Zig Zach

TIME FLIES!!!

2011-04-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Time flies when you're super busy with a million things?!? I can't believe my last update was in Feb!??! Holy crap!! Thats not good!! Alot has been going on since then!!

Picking up from where I left off, my shorts that were sold at the auction in Oz for the Flood Relief Fundraiser. I think it fetch $250 if I'm not wrong? I'm glad it got more than my expected $10! haha

March 13th I had a fight in Hongkong, once again live on ATV for the Libogen event. I had a good fight against a very tough Japanese guy. Ileg kicked the hell out of him he took 2 eight counts and still came back and rocked me with some hard punches. I felt really bad because The Japan earthquake had happened while I was flying and everywhere was on Tsunami alert.

Upon landing, I had been told my opponent had to pull out as there was so much problems with airports being closed and all. But somehow he did make it to the event. I heard he had to take a 10hour train ride to Narita airport then a flight down to Hongkong. =( I felt so bad, coz I just wanted to kinda go easy and just have a good fight rather than make it a painful fight. =(

After the fight I gave a speech to the audience saying, thank you for my japanese opponent and to please put their hands together for the Japanese team for making it down to the event even though the earthquake has happened and so many lives were lost. =(

Anyways here are some pics from the event. You can see the rest of the pics here at:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150441698400046.632276.596785045&l=50f285de9c

When I got back I've been meaning to get another fight, and I was supposed to take one in Early April in Phuket. But I was convinced by the current thai trainer at Vanda to fight in BKK. We're in the midst of arranging one, so once I have more details on it. I'll let everyone know!! Im very excited =) So finger crossed something goes through!

Anyways, If you guys remember last year I was up in Ibiza partying my ass off at Amnesia, the superclub!!....it was pretty much the BEST club and most amaaazzzing place on earth for me!! They are doing an Asian Tour...and I've been asked by the promoters to play for them!!!! Am soooooooo excited for it!!! I'm really looking forward to the gig!! Hopefully I'll get to play in Ibiza????????? haha never say never people!! =)

www.amnesia-asia.com
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174513542601115&ref=mf

The party will be at the Marina Bay Sands convention hall. Jade Jagger (Mick Jagger's daughter) will be hosting the party. Me and my buddy Jon White will be warming up the night for the whole thing. Headlining the night will be Ibiza residents Les Schmitz,Mar- T ,Wally Lopez and Lottie!! From what I've heard the marina bay sands hall is fucking HUGE! haha Let's hope it fills up to a decent size!!!

If the Amnesia Asia party I play at looks ANYTHING like this I can die a happy man!!

There is ONE more update I have, BUTTTTT I can't reveal yet. Actually to be honest it really has been the main reason why I've been sooo soooo busy!! It's totally random but it's been actually a dream of mine for many years!! =) Anyways, In time to come people... in time to come! =)

Right gonna keep this a short and sweet post to let everyone know that yes I'm still alive and kicking!!! Hope to see you all at the Amnesia Ibiza party at Marina Bay Sands!!

LaterZ

Zach

KO13 - Amateur Muaythai & MMA - QLD Flood Appeal

2011-02-25T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

As you all know, a couple months back Queensland, Australia was having some major flood problems. I've been to Queensland a few times now and know alot of people there. Glad that alot of my friends are safe and homes were not lost. Sadly there were thousands of others who were affected by the flooding still. It must be a real horror and nightmare for those who have lost homes,livestocks or even loved ones. The floods later also affected some places in Victoria, Australia. Hitting some friend's gyms and also places where I've taught my seminars at. no

When I saw that my mate Mat Reid from G.V Martial Arts was doing a fundraiser. I thought I'd offer to help by giving some signed stuff for maybe an auction. I got my sponsors to design a pair of shorts with the events name, my name and Tuff boxing on it. I decided to sign it and send it out to Mat Reid for the fund raiser.

Seriously nice shorts!!! =) Well done TuffBoxing!! Awesome as always!!!

Shorts modelled by sexy man - muaythai superstar Neungpichit Sityodtong

I'm not saying my signature is worth loads..! I ain't JWP or Manny Pacquaio for the matter....but I do hope it can help generate some sort of interest so that people will feel like they've spent their money on something FUN and COOL for the lovely people up in Queensland to help rebuild their state.

Every little bit goes a long way!! Good luck guys! =)

LaterZ

Inspired by Evan Tanner (1971 - 2008)

2011-02-13T19:07:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,

I chanced upon a really amazing video today, so amazing and inspirational that I decided to take time and do a blog about it!! I can't remember who posted it on their facebook page, but I'm glad I clicked on it and watched it. It's a documentary about the late MMA Fighter, Evan Tanner, titled "Once I Was A Champion."

I've been watching some other videos on Evan Tanner and all I can say is "WOW!!" , I really cant wait for the documentary to be released! I'm a huge fan of watching movies and documentaries that are based on REAL,TRUE LIFE stories. I think there's so much you can learn from stuff like that....good or bad....

Anyways, for those that know me personally... They all know I'm not a big fan of MMA. I can probably name you about a handful of fighters!! I have alot of respect for the sport of MMA and their fighters. (some of em!). They are probably the most amazing athletes that push their bodies to the utmost physical capabilities!! I do alot of their strength and conditioning workouts for my fights and trust me it isn't the slightest bit easy or enjoyable at times!... Plus I would say that MMA is by far one of the most LETHAL and most PRACTICAL martial arts.

However, after today I can add another MMA fighters name to my handful! Evan Tanner. The documentary isn't as much about Evan Tanner's fighting, it wasn't about the fame, the glory and all that he achieved from MMA. In a way, the documentary told of the man that Evan Tanner was but more importantly it was about "a message"... a message/purpose that he believed he was suppose to share. He believed he was fighting not just for the sake of fame,fortune and glory...but he was fighting to win, to be a champion and when he was a champion, he would have fans/audience....an audience that would listen...and listen to his message and they would then pass on this message! I know it sounds all fucking tree-hugger, ganja smoking, hippyish, strange and even weird....but I do believe that things happen, and it all happens for a reason.

When I hurt myself during the filming of Contender, on day 1 dislocating my right shoulder....then hurting myself later on in my fight against Zidov by disclocating my left shoulder for the first time! I honestly thought my career in muaythai was over, my dreams were never to be accomplished and that I would only be known for being this loser on the show. I had no insurance. I didn't have alot of money. I didn't know how or what was gonna happen. I had always fought with not punching coz of my right shoulder, but to try and fight without punching with both shoulders....I'm as good as a sitting duck!! I remember saying,"The show was a dream come true, but a nightmare of a way to end." I remember being in tears for days and upset as hell. I didn't know what was gonna happen. I couldn't believe all this was happening to me. =(

I remember after everything settled down , I said that I couldn't and wouldn't give up so easily. Then strangely, insurance came through from the filming company and it covered surgery on BOTH shoulders. (The first incident was bloody their fault anyway!!!!) I started from ZERO after surgery, barely being able to dress myself at times! I took about 4 or 5 months of physio,strength training,correctional work and finally when I was stronger I started my muaythai training again. Then later I was for some reason voted and asked to have my rematch with Zidov at the Finals of Contender Asia, held at the indoor stadium infront of 7000 people and televised to millions! =) So "YES", I do believe that things happen, and it all happens for a reason!!!

Evan Tanner filmed these two videos and it was only posted after he died. He said in these two videos how he felt that fighting was just a stepping stone and that it would all lead to something big, something he didn't know that was yet to come. Now that UFC and MMA has basically now taken the world by storm and with him passed away, maybe this documentary was the way his message was to be told, maybe this was the "something bigger" he had always believed in. Some people say "you become even more famous when you are dead"... I mean look at Martin Luther King, Jr, JFK, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Princess Diana, Elvis.... names that you will never forget....now hopefully Evan Tanner and his message will not be forgotten too.

Watching these videos really made my day. I wish I could have met him. A real inspiration, Evan Tanner, you, your legacy and your message will never be forgotten. R.I.P.

Hope you guys enjoyed the video too!

ZZ

2011 The Year of the Rabbit!!

2011-02-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the late blog update again. Dec was a busy month with friends visiting and catching up over Xmas lunches,dinners and suppers. And now Jan has also gone by way too quickly! Seriously every year seems to go by faster and faster!!

My mother who lives in Holland is here for a month visiting, so that has kept me extremely busy too! I don't usually get to see her this time of the year. Usually see her in Summer and all so this was a real treat for me and my sis as my mom is an amazing cook and this year we can finally have the traditional Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner with her. It has been a while since we've done it.

I also had my good friends from Hannover, Germany in town. If you go back a couple of blogs, they are the ones who do the big parties in their home town. They took such great care of me when I was there, so this time I had to play tourguide and take em around town to do loads of shopping and have loads of yummy chinese new year treats like my favourite,YU SHENG! =) YUM YUM!!

One of my FAVOURITE things in the world!!

2011 is the year of the Rabbit in the Lunar New Year calender. I'm kinda superstitious at times and I do listen to stuff on fengshui and horoscopes. Just for knowledge and fun. I try not to believe everything they say. I know people who actually listen to all the bullshit fortune tellers and some fengshui masters tell them and they almost LIVE BY IT. ..that's when I think its a bit overboard. Example, Fortune teller tells a girl, "You're going to find the guy you're going to marry this year"....and she believed him sooo much and literally she was lead to believe that every guy she met was going to be "THE ONE!" ......It sounds abit retarded, but trust me it does happen!!!!!

Anyways, this is what the year of the Rabbit holds for me!

The Dog
1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006

The Dog is wonderfully hard worker, a perfectionist and someone who loves the small details. He is also a bit anti-social, pessimistic and stubborn. They are one of the most honest and loyal signs of the Chinese zodiac and will always go to bat for a worthy cause. The Dog is a fantastic listener and his advice is usually very intuitive. These people don’t always forgive easily, especially those who cross them. But are always willing to listen to others’ problems, and to fight for a good cause.

The Chinese Year of the Rabbit has shining possibilities for all Dogs. The main emphasis will be on their personal life. If attached, the Dog will find their relationship grow and become much more meaningful on all levels. Single Dogs will be particularly lucky in finding someone very special. All social occasions will carry the possibility of meeting someone new, with April, June, August and December being the busiest months on their social calendar. Career-wise, the Dog will see the jobs expanding or promotional opportunities arising unexpectedly. It is crucial he discusses any worries or ideas with friends and family. Increased confidence and self-respect will garner the respect of work colleagues. The most favorable months on the work front are March and September to November. Seize the moment when it presents itself! Financially, the Dog can look forward to an improvement in his situation. This will allow him to indulge his hobbies and perhaps take a trip or two. In the Year of the Rabbit, the Dogs must guard against lost, delayed or incorrect documentation. Make sure everything is as it should be on all paperwork this year. The Dog will have a renewed interest in health, fitness and outdoor pursuits this year, which will greatly benefit his vitality and zest for life. If he can leave the past couple of challenging years behind him, 2011 will be a most gratifying and happy year.

So far sounds pretty good to me!! =)

I've been really busy with a whole lot of things the last few weeks. A couple of projects (can't reveal em yet!) on the side that have really required me to be running around alot, so I haven't had time to sit at the computer to do blogs and answer alot of emails! Need to start looking at different things apart from Muaythai and my Personal Training business to keep me on my toes and motivated!

Muaythai will always be my love and my passion. Sadly Singapore just isn't the right place to be at to do it as a profession. =(

Anyways I'll keep it short on this on this blog update and I'll do one soon in a week or so I hope!

Before I leave, Happy New Year and GONG XI FA CAI!! May the year of the rabbit bring us lotsa wealth health and may all our dreams and wishes come true! =)

LaterZ

Melbourne & Sydney!! I LIKE!!

2010-12-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

Sorry for the late update. I was waiting for the pics to be put up and sent over to me. its year end...so everyone's a little slack on the workfront! =P

Well I headed off to Melbourne on the 17th of Nov for a week and a half to work and then to Sydney for a holiday to catch up with old friends!! I only got back to Singapore on the 7th Dec. Was quite along trip but a trip well worth it!! =)

Once again the trip was organized by my Scottish friend Keith and the guys at Dominance MMA gym. I was working and running the classes at Dominance over the week and then heading outside of Melbourne to do some seminars for the gyms out there.

Arriving in Melb, Im not sure if it just happens to me but....they ALWAYS have such loonnnnggg queues through the immigration, there were only 2 counters open for like god knows how many flights.....and it feels like forever before you get out of the airport coz of the checks and all. After a flight with not much sleep....all that is never pleasant!!

Stepping out of the airport into blue skies and sunny nice weather was much nicer than the last trip where it was about 9 degrees and freeezing!!! Hard to believe that it has been 6 months since the last time I was in Melb!?! once again trusty, Keith was there to pick me up from the airport. Once again all smiles and laughs from there on. Keith is definitely one of the funniest guys I know!! Hours of entertainment with him!!

I was staying with once again Dave who is Co-owner of Dominance along with, Cam that I had the pleasure of hanging out with abit more this time. Living smack on Bridge Road and basically a 10min walk from the gym was pretty awesome!! Didnt have to get too confused with public transport and all.

Bridge Rd was a pretty cool area with nice cafes all around and lotsa factory outlet shops too. So during my time off I was never bored.....always walking around window shopping or eating!! God I'm so Singaporean when it comes to these two things!! haha Maybe Keith is also Singaporean!! Coz we did ALOT of shopping and eating!! Every cafe you went you were pretty much guranteed good food, good coffee and pretty damn good service!!!

