysia and the region to make Borneo the center of martial arts excellence!

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.