BAC 3 : ELTO & LIYANA WINS THE JY CUP

Borneo's martial arts scene was closed with some kicking action in Labuan. The Borneo Amateur Challenge 3 was successfully organised by Borneo Combat Gym Labuan (BCG) on 17 DEC 2016.

16 teams from Labuan, Kota Kinabalu, Keningau, Tamparuli, Miri, Brunei and Kuala Lumpur took part in this event which offered 11 categories for K1 amateur fights, 3 categories for MMA amateur and 2 categories for K1 semi pro fights. 

And the main event was for JY Cup for the Male Super 4 and the Female Super Fight. This Cup was offered to honour the memory of BCG's co-founder Joseph Yew. Read about this in my previous post (click here)

Borneo Combat Gym Labuan grabbed overall team champion with 4 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze and the Male Super 4 Champion JY Cup 

 

Elto Jai from Borneo Combat Gym Labuan fought through 3 exciting rounds to win his debut Super 4 semi pro K1 fight against PG Mohd Dinie from 018 MMA Gym Brunei.

Earlier on, Elto beat Morris Hii from D-30, Miri while PG Mohd Dinie won his fight against Writh Kataposan from KMMA.

Super 4 participants.

Elto or known by his fight name “Baby Pacquiao” felt a sense of fulfillment in his victory here in Labuan. Never did he imagine that his passion for martial arts since his childhood days will come down to this memorable achievement for him. 

Elto receiving the JY Cup from Ms Julia, the late Joseph Yew's wife

As a migrant worker in the F&B industry in Labuan for the pass 7 years, far away from his home in Zamboanga, Philipines  he is most thankful to his coach Alvin Chong whom has given him the opportunity to train at BCG and help him in his martial art growth.

Elto improved his K1 Kickboxing record to 4 wins.

As for silver medalist Mohd Dinie, he said participating in BAC3 really gave him valuable experience. He will go back to evaluate his weakness and promise to return stronger in 2017.

Dinie works at Royal Brunei airlines. According to Brunei's 018 Martial Arts Academy owner, Adey initially Dinie enrolled with the objective of improving his fitness only. But eventually his interest was roused when the academy regularly send their fighters to compete. He competed in his 1st Kickboxing match in BAC2.

Adey believe this lost in the Super 4 final will motivate Dinie stronger because he finds Dinie a well focused person, very humble and respectful to everyone. 

"As a coach I personally look at the personality first, rather than the talent. Dinie is a fighter who listens to me very well and accept the advice from me in order to make him improve more. He is an eager person who wants to train and seek improvements. His honest and humble personality has led me to put my trust in him, where currently he is one of my assistants in helping me to take the Kickboxing classes in the gym. Therefore, as a coach, I think the personality is the most important key in building their future whether as a fighter or not, and I do think talents comes second"

Adey, 018 Martial Arts Academy owner

In much anticipated Super Fight Female K1, Liyana from TNT Hartamas KL defeated Cindy Martin from Borneo Combat Gym Labuan.

Liyana or Li as she is fondly called by her friends is from KL and of Indian and Chinese heritage. Ask on how she felt after winning the JY Cup,

"I am really happy that I won. I was not thinking so much about winning or losing but more on performance. Cindy is tough, hard to break and came out strong in the first round so I wanted to make it as difficult as I could for her to beat me in the next round. Kien, Alyson and Tasha my cornermen really pushed me and showed so much belief in me, I have to thank them for bringing out the fighter in me!"

Sports has been a large part of her life as since 5 years old she already started playing tennis. She love competing and this is her motivation to train harder each day.

Martial arts is relatively new to her. She joined TNT Kickboxing after a friend encourage her to come along and her initial reason was just to lose weight, but her competitive nature hooked her deeper into the fighting arts and it has become her focus now.

Only at 23 this year, Liyana felt she still have a lot to learn and she is still developing her own fighting style through the guidance of her coach Alex Lim

"Winning the super fight has given me a little more confidence in myself and convinced me to continue fighting. And I hope to for as long as I can. For now my focus would be on kickboxing but I am open to try other styles eventually.

Asked on what she think of BAC
"I believe that this is the first time that BCG organized a Super fight/ Super 4 tournament and it was particularly meaningful as it was held in honor of the late Joseph Yew. I am happy to have been able to participate and honor the man that has contributed a lot to the Labuan fight scene and community as a whole.