Can't tell you how many cups of coffee I had in Melb!!! And just a random cake shop on Bridge Rd that made a GUCCI bag cake!?! haha

This was actually my first time working in a gym in Australia, so I actually wasn't sure what to expect. Running seminars are different. Seminars,I come,I teach and I go! I gotta admit that teaching in Dominance was alot easier!
1) Majority of people are in shape or train or do outdoor stuff!!
2) The students hold pads for each other. Which is in a way ALOT better and efficient. Coz that way I get to walk around and give everyone attention!! Correcting and giving tips, making sure everyone is doing it right.

Early morning 630am class.. yes 630am!!

Another thing that really impessed me about working there was the dedication, determination some of these guys had!!! 2 guys I knew would drive down almost an hour every other day for the 630am class and then drive back another hour to go to work coz they didn't work in the city!! Then they'd do it again later for the evening class sometimes!! And they weren't even fighers!!!!! They just loved the sport so much...and they just loved the gym alot...I mean what was not to like about it, it was a really nice and friendly gym with good trainers and facilities!

Students class, the future warriors! Fighters training as I show them a few moves to practice.

Over the weekend I went to do seminars in 3 diferent gyms outside of city central. Headed out to Nothern MMA in Greensborough, SMAC in Frankston & Top Tier in Geelong. I really enjoying doing seminars, I get to meet various gym owners and also get to see the different gyms and their trainees and the way they teach muaythai. It was really cool to see the changes or people really moving,kicking,punching or whatever differently...and that they did take away something after the seminars! Hopefully they don't forget what I taught them...well if they do I'll just have to come up again and teach em I guess =)

Seminar at SMAC and Top Tier MT.

Top Tier MT group photo.

Sorry for the lack of photos from the seminars. I left my camera at home and Keith and I were busy with teaching so didn't really had much time to take lotsa pictures.

After all the work and seminars, it was time for abit of Rest & Relax down in Sydney!! I never been to Sydney and have been meaning to go there for a looonggg time! I had some Personal Training clients of mine who moved back to Sydney, they were really close friends I'd say... I even attended their wedding in Noosa, which is in Brisbane,Australia. I haven't seen them in 5 years!! So it was good to finally catch up again rather than doing it over sms and facebook! =P

My mates lived on Manly which is the more posh/family and has alot of hot brazillian babysitters! That's what everyone tells me!!! haha The moment I say,"I wanna check out Bondi." People all go,"You're in Manly...it's where all the hot brazillians are!!" So guys...you read the inside news here on zigzach.com...if you like brazillian girls (and waxes!) you should try Manly in Sydney!! =)

Manly Beach! It really was a nice place! Very very chilled and not as busy as Bondi. Didn't see any brazillians (girls or waxes!)

From Manly, I had to take the ferry to the city. It is a REALLY amazing view!! Abit of a pain in the ass to travel back and forth on it ...BUT...seriously VERY VERY cool!! You literally go past the Sydney Opera house and the Sydney bridge. The first time I was on it I was like....DAMN IT IM ON THE FUCKING WRONG SIDE!! and people were infront of me...and couldn't get a good shot....but on the 2nd trip........I wised up and managed to get in some pretty nice shots! =)

Right,so I can now say.."been there,done that!"

Sydney is is TOTALLY different from Melbourne. Melbourne is reallly laid back... people are chill.... it feels like a giant sub-urb. Everything looks old and just feels sooooo relaxed!! but Sydney is like....hustle and bustle... you really feel the difference!! I guess coming from Singapore where it's hustle and bustle all the time for me...Melbourne's laid back, chillaxing attitude was really more my thing...I mean for a change!!!

I hit up Bondi Beach with another mate from Sydney, we walked around shopping and eating .....again!! The weather was pretty grey and it drizzled abit so there weren't that many people out on the beach. But loads of people at the cafes and all. What I really liked at Bondi was this place called Icebergs. They had this swimming pool carved or made into the rocks. The tide would come in and it would cleanse/change the water....It was so fucking cool and the water just looked sooooo amzing!!!

How beautiful is that??

What I did like about both places is the vibrancy....the people.....the energy......liveliness!! Another thing that always impressed me was the service at most places were really good! People were usually happy or smiley....they knew what they were doing. They actually kinda almost make you think that they really enjoy working!! (even tho we know no one really does!!!!) I mean, sadly its not something you see very often here in Singapore. I mean, sometimes you can't blame the staff, when you find out what the fucking hourly rate they get paid to work at restaurants, hotels and whatever is....you'd be like,"fuck....no wonder he's moody!!!"..

Apart from just the usual sight seeing, I didn't really get to do much partying and all while in Sydney. My mates there were all couples...married with kids....boooooorring! =P heheh but it was still cool I hadn't seen them in ages and I really wanted to just have some quiet time. We went up to Palm Beach which was supposed to be the posh place of Sydney, we went to my mate's in-laws place for an early Xmas dinner.

I had met the in-laws in Singapore when they visited my mates, and again at the wedding in Noosa. It was really lovely to see them again after soooo long!! The father in-law was an American, and he was a Vietnam war veteran. He had done not one but TWO tours in Vietnam!! I remember talking to him many years ago and he would tell me stories and stuff about the war. I mean that is something pretty amazing yet pretty scary to be apart of. He made a very big impact on me when we met and chatted on both occasions. He struck me as just a very very genuine person. Something I think the world really lacks nowadays.... just simple, honest, sincere and genuine people. I think it's a virtue that one learns, maybe from having gone through hardships in life. So for him to retire and be happy in beautiful Palm Beach makes you realize that every cloud has a silver lining! =)

The view from his amazing house in Palm Beach =)

So I'm writing this two days before the end of 2010!! It has been a crazy fun year and also some not so fun stuff.....but Im looking forward to doing the re-cap in the next blog entry!! Also sharing my 2011 goals and resolution!! Its time for Zig Zach to re-evaluate and re-plan conquering the world!!

I wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! May your dreams and wishes come true!! 2011....BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LaterZ

Zig Zach

IBIZA 2010!!

2010-11-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I can't believe I've already been back to Singapore a month since my trip to Ibiza!! I dont know where the hell this year has gone. It's gone by sooo soooo quickly. I was actually writing the Hanover writeup from my mom's place in Holland a few days before my trip out to the lovely spanish island...and now a month later I'm back here.......damn...!!

I was up to visit my mom and spend some time with the family before I made my way down to the legendary Ibiza!! =) I've always wanted to go to Ibiza. I remember listening to that annoying song by "The Vengaboys - We're going to Ibiza". I actually fucking thought they were singing..."Oh we're going to Eat Pizza." ...Then my sis said...it's "IBIZA!!!!! Not Eat Pizza!!".... DUUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!

Then the famous english movie about Ibiza hit the stores. "Kevin & Perry Go Large!!" A real classic movie!! And it showed some scenes of Ibiza's party scene and some of the superclubs! It was all just CRAZY. Nothing like what I've ever seen and I was just blown away! I remember thinking..."Now THAT is a party!"

All my friends from Europe would rave about how amazing it was....and beautiful the island was....beautiful beaches...people....amazing clubs...and how the music was fantasitc.... I mean really it just sounded like HEAVEN to me! =) They also mentioned it was expensive....and I mean I was thinking how expensive can it get....READ ON!!!...

So on Sat 25th Sept, I flew on my own from Dusseldorf,Germany which was the next town an hour away from my mom's place in Holland. When I was sitting at my gate at the airport waiting for my flight, I kinda started to notice that the majority of people boarding my flight was uhmmmmmmm about 60 or 70years old?!?!? I was actually begining to think to myself..."Am I on the right flight??????" I thought Ibiza was supposed to be PARTY ISLAND!! I was expecting people already drunk and singing and being CRAZY even before getting on the plane!! haha

Sun was setting over Ibiza airport, the sun goes in and the party begins!!!

When I arrived at the airport. Another flight landed too. And then came the reaaaaaaaallll party people!! I think majority were italians on that flight....how did I know...Big sunglasses,tanned,hair all oiled up like they swam to ibiza?!....and the ultimate give-a-way! They were talking with their hands!!! hahahah

So I checked into my hotel up in Talamanca. A more quiet area with a nice beach away from the busy Ibiza town and all. Not even sure WHY I had one??? Half the time in the day you were out on the beach. And at night you were partying til the early or late hours of the morning!! I freshened up and went straight out to meet one of the very few YOUNG ppl on my flight. He knew a couple of ppl who worked in Ibiza so he said he'll show me around for the night since I was alone and all my other mates were only arriving the next day.

So me and Sascha and his mate Nikki walked around Ibiza town and went to check out some bars and stuff. The VIBE and the ATMOSPHERE was just so amazing! Think everyone there is just on holiday and knows that it's all about partying thats why it's got such a cool vibe. I mean it was exactly what every one tells me...."how amazing it was....and beautiful the island was....beautiful beaches...people....amazing clubs...and how the music was fantasitc....and EXPENSIVE!"........ One drink say a Vodka cranberry was 15 - 20EUROS!!!!!! A beer was 12 - 15euros......and water was 10 - 12euros!!??!? MENTAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Chiringito on Es Cavellet. Food looked REALLY good there!

Had a fairly quiet night as I knew the next few nights ahead when my mates arrive would be a LONG few days and nights! haha Early that morning, my friend Stefan from Hannover arrived early that morning and we met up with a whole bunch of other people from the Cocoon label and we ended up at Es Cavellet (pronounced "S CA-VA-EY!")

By the way this was a GAY and NUDIST beach!?! No Im not GAY...nor am I a NUDIST!?! It's somthing very strange when you come from Asia...topless I can still deal with but nude...hmmmmm......It's not always a pretty picture lets just say!! I mean there were some pretty hot women topless/nude and also some fit guys letting it all hang loose. But then again majority are some really big fat older couples. No offense we'll prolly be like that when we get alot older but...yeah I wouldn't wanna be parading around nude like that.

After a whole day of sitting at the beach around naked people, we decided to go home get changed and head out for dinner and see where the night takes us. We hit the famous Pacha after dinner at about midnight as there was a Cadenza party going on that night and all the guys were like,"No no...we won't have a late one...coz Monday is gonna be a big night with Cocoon Party closing and all that".......Uhmmm well lets just say we all rocked home about 4 or 5 in the morning...thats early for Ibiza...but LATE considering everyone was planning to have just ONE drink! hahah! Pacha reminded me alot like Zouk in Singapore. I remember reading once that the owner of Zouk was a huge Pacha fan and modelled Zouk on Pacha infrastructure.

Michel Cleis warming the night up at Candenza night at Pacha,Ibiza!

After a late night, its Monday 8am and I recieve a call from my friend, Harbi from Germany, he had just arrived to party and was wondering where my hotel was and all. He heard I was there with the gang and didn't wanna miss out on the fun!! haha How cool is that, "Im going to Ibiza over the weekend to catch up with a friend!" haha.... For me was more like I flew half way around the world!!....Some of the guys from Hannover were there too and they were like," WHAT THE HELL YOU DOING IN IBIZA!??!" haha

I spent most of the day with Harbi just walking around and chilling on the beautiful beaches, didn't really do that much as we knew it was gonna be a LOOONGGGG night and needed to conserve our energy! All our other mates were at the Gay & Nudist beach again and I had enough images of old naked people to last me the trip...so didn't need anymore!! =) haha Come night we went for dinner nearby our hotel and had some amazing Spanish Tapas!! Lambchops...Mussels in a tomato based sauce....fried calamari....and my all time favourite, PAEELLLLAAA!! After stuffing our faces with amazing food we set off on our amazing clubbing experience!!!!

Seafood Paelllaaa!! Yummm yummmmm!!!

First up on the checklist was to hit the notorious DC10 for the Circo Loco party!!! I've heard soooo many stories about this legendary club!! All my DJ friends or friends in Europe always tell me soooo much about this place. And true to their words....DC10 was just MENTAAAAAAALL!!! It was 10pm on a Monday when we got there and it was RAMMMMED with people and the music was just mindblowing!!! Prolly one of the BEST sets or music I've heard in a LOOOOOONNGGGG time!! Definetly one of my FAVOURITE clubs in the world without a doubt!!!

Flyer for DC10's Circo Loco!! Entrance to prolly one of the BEST clubs in the world I have to say!

DC10 has a reaaaallly coool vibe to it. It has had a VERY notorious history on Ibiza!! I remember walking into the club and the ENTRANCE was soooooo tiny and it was really hard to get in!! After squeezing through the entrance, you are in the mainroom and the music was just soooo deep yet...pumping....the sound going through your body. Every bleep and beep and drum you can really feel it going through you. Heading out into the terrace of DC10 it was just as crazy....rammed with people!! You had to be there EARLY to get a good spot right upfront!! The music was light,funky and bouncy....and it just made people wanna dance!!!

(L - R) Mainroom music was just UNREAL one of the best minimal sets I've heard in a LOONGGGG time!!! DC10 Terrace was RAMMED with people and the music was just really uplifting.

We left DC10 close to 1am and headed to the main event of Ibiza that night. I think it was prolly the party that EVERYONE was talking about. Monday night at Amnesia, Cocoon's Closing Party!! All my german mates were at the dinner with the organizers of the party so we met up outside Amnesia and went in together.

From outside, Amnesia just looks like any other big club...but when I got in I was like...WOAH!!...I mean it was just frikkin HUGE!!!!!!

(L- R) Sven Vath owner of the Cocoon label rocking the mainroom dancefloor!!
The terrace of Amnesia which was just HUGE!! Wait til you see it in the day!!!

