TRULY A ONE FIGHTING EVENT - PART 1

A post that came 2 weeks late. No excuses, Tammy is just being lazy and busy during Chinese New Year. Hope all of you had a great break, and yes, as I am writing this, it is time to start cracking again (ie. work!).

ONE Fighting Championship: Return of Warriors main event was held at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. The entire Esente team was anticipating the fights, what not, with nine Malaysian fighters and the renowned Eric "The Natural" Kelly heating up the ring, this is definitely one event that we are looking out for.

We were all there super early, at 3pm but the dedicated ONE FC team was there even earlier and the entire setup was done the night before. I salute them really.

We were briefed on the media seating arrangements, media centre and each and everyone's roles and responsibilities etc. One thing I learned from the ONE FC job is that one needs to be quick to adapt to changes. Really, nothing is set and when client suddenly gives you a 'surprise', you have to re-structure and re-organise everything you had in mind. I had a few heart-attacks that day but I am so glad that everyone in the team are so brilliant and accommodating.

Our biggest mistake? Not feeding the cageside ladies, and although both of them had the best view, accompanied by privilege seats, they both suffered severe hunger throughout the entire event. The rest of us were super pleased with our supplies of McD burgers, nuggets and french fries. Muahaha...

Anyway, back to the fight! It was obvious who I was rooting for really. Basically everyone of those fighters I got to know and spend more time with - Eric Kelly, Peter Davis, AJ Pyro, Melvin Yeoh and Gianni Subba.

However, I missed the first two fights:

The first was the Opening fight between U.S. Fighter, Jake Butler and Indonesian Fighter, Antoni Romulo. It was Butler's debut MMA fight and he defeated Romulo.

The only updates I got from this fight via my teammate's Whatsapp messages (yes, we were giving each other updates via Whatsapp - from the live updates on the fight to who has the food to who has charger for our almost dying phones)were that "THERE IS BLOOD!"

Oh well, I was not happy missing out on the first match, but I was most disappointed for missing cute Gianni Subba and Saiful "The Vampire" Merican's fight! I remember texting the team asking them to let me know when Gianni is up and I got this message: "Gianni fought already. He won. He is good!"

More updates from the ring later after I spoke to some of the "expert fans" who told me that Merican was excellent in the ring as he survived longer than most people thought he would. Nice job! I heard previously that Merican is only strong (and famous in the local scene) in Muaythai, hence once taken to the ground, he is really dead meat. However, he did surprisingly well that night, proving to everyone that determination and hard work will really bring you far!

I didn't watch the fight but from the video I search on Youtube, I saw that Subba did some quick and fast thinking on an arm-bar and it was so obvious that his strategy was to bring Merican down on the ground. But he did say he made a few mistakes due to inexperienced. I think that is the best part about these fights, as described by the fighters themselves, is that they learn different things from different opponents and try them on another opponents to see if the style fits them. I guess that's applicable to life too - learning things from various situations/events and improving your methods in the next event as it happens.

Although I didn't watch this fight, I learned the most from it. What Merican taught me is that, winning or losing is not as important as proving to yourself that you have done your part, and did your best. Merican did not win, but everyone knows how happy he was as he he knew he did well, and I think mainly because he had bettered himself. Subba reminded me that there are new things to learn in every "battle" and that focus is most important in a fight.

I saw Merican as I walked into the stadium, he had a bruised eye but still managed to give me a bright smile. I knew he was proud of himself, just like how his supporters were all proud of him. Nice guy this Merican, he is the same age as me but super successful!

Anyway, I am still glad cute Subba won! Woohoo! From his behaviour, I know he is a well-mannered good boy who respects everyone around him. Watch how he defeated Singaporean fighter, Bruce Loh, in mere minutes in his last fight HERE.

When I officially entered the Stadium, AJ "Pyro" Lias and Jian "Headhunter" Kai Chee was battling it out.

This fight baffled me because I don't really understand how the judging works.Well, the other matches mostly ended due to submission but this fight was the one with a full 3 rounds. Kai Chee won the fight but I thought AJ did better (or is it just me?). I saw Kai Chee trying to overturn AJ a couple of times, but AJ maintained his strong ground position. I thought AJ managed to overpower and control Kai Chee most of the time. But of course, I am not in a position to comment as I really am a newbie to MMA and yes, I am still learning how to sort out the weight classes, let alone define the winner of a match. I shall leave this to the experts. Anyway, we are all proud of AJ Pyro as he is such a sport! Kai Chee was handed the win via unanimous decision from the judges.

Next pair up to woo the crowd were full time school teacher, part-time fighter, Melvin "Overkill" Yeoh and his young opponent, Raymond "The Rocket" Tiew. This is another anticipated fight because a lot of us were rooting for Melvin as his story was so inspirational, he is like the hero that everyone wants to support. 

A bit of history is that both of them met in the ring before in September 2011, and Tiew lost to Yeoh. Nevertheless, it is going to be exciting to see both of them facing each other again and perhaps, people are looking for an unexpected win too.

Didn't manage to pay full attention to this fight as I was busy 'stealing' water for the media, among other sneaky errands I need to do (yes, it is an exciting job *winks*). However, 3 minutes into the fight, Melvin won via submission. Guess Tiew will need to continue to work harder. He is still so young - bright future ahead.

Melvin's humility and kindness is displayed in the ring when he showed so much respect for his opponent, Raymond, by giving him encouragements and also credit for giving such a great fight! I can imagine those school kids cheering for their teacher.

Fight number 5 saw a last minute replacement (and trust me, it was really last minute, like the day before), Mohd. Fouzein, a Malaysian fighter going up against Vietnamese fighter, Thanh "Aladdin" Vu (always interesting how they get their middle name. I have yet to understand why he is known as Aladdin. Maybe he has a magic carpet, or a girlfriend named Jasmine). Mohd Fouzein replaced Raymond Tan who had to be pulled out from the fight due to medical reasons.

Everyone praised Fouzein for his courage to take on the challenge on such short notice; he is truly a star for being brave enough go up against a more experienced fighter. I had the chance to meet Fouzein in another event and I have only one comment about him - he is ALL-SMILES, like nothing in the world can bring him down. I like his cheerfulness. I believe he has loads to work on in terms of experience but I hope to see more of his real battle in the ring soon. As predicted, Thanh Vu won the fight (with ease) but we are all still very proud of our home-boy for the fight. Else, the Vietnamese dude will be fighting air.

By now, you must be tearing up from reading such a long post. I will continue with fight 6 to 10 in my next post because I am just that considerate.

I'd also like to wish all of you Happy Chinese New Year 2013! May the Year of the Snake brings only tears of joy and all successes!