The event went smoothly and was well organized. I hope to be back again next year!

Do u get to go around Labuan? What do you think of the place?

"It is nice to be able to wake up early run around the harbour as the sunrises. Together with my friends and fellow fighters we also visited some of the islands nearby and ate fish head soup for breakfast everyday!

This is my first time in Labuan actually. If it was not for the fight event and Alvin from BCG it might have never crossed my mind to come!

The event organised by BCG Labuan is proudly sponsored by Amnig, Dutch Lady, BoxxTomoi, Regus, Welson Aerialvideography, Perdana Cineplex, AS, Power Root, Fight Fest, One Stop Duty Free, Loong Fish Head and Mr Dicky Ng.

BAC is a platform for amateur athletes to demonstrate their talent and skills in martial arts and, as well to showcase their good sportsmanship. 2017 will be a hectic year as founder Alvin Chong has 3 events planned. BAC 4 in March 2017, BAC 5 in August 2017 and ISKA K1 National Championship in December 2017. 

Much planning has been put in place to ensure the national championship will be a success as BCG look to work closely with Labuan tourism authority to ensure participants that travel to Labuan will get the best experience and memory on what Labuan have to offer.

This will be the 1st time in history for a national level K1 Kickboxing to be organised in Malaysia. Alvin wants Borneo to lead in terms of talent pool through BAC and the other ISKA sanctions event in Sabah such as STAND & FIGHT FEST.

BAC3 also saw the continuation of the mission to produce more qualified Kickboxing and MMA referee. This time three attended the ISKA K1 & MMA Referees Course on Dec 16. It was conducted by Master Khoo Meng Yang, who is the South East Asia ISKA representative.

BAC 3 : In memory of Joseph Yew

In a short period of 1 year, Borneo Combat Gym's (BCG) new premises in Time Square Labuan was already a venue for 2 successful Borneo Amateur Challenge (BAC), in January & June this year. 

BAC will return this weekend for it's 3rd edition. BAC has established itself as an amateur tournament for K1 Kickboxing and MMA that combines with referee course.

As an International Sports Karate Association (ISKA) representative for Borneo, BCG's founder coach Alvin Chong has envisioned a plan to produce many more capable referee for Kickboxing and MMA in Borneo. 

Together with his mentor master Khoo Meng Yang of TNT Kickboxing ( ISKA Rep for South East Asia ), Alvin wanted BAC to be a platform for referee to continue to learn and improve themselves.

Alvin with Master Khoo

He believes that Borneon can lead in Kickboxing and MMA, be it as an athlete or official and BAC is his way of providing Borneon an avenue to learn, apply, improve and excel.

Through BAC, Alvin also use it as a platform to train his staff and team on organising and management skills. Every BAC will have a different committee to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn, contribute and execute their plan.

According to BAC3's spokeperson Maureen Choo ;

"In our management perspective, we aim and encourage our BCG members to be involved and be part of the committee to run BAC events. This will definitely give the member some good exposure and opportunity to manage an event. Subsequently, it helps BCG management and its member to foster a closer ties and mutual partnership in long run."

Maureen further adds; 

" We have seen increases in number of participation from Labuan, Sabah, Sarawak and as well from Brunei in BAC 2. The response is encouraging and, we hope to see and draw more martial arts artists to showcase their talent and skills in the fight competition/challenge.

Our objective is to groom local talents and to ensure the fighters readiness for ISKA standard. At the sametime, to promote Labuan as one of the potential hub to host combat sports and martial arts event."

This 3rd edition will be special. As it will have a Super 4 K1 Kickboxing tournament, winner will win the inaugural Joseph Yew Cup (JY Cup).

This Cup is created in memory of  Alvin's personal friend and co founder of BCG, Joseph Yew whom died of cancer two weeks ago.

Joseph and Alvin in 2015 Oct at BCG 's grand opening

Alvin got acquainted to Joseph through some renovation work he did for BCG. As the two became friends, Alvin shared his vision and ideas of BCG with Joseph, his vision of making BCG as the center of healthy activities for Labuan's youth and the young ones. 

He wanted Labuan to not only be well known for it's tax free liquor and night life but also be known as a place where martial arts skills and value can be learned to improve oneself, and these ideas are well accepted by Joseph. 

Joseph as a successful businessman in Labuan was also a person whom believe in giving back to society and he knows through BCG, this can be done. He fully supports Alvin's ideas and vision.