When you got in to Amnesia it was like.....HOLY SHIT THIS PLACE IS HUGE!!! I mean really it's just clubbing on a MASSSIVE scale!! The place was slowly starting to fill up and by 2am the place was RAMMED and pumping!! I mean it was just amazing!! The vibe and atmosphere in the club was just unlike no other I've ever experienced!!!! I mean just look at the pictures it was just packed with people dancing,sweating,grooving and just having a good time!!! And then when you think it couldn't get more AMAZING then this. Daylight slowly starts to break into the Terrace over the clear rooftop and as it gets brighter and brighter.....you see THIS!!!

This is 11am on a Tuesday morning!!! MADNESSS!!!

People dripping with sweat, dancing away....everyone there just loving it and enjoying the moment!!!!! I suddenly think to myself......"THIS is what it's all about!! I'm in IBIZA!! HELLLL F@#$KING YEAH!!"...I get the goosebumps and I start dancing again like crazy even tho I was soooooo tired from the long night!! Ahhhh man it was just something soooo sooooo special!!!!

Taken from next to the DJ console, Sven Vath the founder of Cocoon , ends the night and season of Cocoon's Party Animals in Ibiza!! SPECTACULAR!!!

It's Tuesday afternoon 12pm Me, Stefan and Harbi stand in the carpark waiting for all the guys from Cocoon to decide what they are doing before we head to the Cocoon After Party at Ushuaia (Ushu-aya) which was happening pretty much in an hour or so!! Note that we have been partying since Monday night 10pm!!! We were EXHAUSTED!! But that didn't stop the party animals!!

We went back to the hotel....got freshened up....a change of clothes and out we went to Ushuaia!! it was 3pm and the warm up DJ was playing some AMAZING deeep deeeeeeeeeep minimal techno tech house.....Just warm beats with bleeps and tingles....nothing too crazy!!! I think that WARM UP DJs often have such a hard job and people don't realize it but are there only to see the GUEST DJ. Warm up DJs are what keeps people at the party or makes them leave....they can't play too boring...or too hard...it has to be JUST PERFECT!!.... They kinda set the way the night is going!! And the way this guy was building it up....it was gonna be a hell of an afternoon/night on the beach!!!!!

Ushuaia Beach Club! Another amazing ibiza moment as you sit on the beach and watch people dance to some amazing music!

It was just realllly such an incredible day. Just sitting on the sofa beds at Ushuaia as the deep minimal and tech house music just gets you grooving and you're chatting to random people and telling them, "I'm from SINGAPORE." It never fails to amaze people!! haha =) Then the legendary Sven Vath comes takes over from the warm up DJ and right away you can sense that people know it's gonna get crazy now!! Sven play's some tracks that even I was so surprised he would play....but it really just shows how versatile he is as a DJ and not just sticking to one genre or sound.

Time flies sooooo fast in Ibiza and before you know it, 8 hours past and Sven is still going on and I was DONE!!! I was WRECKEDDDDD!!!.. After all the partying and dancing the body needed to have a rest!! I staggered home.....My body feeling like I've just done a whole 5 rounds with the current muaythai champ Yodsaenklai?!!? Sheesh!! I was HURTING!!!

Woke up around 9am on Weds morning. You would have thought I would be asleep the whole week??! But I got about 8 - 10hours and I felt pretty good actually. Got up and on my way to breakfast at the hotel...and another day of just hanging out and lazzzzzing around by the beach!! =) Seriously....this was HEAVEN for me. Amazing dance music......some seriously crazy parties..... amazing people/friends.... really I wish I didn't have to leave the next morning =(

After dinner with the guys from Cocoon, I got in the car with the boys and one of my friends points out to me,"Do you know Butch? Maybe you can bring him to Singapore to play next time." I was like,"Yeah of course I've heard of Butch...I have a few tracks from him. Great producer!" So we started to chat and all that. Butch told me he was in Ibiza to pick up an Award for Track of the year in Ibiza 2010!! A pretty biiiiig award if you ask me!!

This is the track that won him the award. It's sooo soooo funky and a totally differen side to the usual Butch productions and tracks. Again....a great DJ/producer showing versatility....not sticking to one genre/sound.

We all arrived at Space and it was Kehakuma nights on a Weds in Space. This was also a closing party for Kehakuma and the line up for the night was nothing short of SPECTACULAR!!! I was sooooo sooooo glad I got to go to this party!! It's almost like every favourite DJ in one night!! But like what my buddy Stefan said,"Every night and every where is an amazing line up!!!" Which is true....you end up wanting to go to EVERY PARTY!! which means....NO SLEEP....and spending a TRUCK load of money!! hahah

When we got in, it was still fairly early, and it was slowly beginning to get busy. We walked into the mainroom and M.A.N.D.Y were already banging out some big room tracks. Space was cool...but it was missing something?.......I was expecting something reaaaaallly amazing...coz they used to do these club night here in Singapore associated with Space....and you had this great expectation of the place...and to be honest....it was.......OK.. haha sorry!!

Booka Shade later on in the evening playing some realllly pumping music!!! Look forward to seeing them at Zoukout 2010

Maybe I was tired..or just not in the mood yet...???...But I think after Amnesia and seeing how amazing it was that night...really that was hard to top! Like one of my friends Frank who was with me said,"There's nothing SPECIAL about it anymore...it just feels like a club and it could be anywhere in the world...doesn't have that Ibiza feel to it!!"..But he did say, before they put the roof over the terrace area in Space...the Sundays at Space parties were legendary!

We went back into the Terrace area of Space and Nick Curly was opening the night and doing the warm up and wow he serioulsy did an amaaazzzing job warming up the night. Like I said, warm up DJs are soo under appreciated. While standing around chatting and dancing....Nick Curly suddenly drops Butch's track, "No Worries". I was like...."HOW FRIKKING COOL IS THAT!" standing next to the guy who produced this track!!!! And to see the crowd absolutely going crazy at the track was just soooooo cool!!! Congrats on winning the track of the year Butch you deserve it!!! A very special and memorable moment for me!

The terrace room filled up preeetttty quickly!! And Nick Curly really building the night up soooo perfectly!!

Next up was Radio Slave another talented producer/remixer/DJ that I really like. He took it up a notch and realllly rocked the dancefloor leaving everyone begging for more!! And more they got!!! Next up was Guy Gerber & Seth Troxler who were doing a back 2 back set. Usually back 2 back means one DJ plays 1 or 2 tracks...and then the other DJ plays another 1 or 2...... it sounds simple...but the DJs really gotta compliment each others style...sound..vibe. When done right, it is really amazing!!!! We were all actually kinda curious how the two of them would sound back 2 back....but I gotta admit......... it was pretty fucking spectacular!!!!!

Seth Troxler & Guy Gerber back 2 back .....MAGICAL!!!

I seriously think this was the most amazing set I've seen or heard in a LONG LONGGGGG time!! Guy Gerber playing some of his tracks.....adding sounds....loops....beats...vocals over certain tracks when Seth plays....Seth doing the same and the two of them just keeping the night and the flow soooooo perfect. It just got higher and higher....and people were just screaming for more!! From a DJ point of view...it was really reallly just amazing what they were doing. It was only me and Harbi left from our group and we both were just dancing and dancing and dancing. Guy Gerber without a doubt is one of my favourite DJs. And together with Seth Troxler..........the night was just MAGICAL!!!! I was blown away!!!

As I mentioned......time flies in Ibiza! 5 days have passed and next thing I know it is 6am!!! Me and Harbi both had a flight to catch at 9am!!!! We had to exit the club quickly before everyone left and there were no taxis left!!... We rushed back to the hotel........a quick shower....packed our bags..... met up in the lobby and we were OFF to the airport feeling very very rougggghhhhhh and also very sad we had to leave the amazing island.=(

All I can say is....Ibiza is an AMAZING AMAZING place. Memories of the place are gonna last FOREVER!!! I dont think there is anything else like Ibiza! I really hope to make it back there again next year....or every year!!! =)

What I really miss about Ibiza is, the people who go there know their music, know their djs and know the scene!!!... They know what night which DJ is playing..they know what kinda sound the DJ plays. They don't go out to a club and go..."Ohhh I thought it was gonna be hip hop/retro or trance!"..... They don't go up to the console to the DJ playing techno and REQUEST for fucking HIP HOP?!?!?

It really is an island for the hardcore clubbers and electronic dance music lovers!!! Everyone there is on the same page....same frequency...... they are there to appreciate the electronic dance music scene!!

Ibiza 2011. See you there!!!

Hannover & Hamburg!!

2010-09-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

so I was supposed to do the update on my trip to Germany "a few days" after posting the previous one. Uhmmm how did you guys guess that it wasn't gonna happen!?!?! haha oops!

Im actually up in Netherlands with my family now writing this blog. I know I know you must be thining..."Wooowww jetsetter travels so much blah blah blah"....Uhmmmm I work my ass off half the time and am always doing so many things trying to start new businesses and to be honest I really don't do a lot for myself. So this trip is totally just to spoil myself and to chill (catch up on my blogs/emails!!) and do something for me...just coz I can...and just coz I want to. =)

So last month I was up in Germany, it was officially my first time in Germany!! I really didn't know what to expect??? Its never been a place on my list of places I've wanted to visit?? I mean all I could think of was that there was gonna be a big blonde woman with pigtailed hair called Olga holding big jugs of beer!! (Not the kinda jugs I like on a woman by the way!!!) And I thought people would be very...hmmm regimental...as in they were very strict and stick to themselves and not very sociable? Boy, was I WRONG!!! And what a pleasant surprise!!

The bullet train I had to take from Frankfurt to Hannover after a painful 11hour flight.
3hrs is still 3hrs Doesnt matter if you are in a Ferrari or a bloody bullet train!! haha

The whole reason I was there was actually to catch up with one of my good friends Stefan (No not Stephen Fox of WMC) and to attend his outdoor dance party that he does every year! Stefan and his lovely gf, Katrin do alot of events in Hannover and have one big outdoor party a year called Apollon's Park! When he told me that for Apollon's Park 2010 he was booking Karotte, Guy Gerber and Sven Vath for his party I thought to myself...." I Get to see Stefan and Katrin again. And on top of that, 3 of my fav DJS in one night!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO THERE!!!!"

What a COOL poster!!!

So I arrived in Germany and Stefan was really busy so he had his mate Kian pick me up from the train station. Kian's a cool kid....half german half Iranian and was my designated tour guide! =) Kian and me headed off to the hotel, I just dropped off all my stuff, had a quick fresh up and was out the door to meet Stefan for a quick bite and chat.

Stefan had some bad news from the government as they wanted to stop his outdoor party. Reason for them wanting to stop the event was because of the recent deaths at this years Love Parade. If you guys don't know, Love Parade is a huge dance music festival that has usualy about 1.4million people from all over the world attending!?!? 21 people died at this year's Love Parade and it had a huge impact on any party/outdoor event being held in Germany. You can watch and understand what went wrong at Love Parade here. They have now said they will NEVER do another Love Parade in respect of those who lost their lives at what was meant to be a fun day out.

http://www.loveparade.net/english/?lang=en

With 24hours til the event happening, Stefan had ALOT to do....a backup plan incase it was really gonna get canceled.......some meetings with government officals to try and fix it all and assure them that all safety precautions and regulations were met. I left Stefan to do his thing and me and Kian went around walking in Hannover. Some of the things that caught my eye or just made me laugh in Hannover.

Hannover Hauptbanhof which is the train station. That cool thing on your bottom left corner (first pic on your left) is a bicycle kinda taxi, eco friendly and cool looking =) We also have that in Singapore...butttttt....not as FANCY looking....!!

Voiiiillllaaaa behold, the Rickshaw from Singapore!!
(NOTE: Do not pick your date up in one of these!!)

This is the old church in the old town in Hannover. When I say OLD I mean OLD!!! Built in 1333!!
(Note Singapore was only FOUNDED IN 1819!!!!!)
Even if we had a building made in 1333, it would prolly just be torn down and re-built into some oversized shopping mall containing the same crap as the mall 30metres down the road!!

Hannover was nice, I mean it was just a small and simple town! We prolly walked the whole place in an hour or more? haha I left Kian and headed back to my hotel in the evening where I crashed til the next morning and we met up again the next morning to go to Hamburg!!

Hamburg was a cool city!! It really reminded me alot of Stockholm for some reason. I think it's all the water, ships, the boats, the port, the river and buildings! As we were driving in to Hamburg the sun was shining and the light reflected off the water....and whenever I see that shiny glittery light that comes off water....I always remember my trip to Stockholm as I came in to the city and the sun shined on the water....it was just AMAZING. Still on of my fav cities I've visited.

Hamburg - It was a really cool city!!! Had a very nice vibe about it.

Hamburg however also had a very notorious side to it.....Reeperbahn!!! Reeperbahn is a world known redlight district. Everyone said to me,"If you go to Hamburg you gotta check this place out!!" Sadly I was there in the day...so it wasn't really exciting!! Apparently at night it's just total MADNESS!! We walked around and I mean it really felt like I was in Patpong in Bangkok, Thailand!!!! There was something else about the Reeperbahn that made it special....The Beatles!!! The Beatles played alot around here at the bars before they became world famous!!

Coke is so 80s!! Thats what it says on the bench!

