Malaysia sent a team of athletes to the IFMA World Championships in Busan, Korea.
From left to right, Ali, Hamdan, Hui Ying & Khoo Meng YangAttending the World Championship proved an eye opener. This was our first experience viewing amateur Muaythai. As IFMA is a member of GAISF and also the Asian Olympic Council, they have to conform to certain safety standards, i.e body protection, elbow guards, shin guards...etc. Needless to say one cannot fight in quite the same way as Pro Muaythai with the precautions needed to conform to standards set by these world governing bodies. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means the fighting style is slightly different, lighter and faster. Though if you watch the 91+ kilo men fighting you would hardly say the fighting was light.
For example, a fighter who relies on KOing his opponents with his elbow strikes, just wouldn't be able to do so. Don't get me wrong, even with body protection, one can give and receive some heavy blows but these strikes will be slightly minimized with the protection. With so many top class athletes competing at an international event, there would surely be a bloodbath without these extra precautions.
Left,Mohd Ali Yaakub and right, Mohd Hamdan Mokhtar.Mohd Ali fought well in his first introduction to Amatuer Muaythai. Unfortunately, he was pitted against the world champion, Yusubov Ruslan, in the first match. Even though Ali lost, we could see that with a little work, we too can produce a World Champion.Yusubov went on to win the Feather Weight Category. And to those who are curious, his amateur fight does not effect his professional fight record.
Hamdan also did well, only loosing in his second match to Malik Bah of Sweden. Malik Bah also went on to win the Light Welter Weight Category.
Team Malaysia, center, Captain Shah with Stephan Fox, IFMA Secretary GeneralMd Farek Md Urep, international referee
Our very own Md Farek or better known as Boy gets invaluable experience as an international judge and referee. If any of you have any questions on Muaythai rules, you can turn to Boy, as he has attended the referee seminars etc on the Muaythai rules and point system.
Mohd Ali Yaakub
From left to right, Ali, Hamdan, Hui Ying & Khoo Meng Yang
Team Malaysia, center, Captain Shah with Stephan Fox, IFMA Secretary General
Our very own Md Farek or better known as Boy gets invaluable experience as an international judge and referee. If any of you have any questions on Muaythai rules, you can turn to Boy, as he has attended the referee seminars etc on the Muaythai rules and point system.
We didn't want to publicize this but strangely our 3 fighters came up with fever then a rash just days before the fight. Faizal first in Koh Samui. Then Zeri and Hamdan, suffering from fever when they arrived in Malaysia a day before the fight our fighters were rushed to the clinic to be checked out and the doctor confirmed that the fighters had mild symptoms of chicken pox. They then had to have a vaccination(to help boost their immunity towards the virus). Which was really funny actually as these guys are brave warriors, but bring out a needle and they turn to jelly. All three still had swollen glads on the night of the fight.
Our Traniners from WMC Camp, Lamai. On the left is Anarong, Contender Asia 1 trainer and Lumpinee Champion, and next to him is trainer and fighter Matsui. Matsui will also be fighting on the 18th in Koh Samui in the Contender Asia Southern Thailand selections. There are around 15 trainers at WMC Lamai, but unfortunately not all of them could come. We would have loved to show them all our beautiful Malaysia.
Hamdan being prepared before the fight.
From left, Ijat, Robbie, Ben & Mark.
Our Champions!
Nasi lemak in Kampung baru. After the fight, starving, we were all treated to nasi lemak at 12.30am.
Mail, left, with Faizal in Koh Samui.
Some people thought Zeri might be knocked out in the first round, some even questioned his ability to fight Iddi 'Selindang' Kuning. Well on Saturday, 7th February,thanks to Boxxevents, 18 year old Zeri put everyone's doubts to rest.