Together with Alvin they made it happen by moving BCG to 5th floor of Labuan Time Square last October; making BCG the 1st gym in Malaysia to have a great harbour view. They put in good quality gym equipment and facilities and built the 1st MMA cage in Labuan.

Alvin ensure that manpower wise they get very capable local Labuanites to be the coaches and the management team. 

JY Cup is to honour Joseph Yew, in which Alvin said without him BCG would not become what it is today. Alvin said this Cup will ensure his friend's legacy lives on as BCG continue to strive to improve the lives of Labuanites.

The JY Cup Super 4 will see a fast pace and explosive flyweight Kickboxing fight among Borneo talents. Mohd Dinie of Brunei, Writh Kataposan of Keningau, Morris Hii of Miri and home grown BCG talent Elto Jai Alisad.

Elto Jai Alisad, age 29 known by his nickname as “Baby Pacquiao” through his biggest admiration towards one of the best boxing champion Manny Pacquaio. Hailed from Zamboanga, this Filipino has been working in Labuan for the past 7 years at a local restaurant. With his has deep passion and love towards martial arts since young, he decided to enroll to BCG 2 years ago and ever since then, he never looked back. 

He is now one of the trainer at BCG. Although he has been juggling between working in the restaurant and BCG, this never stop Elto from training and focusing in the gym to realize his dream of competing in martial arts competition.

Elto’s fight record to-date is 3, with 1 MMA (BAC 1), 2 K1 (Stand 1 & BAC 2) and BAC 3 will be his 4th fight and he will continue to participate in fights to gain more experience and enhance his skills.

Writh Kataposan of Keningau MMA was supposed to fight in the main card of MMA amateur bouts in Jesselton Fight League this 16th DEC, but as JFL was postponed he decided to not let his training go to waste by participating in BAC3.

Writh most recently won the boxing tournament in STAND 3 in Keningau. He is also an MMA athlete, reaching the semi-finals of JFL in 2015, losing to eventual JFL flyweight champion Eddey Kalai. In BAC 2 he won the final amateur MMA, beating the experience Johan Julian.

Writh is a fighter that does not fear any style the opponent throw at him, he is very willing to trade blows and will keep on moving forward. Working as a bartender till 2am daily, he does finds it a challenge to put in time for training, but he is glad that his boss has acknowledge his interest in martial arts and encourage him to train well.

Writh is a Sabahan of Filipino Bisaya heritage. At the young age of 5 he lost his parents and as an orphan was taken care by a Dusun family in Keningau. He started to work to earn a living at 13 when he finished his primary school education.

He started training in Muaythai at Jacky Fitness Keningau 6 years ago but move on to Keningau MMA in 2013 under the coaching of Mohd Bin Bakri whom has help him a lot in improving his skills.

Morris Hii of D-30 Miri is a fighter that don't talk much. Just finished his SPM recently in Riam Road Secondary School. He lets his hands and feet do most of the talking. He already has a K1 amateur record of 3-2 and semi pro 0-1. Amateur MMA record of 1-0 and Muaythai amateur 3-2-0. Just last Sunday Morris debut his pro Muaythai. In Sabah Fight superfight and won against a very experience opponent with a TKO strikes with knee.

Morris fighting style is aggressive. He always look for the finish early. But an interesting fact is that he is also a competitive swimmer. Winning the gold in Brunei Open Swimming Championship in 4x200M freestyle and silver in 4x100M. This year, he took the bronze in Brunei age group championship for 100M breaststroke and silver in 200M breatstroke. 

JY Cup Women Superfight will see the battle between Riyana Razman of TNT Kickboxing, Kuala Lumpur vs BCG's own, Cindy Martin. 

Cindy Martin, age 21 known by her nickname as “Dark Princess”. The name was chosen due to her vibrant personality and fearlessness in the ring.

Hailed from Sipitang, Sabah and has been in Labuan since 2012. Currently working in the hospitality industry. She has been with BCG for about 5 months and been training hard as to realize her dream of becoming one of Borneo's best female fighter. 

Her inspiration and role model comes from the world famous UFC female fighter, Ronda Rousey.

Cindy's first fight was in Stand 3, Keningau where she clinched the victory as champion for female 60kg K1 Amateur. Cindy is like a machine when she fights, unstoppable and possessed good cardio and will keep pushing the pace of the fight.