The main re-light district with all the signs above. Im sure when night falls, it's just a totally different place!!! I'd say it would look alot like Patpong in Bangkok.
(By the way the people standing there are about to attend a wedding at a church!!!)
Heaven and Hell in one street....you decide which is which!!! ;)

While we were out doing touristy stuff in Hamburg, Stefan and Katrin, had a final meeting with government officials for the final say.........and they did not get the green light from them to have the outdoor party ..... It was pretty harsh...leaving them with about a day and a half to re-direct couple of thousand people to the new venue!! =( I felt so bad...and I really wish I could have helped them out.

They worked really had all through the night and woke up early in the morning to settle whatever was left to be settled. Even with only a few hours to go til the event happening they were still pretty....well I wouldn't say CALM....but if it was me I would prolly have had my foot through the door!!

Train stations from other states and even those arriving in Hannover had the electronic signboards displaying the message saying "Apollon Park has now been moved to a new location, Fun Park"...Shuttle buses transporting ppl who were already at Apollon Park to the new location. Website forums were edited....emails sent out...facebook was updated....letter from the headline DJs saying they will still come and rock the party even tho it's been moved indoors..... I mean I was very impressed. I have to admit Stefan,Katrin and all their helpers were VERY VERY organized and VERY VERY efficient!! It was like operation Blitzkrieg...!!! hahah

The party started at the new location as scheduled at Fun Park at midday. Fun Park was supposed to be the after party venue. Meaning once the Apollon's Park ended people would make their way to party again......But since Apollon's Park wasn't happening. It just got moved into Fun Park saving everyone from running around!!!

The party was well on it's way but Stefan, Katrin, Me and some others only got there at about 3pm. A few hiccups here and there still to be ironed out but everything major had already been settled. When I got there, I was really impressed, Fun Park was a pretty huge place!!! LED Lights 360 degrees around on the wall....amazing lights/lazers....and a super PHAT BASS!!! I never been to Ibiza (thats about to change this wkend!) but I really felt like I was in Ibiza and not Germany!!!

Karotte was rocking the dancefloor when I got in. He's always been one of my fav DJs and have heard alot of his radio shows. Never ever seen him LIVE tho. So to see him live this time was just amazing. He played an AMAZING set....Just reaaally pumping...uplifting......and just made you wanna dance!! And he was very lively behind the decks...which I think is great!! Some DJs are soooo boring to watch..I mean yes we dont need to watch em ...we need to listen to em...but still I just think it adds abit more VIBE to the crowd when they see a DJ enjoying himself so much!!

Karotte doing the warm up set!!

Next up on on the headline DJs is definetly one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE!! =) I first saw him at Zouk in Singapore 2007 and he wasn't that famous yet. He played to a half empty room and I remember it was an AMAZING set and no one understood or got what he was playing!! After his set he came down and had a chat with me as he saw me going nuts to a few of his tracks (well to his whole set in general!!) We chatted and had a laugh and the following few days I took him around shopping and sightseeing in Singapore. I remember he was telling me he was setting up a new label for his music and was planning to move to Berlin as music scene there was much more ahead of everyone else.

Fast Forward 3 years later....Seeing Mr Guy Gerber in Hannover was great and totally different!! I haven't seen him in 3 years, we had a quick little chat and I left him to put the crowd under his spell!!! (He no longer plays to half empty rooms!!!!!!) 3 years and alot has changed for the better for Guy, Im so glad everything is going well for him, he is a MEGA superstar DJ, his label Supplemental Facts is one of the biggest labels to date. He has had numerous number 1 tracks and remixes played by almost every DJ in the scene. He is booked every weekend flying all over the world...Brazil one day,Ibiza the other, New York another...Now,THIS IS THE LIFE!!! =)

Guy Gerber working his magic on his Ableton! Cheers for an AMAZING night!
His set was just MAGICAL, it made you smile til you could smile no more!!!

Amazing lazer and light display at Fun Park

As they always say, save the best for last.... Last DJ of the night was Sven Vath. Papa Sven as some germans call him. Sven is just something else!! He has such amazing local support...the germans are sooo proud and love his music so much!! He is definetly the Godfather or techno!! He is I think 50ish and still partying and DJing all over the world!! He runs an amazing record label, Cocoon. He also owns a club in Frankfurt called Cocoon, and he has his infamous Monday nights at Amnesia in Ibiza called Cocoon!!! Stefan told Sven that I had come al the way from Singapore for the party and weve met before in Singapore very briefly but he was really happy still and gave a big hug...and said,"Oh I already know my dates for Singapore and looking forward to coming back to Singapore!!" A legendary DJ/Raver who has done everything there is to do in the world of DJing!!! Amazing that all I can say!!

Just look at the pictures and just see how much the crowd has grown since Karotte,Guy and then finally Sven!!
Madness!! 2500ppl in a club!!

Sven still using ONLY Vinyls and a couple of Cds when ever he plays his live sets.
Vinyls will always sound better no doubt about it.

Ignore the Hannover city cucks at the fron of the videos!!
They say a picture paints more than a thousand words....a video......well it just wasted my time writing this blog bascically!! =P Enjoy!!!

The trip to Germany was really just spectacular and totally not what I expected!! =) People were really nice there....forward thinking dance music....a crowd that actually UNDERSTAND dance music....amazing friends new and old ones that I've made aroud me....3 of my fav DJs in one night....I really couldn't have asked for more!

I can't thank Stefan and the lovely Katrin enough for such an amazing time and for being such amazing hosts!! Even though it wasn't outdoors like it was supposed to be, the Apollon's Park/ Fun Park party is still pretty much one of the BEST I've ever been to. My initial thoughts of Germany was totally wrong!! I'm really looking forward to my next trip back to Germany again and next time I wanna hit BERLIN!!! I've heard even more about Berlin being an amazing city and party town!!!

Ze german blondes were not what I thought they would be...phew!!! =)

Once again to Stefan & Katrin. THANK YOU SO SO SO SOOOO MUCH!! I miss Germany already and I really really hope to be back there every year for Apollon's Park from now on!! =) I am looking forward to returning the favour and taking you guys out in Singapore when you come and visit. =)

Much love!!

LaterZ

HongKong & Macau!!

2010-08-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Once again it's been a hell of a few weeks. So since my last post I've been doing abit of travelling! =) Always good to get out of SingaBore for abit.

First up was my fight in Hongkong. It was for the Libogen Event. I remember it was a horrrible morning flight. I had to be at the airport at 430am....coz my flight out was at 6! Then got to HKG and had to wait for the Japanese fighter, Junko to arrive. So sat around waiting for her at the airport After an hour we finally left to the hotel. When we got to the hotel and they messed up my rooms...so again it was abit more waiting and sitting in the lobby..........by the time I got settled in my room and met my roomate Ahmed Saadi another fighter I've met and known for awhile....it was time to check weight. So it was a pretty looonggggg day!!!

The fight was LIVE on Tv in HongKong. HongKong's muaythai scene is FARRRRRRRRR more ahead than Singapore. They have fights almost every month. Promoters like Samuel from Libogen does awesome events with some world class fighters. Then there is Planet Battle as well. I mean seriously what is wrong with Singapore????? Are we really THAT worried about studying and working all the time??.....

I only managed to watch a couple of fights that night as I was busy getting ready for my fight. Fights for Libogen was K-1 Rules this night. Im not a huge fan of it...not being able to use elbows. But a fight's a fight! =) I actually had a lot of friends on this event...Chris & Sunny from Ultim8 Fightwear, Soisci Porchetta who now lives in Thailand with her bf, Ahmed Saadi & Irshaad my two fellow muslim fighters and Bruce Mcfie from Contender!

I saw Irshaad Sayed fight Aussie Chris Kearney. These boys were really fast. I've seen Irshaad fight before and he's just like an energizer bunny. High workrate and just keeps coming forward.
It was only a matter of time before he landed a solid body shot to the liver that put Chris down. Was a really good exciting fight to watch!

I didn't get to see Berneung take on Bruce McFie. But I heard Berneung dominated the fight the whole 3 rounds. Was really surprised as I knew Bruce was training for his 3rd fight with JWP so he was prolly in really good shape. I've seen Berneung fight before........he is a serious ANIMAL! There's a few video's of him on youtube. Sadly it's not in his PRIME. I would love to see what he was like at the peak of his career.

Anyways here is one of the rounds to Berneung vs Preacher

I managed to watch abit of Sunny vs Junko's rematch as I was next up after them and was watching from the side. Was gonna be a hell of a fight coz I know Sunny wasn't too pleased about their last encounter! Sunny got cut with an elbow in the last fight. So the rematch was going well....and was exciting. Both of em knocking down each other for an 8 count! Fight was good and Sunny was dominating most of it if you ask me. Outcome was abit of a strange one to be called a draw. Well guess it makes it more exciting for the 3rd fight! =)

Not long later and it was my turn to step in the ring!! Bell went and off we went! =) Mohammed was pretty good and I was finding it hard to get in rhythm. He changed his stance alot and it kinda confused me abit. I remember in this fight I landed a couple of big left hooks on him and it rocked him. I took a couple of leg kicks and kicks to the arm. Saw it and was thinking...."move...block..." and next thing I know...BANG it hits me!! hahah Well it didn't help that I was feeling soo heavy in the legs. Once again bad training does not help!! I prolly kicked pads like 6 times in 6 weeks for this fight..... Was really busy working and running classes. And plus Im really missing a good padholder/trainer to push me. Now that Bangman went back and couldn't come to train me I was really feeling the lack of training in this fight...... =( I couldn't find a video of my fight sadly.... =( To be honest I thought I did pretty shit.... but some people said it was a really good fight?.......well no one to blame but myself really.

Anyways so after the fight, it was time to rest and catch up with some friends who flew to see me fight and also to party in HongKong! We actually even took a trip across to Macau to do some gambling!! Yes unlike the good old Singapore......they don't charge ppl for entry.....pfffff. By the way if you haven't known about this...Singapore has collected $70 MILLION dollars alone just on LEVY that Singaporeans pay to go in. Which is $100 entry!! I'm not lying!! http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20100519-217147.html

Its my first time to Macau and I quite liked it. We went to the Venetia and my god it was MASSSSIVE!!! And the fact they painted the sky to look like DAYLIGHT all the time made it kinda....strange!?

I don't really like gambling....but I hate to say this but I made some serious $$$ on the blackjack tables so I guess I definetly liked it! I guess that's how gambling addiction starts...you win win win...and you try to make more and more....but things don't always go your way! But it wasn't just all about gambling.....We went to a really nice authentic portugese restaurant. And as you know Macau was a portugese colony. You can still see words and stuff written in Portugese. Was kinda weird. Sadly didn't find any Portugese egg tarts!?? =(

After losing my fight and making some serious moooooola in Macau....It was a trip with mixed emotions =) Hopefully I'll have another shot at fighting again in HongKong. Just hopefully I manage to be better prepared for it!!

Right next blog entry will be done in a few days! Kinda trying to catch up on blogging again! =)

LaterZ

World Cup + Work + Training +DJing = F@!#ING Busy!!

2010-07-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Sorry for the late update!! It's been a hell of a busy time the last few months for me.
With the World Cup happening it just meant lotsa meet up with friends over dinner to watch the game. Or late nights on the wkend to catch the games. Then heading to work with lack of sleep is never fun!!... So am actually glad the World Cup is over!!!

I was really happy Holland made it to the final. My mom and family called from Holland to tell me that the whole country was Orange and ppl were all singing and just ecstatic that they made it to the finals! They said the atmosphere was amazing! Sadly, Holland didn't do enough to win the cup! =( Spain however are impressive winning the Euro 2008 and then now the World Cup 2010. Can only imagine the parties going on in Spain now!! Wish I was there!

Speaking of partying I've now started doing a monthly residency at Azzura. Once a month I feature some of the top or upcoming DJs from and around Singapore. The party is called "3D"...No no you won't have to put stupid glasses on to appreciate the music.....the "D's" stand for Different,Diverse and Dynamic!!! =) I hold it every last Sunday of the month. So far I've done two parties (May & June) and its been going well. =) Hopefully I'll be able to take "3D" to other clubs soon. Send me an email to contact@zigzach.com or an inbox to my facebook with the title "3D" to get free entry or updates to my parties.

Posters for my "3D" Party. The one on the right is designed by ME!!

Well July's 3D party will be on hold as I've just been asked to fight in Hong Kong on Libogen's Event. Which will be shown live on Hong Kong TV! My opponent is Mohammed Rahhoui. I dont know much about it but I'm gonna do my best and try to get a win!! Last time I lost in HKG and Im not happy about it. Cutting weight is going well so I should be feeling ready and strong for the fight!! (I HOPE!!!) Also on the card will be Bruce from Contender Asia. Sunny who runs the amazing Ultim8 apparel will be having a rematch with the Japanese girl. The Jap girl cut Sunny with an elbow in their last fight....so Sunny is out for REVENGE! =)

To make myself even more busy... on top of my own personal trainng business and my own fight training. I am now also working 3 Nights a week at Vanda Boxing. Im there every Tues, Thurs & Fridays. Tues & Thurs are the normal fitness/training classes, where as Friday's are sparring sessions. Very soon I'll be inviting other gyms down just to come and sparr and train together. It's a good way for everyone to improve and learn. Since fights happen once every fucking blue moon here.......??

Also recently been doing a few more interviews a.k.a media whoring!! =) Had an interview with FHM & 8days talking about my training....diet...workout....... It's weird, one of the reporters was asking me some really interesting and diff stuff but in the end......the article pretty much sounded like every other article I've ever done!.......pfffff

FHM & 8Days interview/photoshoot.

Next update will be soon!! PROMISE!! And it's regarding a new sponsor and I will be one of the main guys doing the distritbuting for them here =) Keep you guys posted soon!

Alright guys, once again my apologies for being so late on the blog recently. I've been seriously busy and I'm dying to go on a holiday and take a break again soon!! Sadly it'll only be after my fight on Aug 7th that I will be able to think of a holiday.

Nana-nap time, then off to training!!!

LaterZ ppl

Melbourne ROCKS!!

2010-05-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

So Ive been back from Melbourne over a week now. Finally had some time for myself so I thought I'd sit down and edit the pics for the blog update. I had an awesome time while in Melbourne!! Good friends, good food & a few good seminars!!

So I arrived in Melbourne on the 12th May and My scottish mate Keith Grant was there at the airport with his gf who arrived the same morning from the Philippines to pick me up. I haven't seen Keith in about 4 years! So it was good to see him and to catch up again.

The walk from the airport to the car was blooody FREEEZING!!!!! It was 9 degrees!! Before you start poking fun at me. Please note I come from tropical Singapore,where the lowest it will get is as low as I push on my air conditioning which is......16!! So yes I was freeezing my nuts off!!

We got to their studio apartment in Chapel Street and then later had a walk around there to get some lunch. It's been about 4 years since I've been back to Melbourne and it really hadn't changed much. Unlike Singapore where you leave for a week and it's like new buildings go up....buildings and shops go down. Whereas here I was in Chapel St,4 years later and it's still pretty much the same as it is,some of the shops I went to eat and buy stuff are all still exactly where they were!!!

After lunch they dropped me off at Dominance Gym. Here I met one of the owners of the gym who was very kindly housing me at his place, which was right across the road from the gym. Dominance Gym was a reaaaallly nice gym, big spacious , good facilities, clean and lovely people running it. =)

Off I was to settle in my room and a quick rest before I had to go catch up with another good friend and awesome trainer in Melbourne, Don Millar. Don is a really nice guy and has so much passion and love for Muaythai. He produces some of Melbourne's best fighters. I remember when I first trained with Don many years ago he was one of the few foreigner muaythai trainers that could do free style pad work with me. Meaning he doesn't have to give a comand and I just do as I please and he catches everything.

Don Millars Gym

Don's gym is in an old Chapel turned into a gym. Its somewhere on Chapel and close to St Kildas. Sorry but I was freezing my ass off too much to actually remember the exact address!! It took me forever just to warm up!!! I had a singlet,a tshirt and my hoody to keep me warm. The guys went for a run but I was soooo damn cold I just stayed in skipped and shadow boxed abit. I did abit of technique,clinching and corrected some of his fighters technique and movement. Showing them how to improve their kicks,punches and counter some stuff. Don has these 3 Afghanistan boys he is training up and they are tough as nails!! He also had this guy Tyson who I had the pleaseure of blooody grappling....he was 100 kgs maybe??? Yeah it wasn't very fun for me!! haha

Me and some of his fighters. Keith on the far right.

Next day, woke up and it was fairly cold and I was dreading the thought of getting in the shower.... that 3 secs of being naked before I get in the hot water is gonna be painful...and then the reverse process of being naked drying myself in the cold and stumbling back in my clothes...Ugghhhhhhhhhhh!!! Hate the cold!!

Met up with my two buddies, Don & Keith for lunch and we went to have a meal fit for champions!!! Lamb Souvlaki with fat chips!!! =) OHHH YEAH!! Keith lives right next to my favourite Souvlaki place, Lambs on Chapel St. If you don't know what a Souvlaki is, it's pretty much like a kebab. But yeah I love Souvlakis!!! Ive had kebabs in Singapore and its just not the same......they are so stingy with the meat here...and it's dry and...bleegghhh..... So after 4 years of not having a souvlaki I had a DOUBLE Meat Lamb Souvlaki! Man was I stuffed after that!!!!

Diet for Champions! Look at the size of my Souvlaki!!

Had the rest of the day off and took time to walk around Chapel St again do some window shopping. I really like walking around in Melb, it's just a cool city. Got the right amount of hustle....but it's laidback enough the way you want it to be. Along Chapel there are loads of discount stores, some nice shoes and clothes shop. My favourite however are these nice bakeries with cakes,pies,cookies and all sorts tempting you as you walk along!! And of course even after the double meat lamb souvlaki I could find space for some yummy apple crumble and a coffee =)

Friday came and we left Melbourne city at Noon on a 4 and a half hour drive up to Swan Hill. That is alot of driving...!! 4 and half hours means you could drive probably 4 or 5 times around Singapore!! Keith packed up loads of awesome dance music cds in his car and off we went. Listening to old school rave music from 1990s right up to the more recent Minimal Techno sounds. It was a good drive up catching up with Keith too, 4 years went by and we had alot of stories and experiences to share. Along the way I mean there were all these small towns and I mean small and in the middle of nowhere...!! Man I could not imagine living in somewhere like that!! Guess I'm just used to the big city and hustle and bustle.

Arrived up in Swan Hill and the gym that organized the seminar had us staying up in a motorinn. It was a really simple and nice place. Funny thing was when we got there, we had to go to a phonebooth at the motorinn, pick it up, speak to someone and mention a password, dialed a code and the key would appear?!!? So we did exactly that....went to a phone,mentioned a password to someone, got a number,dialed it....and VOILA!!! Key appears!! =) hahah it was all a little 007 for me!!

The magic wall!!

The first seminar at Swan Hill's Martial Arts Gym. Some people had driven 2 1/2 hours from another town to come up to attend this seminar. I was reallly flattered when I heard that. So I really wanted to make sure they enjoyed and benefited from this seminar. It was abit difficult for this seminar, as some trainees in the gym had some experience in striking and some had no experience at all in striking and some had mainly come from Jiu Jitsu background.

I tried to keep it simple but as informative and interesting as I could for everyone. Showing the class and explaining to them why or how a kick should look and how it works. Those that had already some background in striking and just worked on abit more to fine tune their technique. People dont realize but there is so much science and how changing a little bit of your stance or positioning of your legs could change the power of a kick/punch/elbow/knee. Im really glad I had a really good trainer like Bangman to correct me and help make me such a technical fighter/trainer. There is so much to show and to do in Muaythai I honestly could have talked and gone on for HOURS! but I dont think the students would have been able to! =) hahah

After seminar Keith had taken the initiative to get some certificates printed out for all the trainees attending the seminar. They were very cool certs I must say. The funny thing was the image was just randomly grabbed off the internet and it was actually an image from one of the Tuffboxing Tshirt I was going to give to Keith!! haha Great minds think alike! =) Ohhh speaking of Tuffboxing. Just to show you how impressive my sponsors Tuffboxing are.....They sent the brand new Tuffboxing shorts and tshirts I asked to be customized for me to wear during my seminar sent right to the gyms doorstep by DHL!! So I arrived that day on the 12th, and there it was waiting for me already!! Check the new shorts that they sent me on their site muaythaistuff.com! Thanks Oak. You guys ROCK!! =)

Very cool certificates that the trainees got !

The AWESOME shorts I got from my sponsors! =) I love them they are the best!!!

Swan Hill was a quiet town, so we just had an early night as we had to be up bright and early in the morning on another 2 and a half hour drive down to Shepparton! So we were up and on our way at 9am to Shepparton and made it there at in time for a drink and to catch up with G.V Martial Arts owner and a good friend of mine Matt Reid. Matt has been in the muaythai scene for a fair bit and has fought at prestigious events in Thailand like the Ifma championships and the Kings Birthday. Matt used to get on his bike twice a week and drive 2 hours down to Melb city to train there as Muaythai wasn't as big and popular in Shepparton. Now that's dedication. Here in Singapore if it takes 45 mins in a bus it's too fucking far.....pfffffffff... we are so spoilt here in Singapore sometimes.

Correcting their knee strikes and giving em more push and power behind it!

The seminar at G.V Martial Arts was abit easier to teach as most of them there and from another gym were already fighters or have been training for awhile now. Basically I just had to do abit of a touch up on some of their techniques and later got to show them one or two cool techniques. =)

Same thing again, I could have showed sooo many cool techniques and some muay boran moves but I really thing emphasis on the basics and practical stuff. Also I like making sure ppl know how things should be done properly! Which is so much more important!! Like Bangman always says,"even if I show the class all the beautiful muaythai techniques and tricks but they dont have the basic stance,punch,kick,elbow and knee moves right....it's no use!"

The G.V Martial Arts guys and some other trainees from a neighbouring town =)

After handing out the certs and taking a few pictures here and there with the guys, we headed to a nice thai restaurant for some yummy food and a drink before Keith was given the task of doing the last trip back into Melb City!! Another 2 hours of driving to go!! haha

The last seminar was held on a Sunday down at Dominance Gym. After the other 2 seminars this one felt alot easier to do and I was getting used to explaining and remembering alot of important stuff I needed to say or show to demonstrate the moves. I think the guys in Melb city have more variety of trainers to train with, where as in the country there isn't as many gyms or trainers to work with.

Also the class was a wee bit smaller than up in Swan Hill and Shepparton so it was much more easier for me to do stuff with em one on one and to walk around and hold pads for a few of em.

Correcting them, Showing them how a kick should be done and then letting them do it =)

Showing them a proper knee and then practicing it with them =)

That was the last seminar for my trip and overall it was a really really enjoyable experience. The 3 Seminars were alot of fun, I got to catch up with some good friends and I got to meet a whole lot of people. What I was really so impressed by was the level of Muaythai and the enthusiasm of the trainees. I sometimes wonder if me not moving to train and fight in Oz a couple of years ago was the right thing?.... Well, no regrets and time to look frwd. I really hope to be back there soon. (Maybe when it's a little warmer!!!!) Also I might even consider doing a month or two stint while Im in Melbourne next time? Who knows? Fingers crossed guys!!

After the seminars I got a lot of good feedback from the trainees who attended my seminar. Some even went through the trouble of writing me an inbox msg on my facebook to tell me how much they really enjoyed my seminar and how much more knowledge and understanding they got from it. =) That was exactly what I set out to do when I was contacted to do the seminars...and I'm very very glad to have heard all that!!

Just wanna say a HUGE, THANK YOU to Keith Grant for making the seminar and the trip possible. Thank you to all the gyms who wanted me to come up and do the seminar. And also Thank You to all the trainees who drove a long way to attend the seminar. I really really appreciate it alot. Thank You!

Two Thumbs up for Zig Zach's seminar!! =)

So hopefully this is the start of something new for me?? Doing more seminars around the region or the world. So if you know any gyms that would love for me to come up and do a seminar drop me an email at contact@zigzach.com I think it would be heaps of fun and I would love to share my 2 cents worth on the sport I am so passionate and love so much. =)

LaterZ people!!

Melbourne Muaythai Seminar

2010-05-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!!

April was a crazy busy month of training myself, personal training clients, photoshoots and good old DJing! =) Whatever else left time I have to myself I either sleep and rest up, Or I try and be ALONE to clear my thoughts and head out.

So Aussie Aussie Aussie.....!! I'm finally head back to Melbourne after probably 4 years or more! I'll be in Melbourne May 12th til May 17th. A pretty short trip. Well I'll be there mainly to teach a Muaythai seminar/workshop at 3 gyms. I know that 1 of the gyms has sold out on slots and has 35 - 40 ppl. =) Am pretty glad to hear that. Im really excited to do the seminar. I really enjoy teaching and making sure people learn the right technique and to hopefully make them better at the sport. Just like at Vanda me and Bangman focus alot on the basics. We focus alot on correcting the simple things like footwork,balance and even posture or stance! Only from there can you start to kick, punch and do the moves better.

This is the poster for my seminar up in Shepparton! It's about 3 hours away from the main city!

Melbourne is gonna be great fun!! Look forward to catching up with some good friends when I'm there, having some good souvlakis (kebabs!), going to the Victoria Market. Melbourne is a cool city. Speaking of cool...it's gonna be winter when Im there...!!! Ugghhhh hate the cold...!!! 4 Seasos in 1 day thats what it's known for too!! Could be blistering hot then ice cold all of a sudden!

Right I'll try to do an update when I'm over in Australia or when I get back =) There's a couple of topics/reviews I've yet to do a write up for! So I best get my lazy/busy ass on it soon!! =)

Catch you laterZ!!

A month later..!!

2010-04-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hello!

So it's already a month since I did my last blog. I really can't believe how fast time flies. My day starts of at 730am or 530am when I have early morning clients. I finish the sessions off, head to the gym train...next thing I know its 1pm and I'm headed home for my afternoon granny nap =) I head back out about 4 or 5 to the gym or to clients elsewhere....and I end my day at 9 or 10pm....It's crazy. Sometimes I really feel that there really isn't enough hours in a day!!

In that time frame of a month. A LOT has happened. Prolly the biggest change for me is actually havin Bangman being here in Singapore. Having him help me out at Vanda is turning out to be a real TREAT!!! He has settled in very well with the trainers and staff at the gym. A lot of students have complimented on him being a really good trainer and that he actually HELPS them and TEACHES them!! =) I remember when he came in and some of the students or the expat trainees saw him and thought..."oh who's this fat guy.....".....but shortly they find out Bangman is not someone you wanna mess around with!! =)

The trainees for both Muaythai & Boxing are benefiting from Bangman's experience at the gym. He used to box as a kid too, so he can train boxers in western style boxing too. I mean even after 2 weeks of Bangman being here I could see sooo much change in some of the students techniques. He's just amazing at being a coach and can really change a person's punch and kick. Even I'm learning alot about being a trainer, just watching him teach and also getting back into REAL muaythai again. I mean after awhile we forget stuff and our technique gets watered down to a MUAYFARANG (Foreigner Muaythai!) as Bangman calls it. haha

Bangman on pads =)

So since Bangman was here I took the oppurtunity to train hard and managed to get myself a fight up in Phuket. Sadly the fight only lasted 1 round.....It was really dissapointing and pretty lame if you ask me. The guy I fought has beaten some good thai's and has even beat the south thai champ 3 times. But I dont know why but he went down in the first round with me???? I dont ask for and I don't LIKE taking shit fights at all.............I would rather lose a hard fight than win an easy one. Anyways I have some more stuff lined up in Thailand and then after that I'll see. Things are obviously not getting any better or easier for me on this.