BAC is also a colloboration with Sabah's premier K1 Kickboxing tournament, STAND. As ISKA rep for Borneo, Alvin hope to see more colloboration between local Borneo base fight event to avoid clashing of event and also to establish Borneo as a powerhouse for K1 Kickboxing in terms of producing skill fighters, quality referees and well organised events.

Rayner Kinsiong, founder of STAND endorsing the colloboration with BAC

ISKA Referee Course with The Red Dragon @ Labuan

"Hoong Loong" is in Labuan. Reknown Malaysian martial artist master Khoo Meng Yang aka The Red Dragon will be conducting the ISKA K1 & MMA Referees certification course in Labuan on 22 Jan 2016. The course is hosted by Borneo Combat Gym led by Alvin Chong aka AC Poseidon.
The course will be follow up by amatuer K1 and MMA challenge on 23 - 24 Jan 2016.
Catch BCG's story here from my previous post

Master Khoo is Malaysia's ISKA Representatives and has known Alvin since 2010. He supports Alvin's objective of developing more qualified referees from this region of Borneo. ISKA stand for International Sports Karate Association is an international body body based in the United States that regulate and sanction sport karate and kickboxing matches.

With an international certification, the aim is to upgrade the standard and quality of refereeing in combat sports for this region. Once we have more qualified referees here in Borneo then matches being organise locally too will be properly monitored and judged.

We have seen many occasions where matches results was unsatisfactory due to poor refereing. The victim almost always is the fighter themselves and his team as all the months of hard training, the blood and sweat will go down the drain if they lost a match due to bad decision from the referee. Another crucial point is referee must always put safety of fighters on the top moist priority, especially in amatuer matches. All this is which Master Khoo will be emphasizing on during the course.

Master Khoo is more than qualifies to conduct the course as he himself is a veteran of 38 fight.
24 wins 13 losses 1 draw 11 K.O.( 9 pro muaythai fights, 3 amateur muaythai fights, the rest are all kickboxing, western boxing, Ultimate Warrior and Sanshou fights)

• 3 times Malaysia Taekwon-do Champion ( ITF )
• 4 times Malaysia Sanshou ( chinese kickboxing ) Champion
• 2007 Malaysia Ultimate Warrior 1st runner-up
• 2008 Malaysia Freestyle Kickboxing Champion
• 2008 World Amateur Muaythai 2nd runner-up

infor from : muaythaitigers blogspot

Fans of MIMMA will be familiar with him as he is a one of the most sought after referee in MMA matches.

Warriors of Borneo got in touch with him for a short chat:

Can you give me a personal account of your relationship with him; what do you think of him and his passion for martial arts?

We are friends and we share plenty of martial arts knowledge to each other and helping each other to grow in this industry. He is also my ISKA East Malaysia Borneo representative. He is very keen and passionate in martial arts. What's he is doing is not mainly to earn money but to help the members to grow through martial arts.

As you know he has been helping plenty of bad kids who has been suspended from school. He even went to talked to headmaster so that they can stay in school and study. As I can see he has changed some people’s life and his own life to better as well. And insert plenty of positive energy to others and himself.

Alvin Chong and Master Khoo

You are the instructor for the ISKA ref course …pleases give some inform on the course

My ISKA K1 stand up and MMA referee course will be on 22 to 24 Jan. The theory part will be on 22 Fri.

23 - 24 Jan will be their practical part during Alvin’s BCG ISKA K1 & MMA Borneo Amateur Challenge.

It will be very practical so that participants could fit in and be referee and judge for Stand-up Fight and MMA matches.

Participants will get official ISKA K1 Stand-up Fight & MMA Two referee certificates if they pass the course.

What do you think of Labuan?

Labuan is a small island but have good economy value and good potential as a travel spot for Malaysia; and here all races live in harmony.

What are your thoughts on seeing BCG progress from a shop lot gym to what it is now today?

It is very good and I’m happy to see Alvin’s BCG growing so fast to be the biggest in Labuan and have the best sea view gym In Malaysia. He deserve all these due to his passion and hard work. Plenty of people even his friends kept telling him to quit because it’s like dumping money and hard work to the sea as he will get nothing back. But I have been telling him, 

“Do what is right and do it right. Do what you love and loving it. Filter the negative but absorb the positive comments. You don't live in other people’s world. Make them live in your beautiful peace harmony & hard working gym that you created for them and make them work out happily.”