Not the proud of this...... pfffff =(

Well I'll see in the next few months, hopefully things will start getting better. Otherwise time to move on to other things. In the mean time I'm really enjoying working and running classes down at Vanda.

Hope to see you there.

LaterZ

Head Trainer for Muaythai at Vanda Boxing Club

2010-03-16T21:19:00.003-07:00

Hey Everyone,

So been busy the last few weeks trying to organize my life with Muaythai. Again I've been trying hard to get fights and it's just been a real pain in the ass more than anything else. I'm getting more DJ gig offers than I am getting fights. Strange.........??

In the mean time I've decided to take on a new job/role to help a good friend, Ian Mullane. Ian has appointed me as Head Trainer of Vanda Boxing's Muaythai Club. We have been talking about me coming to work for him and helping him do Muaythai classes for a long time, and now that Vanda has taken over BNM and since they still have decided to continue running Muaythai at VBC the time was right =)

Ian has taken Boxing to a whole different level with his White Collar Boxing events. The White Collar Boxing events help raise money for a hospital in Cambodia that offers free medical treatment. It's a very noble cause and I'm very proud to be part of Vanda Boxing Club and Vanda Promotions now.

As the saying goes,"it's official when it's in black and white!"

As Head Trainer of VBC Muaythai. Ian has given me the green light on running the muaythai classes the way I want and how I think would make VBC a better Muaythai Gym. This is a big job I've taken on, there are already so many good gyms in Singapore and to be able to stand out from all the other gyms is gonna require alot of work. The fact that Ian trusts me and gives me the freedom to do as I deem fit is really important and very flattering. I don't doubt my abilities in running classes and teaching, I know that with my experience with training in gyms all over the world and also training with world class fighters and trainers I will be able to make VBC Muaythai a better place. I currently run the VBC Muaythai classes on Tues and Thurs 6 - 9pm but am in on nights where I'm free to make sure things are running smoothly.

At the moment I've brought in my trainer Bangman to come in and help me get things organized for abit. He's here on holiday and is happy to be here helping his favourite student out with the classes. VBC students are sooo lucky to be able to train with Bangman while he's here. Read more about Bangman if you still dont' know who he is. http://www.zigzach.com/2008/03/little-training-clip-info-on-my.html

I've been watching Bangman and Charoon Fairtex hold the classes and I can see that it's already looking alot more structured and alot more different than before. The two thai's work really well together and have been listening to my advise and my instructions on doing things and I'm really glad things are slowly taking shape even after a week of taking on the job!

In time to come, hopefully VBC Muaythai will start having fighters too. Under my guidance and the thai's, hopefully VBC Muaythai can start building a reputation for itself in the fight scene. Be it local or international.

Lastly here are the membership prices. Hope to see you guys at VBC.

LaterZ

Gong Xi Fa Cai! France vs Thailand.

2010-02-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Gong Xi Fa Cai. Happy Lunar New Year. Hopefully the year of the tiger will be better than the year of the Ox!! Now that Chinese New Year is out of the way, my work and my training will hopefully start to settle in!

As I was saying I been trying to make an effort to keep up to date more with Muaythai this year. Loads of good fights happening in 2010, starting off with the Muaythai Challenger happening last month at Siam Paragon. Now come Feb 26th a very similar event will take place, but this time held in the Mecca for Muaythai.....The legendary Lumpini stadium. This event will see one of the power houses of European Muaythai, France vs Thailand!!

One of the guys who is helping to arrange this event is Mr Thakoon. Mr Thakoon runs the very famous Sasiprapa Gym in Bangkok. A gym that has had alot of sucess with training Thai and Foreign fighters. Mr Thakoon speaks really good english and is a very friendly man who has been in the Thaiboxing industry for many many years. I have had a lot of friends who have been to Sasiprapa to stay and train long term and they only have good things to say and share about the gym and Mr Thakoon. I have yet to go to Sasiprapa but I'll definetly make the effort next time I'm in Bkk.

With Mr Thakoon's experience in the sport, Im sure his matchmaking skills for the Thai vs France fight will be amazing!! This is the line up for the France vs Thai event.

1. Petchbangprang Kaewsamrit Thai 132
Albert Chey France

2. Wahaj Topking Boxing Thai 182
Coulibaly Palmares France

Vacant title TV7 Pinweight
3. Pornsawan Lukpra-ar-tit Thai 102
Champ Petchpracha Thai

Vacant title TV7 Mini flyweight
4. Prakaipetch Kiatpratoom Thai 105
Kengklar S.Chockkitchai Thai

5. Nuarkeeree Sitsamorthong Thai 132
Yetkin Ozkul France

Defend title Lumpini stadium Super Lightweight
6. Kongfah Auddonmuang Thai 140
Kamel Jemel France

7. Rungpetch W.Rungnirun Thai 120
Muangsi Pumphanmuang Thai

Vacant title Lumpini stadium Superwelterweight
8. Saiyoke Pumphanmuang Thai 154
Farid Villeaume France

9. Wanchalong Sitsornong Thai 108
Mongkonchai Skindiew gym Thai

10. Damien Alamos France 140
Pongsaklek Sitmorlumbud Thai

11. Sohanne Bengana France 132
Chao Sasiprapa gym Thai

The two fights that I would love to watch would be, Kongfah Auddonmuang vs Kamel Jemel and Farid Villeaume vs Saiyoke Pumphanmuang. Both will be an amazing fight!!!

Farid is one hell of a fighter and has been around for many years. Fighting some of the biggest Thai fighters in Muaythai. Nuangtrakan,Orono,Lamsongkram and even Yodsaenklai. Farid's fight against Yod was one of the most exciting fights in 2008. He did an amazing job in his first fight against Yodsaenklai knocked him down and managed a draw. His rematch however wasn't as much as what all the fight fans were hoping for...but you can't blame him especially after Yod had won Contender and was at the top of his game!!

Farid's opponent, Saiyoke is not a guy to mess around with. Many people don't know Saiyoke as he took a long break from Muaythai and fought out of Thailand alot. I dont really have alot of info on him but he used to train out of Muaythai Plaza and also trained down at my old gym in Krabi, Emerald Gym. He's a hard hitting dude and you'll see what I mean when you watch this training video of him!! OUCH!!!

Another fight I'm sure will be pretty amazing will be Kongfa vs Kamel Jemel. Kamel is another French fighter that has been fighting awhile now and has fought equally just as tough or even tougher opponents as Farid. Kamel has fought, Somluck Kamsing, Attachai Fairtex and even the scariest or scary, Bovy Sor Udomsorn. Check out the Bovy vs Kamel fight. Bovy is an ANIMAL!!

Im not familiar with the other fighters. There are alot of new upcoming Thai's and also French fighers. Im pretty sure that Mr Thakoon's experience in Muaythai will make the matchups an amazing night of war! It's gonna be an awesome night come 26th of Feb 2010 in Lumpini. So if you are in Bangkok or heading up to Bangkok this is one night of fights you really don't wanna miss. I might actually fly up for the event. Im not sure yet!! =)

Here is the facebook group for more details.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=310669938366#!/event.php?eid=300589498404

LaterZ!!

Muaythai Challenger: Thailand Vs The World.

2010-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Once again another late update, my apologies everyone.

I've been actually trying to get myself back into the muaythai scene. As mentioned last year was a terribly disappointing year for me. So I've been calling around and asking promoters for dates. I've already gotten hold of some dates so far, so Im just trying to organize my life around it all now. Will try update as much as I can on Muaythai as possible.

One paticular event I'm very very keen to get on is Muaythai Challenger: Thailand vs The World. They just did their first offical event on Jan 16th 2009. With an amazing line up of fighters. Kaoklai Kaenorsing, Dzhabar Askerov, Antoine Pinto, Ramazan Ramazanov, Nonsai

As we all know Muaythai is no longer a sport dominated by just Thai people anymore. In recent years there have been some huge upsets with Thai's being beaten at their own game by fighters from Holland, France, Japan and even China (This one was mostly due to dodgy judging!!!! haha!!)

With the HUGE increase in popularity in the sport. At the IFMA World Championships last year countries like Mongolia,Iraq and a few others you've never heard of or even imagine would know of Muaythai sent teams to the tournament. Not to mention with more TV coverage from events worldwide and with the TV shows like my favourite international hit TV series =) The Contender Asia....It has taken Muaythai mainstream.

Nonsai (Previously known as Sritanongchai) AWSOME FIGHTER!!

It's all about PRIDE!! =) The idea now is for the Thai's to prove that they are still the toughest in the sport and that they can take on any challenger from all over the world. I honestly think that this is a GREAT way for the sport to be promoted. They do it at low levels in touristy areas in Phuket,Samui and other smaller islands already. I mean unless you are a serious Muaythai fan you'd be interested in watching two superstar Thai fighters slug it out at Lumpini or Rajadamnern. But if you're just an average joe out for a good night out and something touristy even. You'd definetly wanna be rooting for the Thai guy to bash the white guy!! OR you'd root for the white guy who could be a fellow countrymen to bash the thai guy!! Racial or Patriotism call it what ya want....it's action we wanna see at the end of the day!!!

Muaythai Challenger however is done in a much classier,cooler and edgier style at one of the high end shopping malls in Bkk, Siam Paragon. It's all about the atmosphere and not just FIGHTS.....The night is packed with DJs spinning good music, hip hop performance from the famous band "Thaitanium", sexy girls in skimpy outfits dancing. It's ALOT better than the usual dingy sweaty stadiums with gamblers shouting and all that. For a fighter you actually for once would feel like a PRO Fighter at an awesome event! Rather than a human version of dog fighting in some caged stadium with sweaty gamblers shouting like they've put every last penny they have on you!! On top of that prefight interviews with fighters, vids of them training, info's on their background. It's all designed to make the viewers and fans know more about the fighters and not just watch them bash it out in the ring. It builds a relation and a hype. It's all very well done....very Contender Asia / ESPN style if you see what I mean.

Dzhabar Askerov, my brother from another mother!

Abit more on the people who are doing Muaythai Challenger. The idea and event is put together by Elite Boxing, run by Toli Makris who has been staging worldwide events in Thailand,Switzerland,Macua and many other places. With his team and experience in staging events, they have now decided to team up with two of the biggest names in Muaythaim, The WMC and Onesongchai Promotions to now make them a real powerhouse in the name of promotions. WMC needs no introduction, run by Stephan Fox. WMC is the governing body of Muaythai....think FIFA but for Muaythai.

The 3 Powerhouse in Muaythai unite to promote the sport we love

Onesongchai deserves a brief intro about their legacy. They are the BIGGEST name in muaythai promotions in Thailand. Khun Songchai Ratanasuban is the man who started it all and has been running promotions for over 30years now. Back in the 80s and 90's he was the man known for matching up fighters that fans would love to see. Mr Songchai was known to be the best matchmaker in Thailand and the fights that he matched up were usually exciting or turn out to be epic battles that are talked about even til this day. People don't realize but matchmakers are VERY important. Knowing which fighter,what style, what technique and what people want to see MAKE A GOOD FIGHT!!! Mr Songchai did just that. Matching fighters and putting them to the test and limits.

30years down the road his two children, Khun Siraphop (Songchai Jr) and his sister Khun Pariyakorn are helping out with the business and keeping up with times and holding quality events and fights in Thailand and around the world. Doing the Kings and Queens birthday at Sa Nam Luang, Bangkok and also still running their Onesongchai nights out of Rajadamnern Stadium and at their own Bangkok Boxing Stadium on Saturdays. They are still keeping this family tradition and business very much alive.

A couple of years ago, it was really hard to find good fight videos of Muaythai. Back then no such thing as youtube!....The only way you could get to either go watch live...?? or to either ask people who used to live in Thailand to record it and send ya VHS and you'd have to convert it.......or you had to go to watch crappy recordings from your friends video camera whenever he went to watch fights in Thailand.

Onesongchai saw an opportunity and I think this was probably the best thing they ever did for the sport. They put out DVDs of fights from the golden era of muaythai that they promoted. All the epic battles from the fighters from the 80s and 90s were available in their OneSongchai Compilation. Someo f my favourite Thai fighters and foreign fighters were featured in the dvds, the likes of, Samart Payakaroon, Coban Lookchaomaesaitong , Samransak Meungsurin, Namkhabuan Nongeepayahut, Nokweed Davy, Sakmongkol Singmanasak, Jongsanan Fairtex, Ramon Dekker, Rob Kaman.

All those fights were just of a different calibur from today. I mean I still watch some of the old fights and just am amazed. You can even find some of the newer names in in Muaythai but at their peak of their careers. Buakaw, Sakadpetch, Anuwat, Bovy.....the list goes on. If you are a true muaythai fan and lover. Onesongchai compilation DVDs are the ones you wanna get hold of and watch.

I will try to get hold of Khun Siraphop soon and hopefully I can get a chance to interview him to tell us abit more about whats happening with Onesongchai and their plans.

Well here are the results and some pictures from the event.

Pictures available at http://www.lifestyleasia.com/gallery/thailand-vs-challenger_2704.htm

RESULTS
-----------
Ali Yaakub (Malaysia) vs Sornthong Dennawee (Thailand) – TKO, 3^rd round
Zaza (Thailand) vs (Thailand) (Joey Lee of China was replaced last moment) – points
Madsua (Thailand) vs Robbie Filiponi (Austrailia) – points
Kaoklai (Thailand) vs Erik Kosztanko (Slovakia) – points
Nonsai (Thailand) vs Dzhabar Askerov (Russia) – points
Nopparat (Thailand) vs Antoine Pinto (France) – points
Ramazan Ramazanov (Russia) vs Eduardo Maiorino (Brazil) – KO, first round

Look out for more on Muaythai Challenger. It's an AWESOME event!!
Next time I'll definetly fly up to catch their events or even better, next time I wanna fight on their event!!

LaterZ

Happy New Year. It's 2010!!

2010-01-05T20:20:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Sorry I know I said I'd try to write a write up before the end of the year. But that obviously went out the window!!! Was busy over the Xmas and New Year holidays. So much going on usually over this period. The diet and the healthy lifestyle is forgotten and Jan becomes a struggle to get back into gear! As much as I hate it...I fall into the same trap every time! D'OH!!!!

2009 has been a disaster for me in terms of fighting. I had 3 fights???? One in Phi Phi Islands, One in Phuket then lastly in Hongkong on the awesome Planet Battle! It was really demoralizing when I had 4 fights canceled in the middle of the year.

These two fights that got canceled annoyed me the most:

1) Contender Asia 2. They kept saying,"You'll be on the undercard next month when the filming starts no worries." And of course it's fucking 2010 and they still haven't started filming the show. There is talks of bringing it back to Singapore I've heard....But hmmm I remember at the finale they announced we are doing Season 2 here....then they moved it to Malaysia?????????? And now that it's not happening in Malaysia they wanna bring it back here??... Sounds like Singapore's just a crappy plan B to me. Any hows I really can't be arsed about Season 2 anymore. Imagine the other fighters who were selected for the show,they waited a whole year pushing back fights and canceling stuff waiting around for Season 2 to happen...now that SUCKS!!!

2) 2nd fight that got cancled and annoyed me was the one in Japan. I canceled a trip to Europe for my mom's birthday to take part in that fight in Japan....and of course it got canceled close to the date. That really pissed me off as that made me realize how unreliable promoters and muaythai can be sometimes.

On the topic of crappy promotions and promoters for 2009, how can we forget the wonderful Superfights or as I would call em SuperFucked promotions.....Having an international tournament cancel on the day itself. Thanks guys you really made Singapore proud and put us on the world map with such a shady and dodgy promotion!

2009 wasn't just about dodgy Muaythai events. In my free time this year I managed to do some pretty cool stuff too.

I was up in Koh Samui, Thailand for Jaymee Ong's wedding, I mean it's prolly still to this day THE BEST wedding I've ever attended. If you ever imagined a fairytale wedding on the beach...I think this would prolly be it =)

With time off fights,I decided to make the most of it and get paid for some DJ gigs this year. I managed to play at some very awesome venues and very cool events in Singapore and overseas. I played at Le Noir, Cafe Del Mar, Supperclub, F-1 Fuel Festival, Halloween at Azzura Sentosa, NYE at Azzura Sentosa with Seb Fontaine and Marshal Jefferson. Managed to DJ in Hush, Samui and Fallabella, Bangkok too this year! So I guess with all the bad stuff that happened in Muaythai....some good came out of it!!

Pictures and Flyers from the events I DJed at in 2009!!

I managed to get an uber cool sponsor for 2009. A surfwear company in Bali called 3rdborn. Run by an aussie,David Eagles who used to design for Quiksilver and finally left the company to pursue his own goals and dreams. Read more about 3rdborn here. http://www.zigzach.com/2009/05/new-super-cool-sponsor.html

3rdborn Tshirt and my DJ promoshot.

I managed to do some mediawhoring for myself too. Was also featured in a couple of magazine this year internationally. 2 articles in International Kickboxer and One that really kinda talked abit more about my past and more about me being an inspiration to others was the,"R U Menshealth" Challenge. Ok fine....some of the stuff we did on it was abit ...uhmmmm METROSEXUAL. Read more about it here, and go to the Menshealth site to read the articles. http://www.zigzach.com/2009/03/wish-weight.html

Words of wisdom from Zig Zach

2009 has had it's fair share of ups and downs. For my 2010's resolution, it's pretty simple. Im gonna try and get a couple of good fights this year. I've already been calling promoters and emailing around,trying to be abit more pro-active rather than just sitting back waiting for things to happen to me. I'm hoping to start by getting a warm up fight in Phuket. Get back in gear and take it from there. I kinda feel like I lost alot of the fire and passion for fighting when everything kept getting canceled and thins kept going wrong. Like I said...I dont wannt look back in couple of years down the road and regret not doing this....and not doing that for my career. So we just gotta wait and see.

Well the past is behind us and it's time to look forward.....new year, new start.

2010 I hope you kick 2009's ass!!!

LaterZ

Bangkok & Superfights SG: The Disaster!!!

2009-12-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I was away for a week up in Bkk. Bkk known to many as the land of smiles, city of angels...or even sin city!! =) This was my first trip up there in a year...Im usually there every few months but this is prolly the longest I've ever been away from Bkk. Bkk is seriously like a second home to me. I know so many people there its like going home to familiar faces and surroundings. When Im there I speak Thai all the time,in taxi's, when Im going out to eat or even when I'm shopping around. I actually speak more thai than I do speak mandarin and bahasa!! It's weird....? I LOVE Bkk or just being anywhere in Thailand and I wish I could move back there!!

I was in Bkk for the WMC/IFMA World Champioships. Every year at the world champs it never fails to amaze me how big the sport is growing. ...new talents, and new countries show up every year. This year even Iraq managed to send a team! Going to the World champs is always so much fun. Catching up with old friends and fighters that I've even foguth before. I bumped into some of the boys from Contender Asia....Pitu, Jabba and even Trevor!! Was a pleasant surprise seeing him there.

I got back a week before the supposed Superfights: Lion City Grand Prix was supposed to happen. I was actually asked to fight on this show. But I turned it down for a number of reasons. One main reason being that one of the Organizers/Promoters is extremely SHADY!!! I have worked with him on 2 or 3 events and I have vowed NEVER to work with him again. I was actualy wondering at first if it was a good decision of mine to not fight on a home event. I mean it was a cool venue,and an amazing lineup that all my friends were on. Jabba,Naruepol,Madsua & Ramazan....I was beginning to wonder if I had done the right thing?

I mean to be honest I didn't really hear much about the Superfights event??...I mean I am a Pro fighter here and people were asking me for info and all...but to be honest I really didn't have a clue about anything. I occasionally heard some people mentioning an event...didn't know the dates...and were going on sistic to look for tickets and couldn't find it so who knows if it was happening.....?....When I did mentioned it to some people they'd be like,"REALLY there is an event??" I have heard more about Ian's White Collar Boxing event at the Padang on the 11th December 2009 more than I've heard about the Superfights. And Ian's event was a sellout!!!...and it was all AMATEUR boxers?!?!?!?!??!

And I mean as a event organizer/promoter. Wouldn't you kinda plan the schedule of your event abit more carefully and check to see if it clashes with anything around your dates??
One) Dec 11th was Ian's White Collar Boxing which was a sellout...meaning thats 700 - 800 ppl who WON'T go to your event already!!! I dont know many people who will pay to go and see two different events.
Two) You've planned it on the same night as Zoukout.........??????????? SERIOUSLY??????????? I am a Professional fighter and muaythai is my LIFE.....but even I said,"Fuck that Im going to Zoukout!!" Zoukout released their date MONTHHHHHHHSSSS ago,what the F@#$ were they thinking????? Zoukout attracted a record number of 27000 people by the way!! I've got pretttty bad maths but I think so far that is 27,700 people already NOT attending his event!!!!
Three) Superfights starts selling ticket on their website 2 weeks before the event date??????? Yeah great.......coz all of us have nothing to do and will gladly wait around til tickets come on sale!!!!! Retarded.........................

Lastly this is one thing,I've noticed from the very START of Muaythai events in Singapore. For some really odd,strange,ridiculously,stupid,fucked up reason...fight posters in Singapore always show one thing....and come press conf or fight night it's almost NEVER the same as who is on the poster!! I have fought in events internationally and I mean I usually see ONE or TWO changes in the fightcard rarely to the Main Fights.... but honestly Singapore's lineup always changes!!! I'm really not sure why it's like that here in SG??? Fucking disgraceful................

I feel horrible for fight fans in Singapore. I mean it's like paying to go see a concert or festival that advertises bands who will perform U2,Green Day,The Killers,Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Kasabian......and then only to turn up to the venue and get something like..........................The Backstreet Boys or fucking Boyzone and Take That all in one night!?!!?!

In the end the Superfight event got canceled on the very day itself. I feel so bad for fans here....and I feel even worse for fighters who have been training hard for their fights. I have never known of any muaythai events to be canceled on the day itself......and sadly it had to happen here in Singapore.

I think this was probably the BEST decision I've ever made in my career to not fight for this organizer/promoter. I will stand by my decision to NEVER work with him ever again......no matter how BIG the event is...how much TV Coverage the event is gonna get...no matter how much publicity or fame it will bring.........good luck to them and to those who work with him. I think this whole event has proved my point.

Alright guys,I'll update again soon.
Can't believe it's almost 2010!!!! Where did 2009 go!?!?!??!

LaterZ!!!

Online interviews!!

2009-11-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

I've actually had a couple of interviews and very cool photoshoots in the last few weeks. Thought I'd share it with everyone. I did a simple photoshoot with a good friend and talented photographer,Daniel Lois. The series I did with him is online along with my interview I did. Make sure you check it out.

http://www.sg-pro.com/2009/11/21/sg-pro-interviews-contender-asias-zig-zach/

Another online interview I did was for Terence Tong. Pics taken were all from various photographers at the Planet Battle event. Abit of info on Terence Tong, I met Terence while training at BXG. He's a really nice kid and has alot of potential in Muaythai. He has had 5 or 6 fights and undefeated still. Hopefully he'll keep training even tho he's busy with Uni now and hopefully there will be more local tournaments so he can keep fighting here and keep on improving. Check out the interview here.

http://www.sim.edu.sg/sge/pub/blogs/terence/post.cfm?entry=zig-zach-the-pride-of-singapore-fights-at-planet-battle-hong-kong

There is a Photoshoot and interview for CLEO Magazine that I did a week or two ago? I think it should be for the Jan edition (meaning it'll be available from Mid Dec). Looking forward to that one, the pics we took looked kinda cool from what I remember.

Lastly,this Monday I'll have a photoshoot for Men's Health. It's for an Adidas fashion spread. Should be fun!! No interview...just need to look pretty hahaha!!

Alright guys enjoy the online interviews and pics! =)

LaterZ

K-1 Max Finals 2009

2009-11-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

Right I know this is abit late. And most prolly everyone already knows the results.....But I thought I'd just give my two cents worth!! =P

First up was Giorgio Petrosyan vs Yuya Yamamoto.

All I can is Petrosyan is just AWESOME. He made short work of this fight. And that is exactly what you need to do when you do 2 fights in a night. Go in,do the work and hopefully come out with no injury when you get into the next fight. That was exactly what Petrosyan did! Personal favourite Petrosyan moment was at the 28 sec of the clip,where he catches the Yuya's leg and lands a leg kick and then just leaves his leg there and turns it into a sweep....sneaky and innovative!!.....I LIKE!! =)

Second Semi-Final fight, Souwer vs Buakaw's Semi-Final Fight.

Buakaw got ripped off BIGGG time in this fight......ridiculous!! I was chatting with one of the thai's the other day and he said in Thai,"Buakaw peh,peh kemagan" translates to..."Buakaw lost,lost coz of the referee/judges!!!" Which is true....I dont think Andy landed ANNNNNNY decent shots on Buakaw and to be honest he got tossed around like a rag doll by Buakaw!! Fair enough you don't get points for that in K-1 but....it kinda shows technicality and that he is dominating the fight. I have a funny feeling K-1 might change the rules AGAIN so that Buakaw can't throw his opponents in the clinch!!??! So Andy Souwer who gets the controversial win goes into the final.

So K-1 Max 2009 Final was between , The new kid on the block, Giorgio Petrosyan vs K-1 Max Finals veteran,Andy Souwer.

I was pertty much rooting for Petrosyan on this one. Petrosyan has always been a favourite of mine. His style,technique and crisp punches and kicks make him an AWESOME fighter to watch. He is a very COMPLETE fighter. Im not a huge Andy Souwer fan, never was...never will be...Just not the kinda fighting style Im into.

Petrosyan pretty much took Andy Souwer apart in this fight. He looked the more dominate fighter throughout....landing awesome jabs and punch combinations,landing good kicks and just doing everything right. And making it look all so damn easy! Well giving credit to Andy after getting bashed by Buakaw for a few rounds in the semi's and then still being able take some serious hits from Petrosyan to lose on points is still something to give credit about.

I'd really like to see Petrosyan have a rematch with Buakaw and also take on Yodsaenklai. Prolly the dream match up for me at the moment!! But before that happens...It's gonna be Masato vs Giorgio Petrosyan for Masato's retirement fight. Gonna be a pretty damn good one if you ask me!!!

So there ya go Giorgio Petrosyan K-1 Max 2009 Champ. Very impressive to have won the tournament on just the first try!! Some have been there years and not even got close enough to winning!!!

Anyways before I leave I thought I'd leave you guys with an old video from Petrosyan vs Contender Asia's very own Raffik =) For all of you who either love him or hate him,Enjoy!!

LaterZ people!!

7th Oct 2009,PLANET BATTLE, HongKong

2009-10-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

As you all know from the previous post (it's been on way too long...sorry!) I was DJing at the F-1 Fuel festival (BTW it is prolly one of the fucking most DISORGANIZED gigs I've ever been on!!) I honestly don't even know where to start on how bad it was!! Am staying away from those promoters from now on.

Anyways,I just got back from my fight on Planet Battle in Hongkong. I was really excited to be fighting on Planet Battle. I've heard alot about Planet Battle and I've always heard very very good feedback about the event and promoters from the other fighters who have fought on it. Planet Battle fights are not full thai rules. They opt for the K-1 Rules. Meaning 3 X 3Min rounds. No Elbows and with 3 knees and limited clinching. Was gonna be my first time fighting K-1 Rules and was kinda looking forward to it.

The line up for Planet Battle was pretty awesome! Thor Hoopmann,Flip Street,Ryan Mitchell all from the famous, Boonchu up in Goldcoast Australia. Home to the one and only JWP. Joey Bam Bam Lee also fought for a women's title. And most importantly the main fight of the night K-1 Supersta, Bob "The Beast" Sapp vs Alain Ngalani from Impakt Gym in HongKong. And of course me vs Phet a thai with over 250 fights currently based in HongKong also working at Impakt Gym.

So I brought my trainer Bangman over here to Singapore for slightly over 2 weeks to train me for my fight on Planet Battle. Bangman is like a muaythai dictionary. I showed him who my opponenet was and what his name was and he'd be like,"Ok this fighters was from this gym in Bkk...he fights this style...this this this....." He spends alot of his time watching muaythai fights on TV and reading Muaythai magazines. He truly lives and breathes muaythai even til this day. I really wish I could have him here all the time to train me. =(

We arrived in HK two days earlier to get settled in. Bangman's never been to HK so he was very impressed with the whole hustle and bustle of the city,but he said he still likes Singapore alot more! =) The staff from Planet Battle and Impakt Gym were really really nice and attended and took care of our needs to every detail.

We had a press conference and a weigh in on the 6th October. I was reaaaaallly pushing it again this time cutting weight to 71kg. I honsetly dont know how some of the fighters who are slightly taller than me can pull it off. I already hadn't eaten any solid food in like a day and a half....and I remember sitting in the sauna and steam room and I just didn't have anything saliva in my mouth anymore even!! And my last check before the official weigh-in I was still 72kg!!! Right....so out came the sweatsuit on to the balcony of the IFC mall skipping and running around in the hot sun...!! Damn I hate making weight!! Uggghhh

Me and my opponent,Phet.

Oct 7th Fight Night at Queen Elizabeth Stadium. Was good to be back there!! There was about 13 fights that night...So I won't go talk about ALL of em.

The ones worth a mention were from another Thai fighter based in HK, Sodcheun Chuwatthana vs Sohanne Bengana. Was a pretty exciting fight but the thai guy landed a SWEEEEEEEEET cross and I haven't seen anyone fall over from a knock out like that for awhile! Damn!! What made me laugh/CRINGE....was that the ref still tried to count him out...?!?!? There was NO WAY he was waking up!!

Knockout punch!! LIGHTS OUT!! (Photo by Tim Bowman)

Fight of the night was from Flip Street vs China's Sanda Champion Ng King Chung. Flip as I've mentioned is one of JWP's top fighter. You can really tell Flip is from Boonchu and trains with JWP!! They move and fight verrrry similar!!

Flip Street vs Ng King Chung (Photo by Tim Bowman)

After Flips fight was my fight. I went into the ring....Without my Arabheadress...without my armbands...?? I almost NEVER go in without them...Was weird....I must have thought,"K-1 so no need WaiKru" and then forgot everything else!! D'OH!! We squared off and 1st round was pretty even and I thought it was gonna be a pretty good fight. Landed some hard leg kicks on Phet. And he started chopping on my front leg. Round 2 I can only remember one paticular moment.....!! I kicked him and he pushed me back into the ropes and as I fell on the ground BANG I got caught with a KNEE TO MY CHIN!!! I was lying on the floor and seriously everything was just BLACK around me and I was struggling to get to my feet. I woke up and I see myself in the ring...and Phet in the neutral corner ready to charge at me to take my head off!!!!!!!!!!!! CRAPPPPP!!! I managed to hold on and stay in the fight but honestly there wasn't anyone home in my head?!?! Copped a few punches and knees from Phet in the 3rd and when the bell went....The winner was clear.....Phet. Was a good fight.....just abit UNLUCKY with the knee as I was falling!! Ughhhhh!!

Some cool pics from the fight. Tim Bowman's series.

Florence Lee's series from the fight!!

Thor Hoopmann who also trains out of Boonchu and is currently one of the names dominating the heavyweight scene in Oz. We were all chatting and he has got some tougggh fights coming up and Im looking forward to catching them!! Thor fought twice that night...first winning against Ryo a Japanese Fighter....and then later against a reaaaaallly tough China Sanda fighter. The chinese guy walked into everything and just kept coming back for more!! Seriously strong chin!!

Thor vs Japanese and later the Chinese Sanda Champ

One of my all time fav fighter,Teelek Fairtex (I will do a write up on this guy one of these days.) He fought another Chinese Sanda champion and just toyed with him. He barely put in any effort. He just made the whole fight look sooooooo easy. I guess that's what happens when you have had 300 fights experience!!

Showing the chinese guy how it should be done!

The female fight of the night was pretty exciting too. Joey Bam Bam Lee vs Teresa Wintermyr. Teresa did well trying to keep her distance from Joey and moved around well but Joey wanted the win infron of her home crowd and kept pressing forward in the fight. Joey finally caught Teresa with a pretty damn nice headkick and it was so hard that Teresa's mouthguard flew out of her mouth!...Check the picture out!!!

Awesome timing Tim!!! oh and Joey of course!! =) haha

Last fight of the night.....there was a slight delay and people were jeering and getting annoyed thingking that Bob Sapp wasn't gonna fight. But to be honest.....They were having problems with the gloves....!!! Bob's hands wouldn't fit into the size 12S....14S....16S......And only finally fit into Size 18s!!!!!!!??!?!? I mean Bob Sapp is just HUGE!! Hence the nick name THE BEAST.

Sadly his fighting is anything close to BEAST like!?!....Alain who is a fair bit smaller than Bob Sapp literally took him apart. Alain just kept jabbing him in the stomach....and leg kicking him. Every now and then Bob would try to rush Alain...but credit to Alain for ducking and weaving his way out of the corners!! Bob looked SLOOOOW when attacking....and awkward. BUT still getting hit with ANYTHING from someone THAT big is gonna hurt!!!!!!

Hit and Run!! =p

People don't really understand how big BOB SAPP reallly is?!?!?
Alain is a pretty big guy himself. It just looks MENTAL!!

That was it ...train hard fight hard...PARTY HARD! =)
After the fights we all head out to Lan Kwai Fong...and then to the notorious..............
WAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNN CHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!! (Yes that was how it had to be said!!)

Anyways I really wanna thank The Planet Battle team and Impakt Gym for taking care of us so well whilst we were in HK. Sunny,Alain,Sylvain,Alex,Angie and everyone else working that day.night. THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH. You made my first experience to Planet Battle a memorable one. Hope you guys bring me back for the next one!!!

LaterZ

F-1 Fuel Festival!!

2009-09-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

So F-1 weekend is round the corner and last year's F-1 was an absolutely UNFORGETTABLE time. Im not bother about the race to be honest with you. (I dont even DRIVE a car!?? so racing is not at all intersting to me!?) But it's the PARTIES that Im really looking forward to!! You can read about last years F-1 here. http://www.zigzach.com/2008/10/week-of-f-1-madness.html

I was actually called up by some people in the UK to train Mark Webber again and it was supposed to be part of some F-1 Rocks tv show. They wanted to feature me training Mark Webber and then we have a matrix style fight?? Sounded cool and I was really looking forward to it,but they wanted it in Kung Fu or Wu Shu kinda style.....????????? BLEGHHHHH!! So they asked me to find a friend to video a play fight scene and send it in to them.

I politely turned down the whole deal in the end. Reasons being:

1) I am known for being a MUAYTHAI Fighter. Not some Kung Fu/Wu Shu master!!?! Not interested in that AT ALL!!!

2) Im not gonna do a crash course and try and act like I know alot about it then try to teach Mark Webber about something I have no clue about!?

3) I would look like an absoulte MUPPET doing it!??! The show is gonna be international!! If I wanted to be on International TV for doing something...I wanna look damn good doing it!! And doing something I know I can be confident about...not look half hearted about it.

Fortunately,I got another good deal lined up!! =) This being the F-1 Fuel Festival Party!!!!
No no..I'm not just gonna be partying my ass off at them...Im actually scheduled to DJ on one of the nights,Sat 26th Sept =) WHOOOPPPP WHOOOPPPP!!! Im not sure what time Im DJing yet tho? Will update as soon as I know. But check my profile on the artist page!! http://fuel.com.sg/zigzach.php

Abit more about the F-1 Fuel Festival. The F-1 Fuel Festival is gonna be held over 4 nights at 2 Venues,with a seriously awesome line-up of DJs!!! Featuring Underworld, Darren Emerson, Hybrid, Bloc Party, Samantha Ronson,

Check their facebook events page for more details.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92512103101

This is a reallly funny promo video they did. Well I found it funny at least! =)

Here are some of the posters that I've got from them. Check it out.

Some videos and tracks to tease you to coming out to the event!!

"Shouting - Lager Lager Lager!"

"All time fav track!! Killer Bassline from Peter Hook f New Order who will be DJing at the Event too!"

"Indie Rock/Electronica band Bloc Party! Doing a DJ Set!"

I have a feeling the F-1 Fuel Festival is gonna make this years F-1 Weekend MUCHHHHHHHH better than last years!!! =)

I hope to see you guys at the F-1 Fuel Festival!!!! If you are going to the F-1 Rocks part on Fort Canning....it literally is just RIGHT BELOW Fort Canning....so you got NO EXCUSES to not make it to the party! =)

Alright LaterZ people,gonna practice some dance moves! hah

Muay Tired..................

2009-08-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Once again it's been awhile since I've blogged. It's been a very frustrating few weeks for me. I have had 3 fights canceled on me in the last 3 weeks. Making it almost impossible for me to plan my training schedule,diet and live a normal life!

I had one fight in July 24th in Bkk - Canceled. A fight in Aug which was supposed to be on the Contender Asia 2 undercard..Canceled. They have now moved filming back coz of the Haze??? And most recently I've heard they are pushing it back another 5 weeks til after Ramadan?? (Season 1 Filmed during Ramadan...but yeah Malaysia being a muslim country might be abit more strict on things like that) Lastly Sept 13th I was supposed to fight in Japan....and I just found out it got canceled.

What really pissed me off about this fight in Japan was that I actually wanted to go and see my mom for her Birthday in August and visit some friends in London for a party but canceled it all coz I really wanted to fight in Japan. Now this....................

I love Muaythai but times like this when promoters screw you around with dates it SUCKS....!!!!
Why??????????????? beacuse.....

1) I can't live my life normally. Im constantly cautious about weight.....training....I can't go partying....I can't plan holidays coz I need to train for a fight.....

2) I usually give myself 4 - 6weeks hard training before a fight and I can't plan it without knowing the exact dates!!!!...(No you can't just keep training hard all year long!! You get burnt out......)

3) I can't plan other fights in last minute coz if a promoter says Sept 13th. Then I wont be able to book any other fights in 2 weeks before or after Sept 13th..depending on injuries and all!!

4) Its just ridiculous waiting around for fights like this....like I have NOTHING better to do???
I got my own business to run.....I could go get DJ gigs....I could go partying with my friends....go visit my mom for her birthday!!!!!!...Visit my buddies in London and head over to a festival!!!!!

But no...................Instead I put Muaythai infront of everything......and in the end shit like this happens. It's very demoralizing.....and it's now been about 3 months since my last fight.

Anyways,just letting off some steam.....Now you guys know what fighters have to go thru and what we have to deal with sometimes.

Right,I better sign out before I write even more nasty stuff and promoters who read this will never take me for fights again!!!!

Hopefully the next blog entry won't be so negative!!!!

LaterZ

25th July's ChemistryFactory @ The Mainroom in Supperclub!

2009-07-28T23:34:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Last Sat night was heaps of fun as I DJed in the Mainroom of Supperclub at Odeon Towers. Supperclub is a really nice club and has one in Amsterdam,London,San Francisco and of course or own sunny Singapore!!! So playing in the mainroom has prolly got to be one of the best gigs this year so far. So I can tick another famous club that I've played at!! =) Hopefully there'll be more to come!!!!

The visuals that night...At least it wasn't "Fix Fec" or "Six Sax" like some fights posters in Thailand!!

One of my good friends,a Supperclub resident DJ and Juice DJ Quest 2008 Winner,E.J offered me a mainroom set at the club,playing the 12am - 2am slot....Which is a prettty hard slot to get!!! So I was quite flattered about it and abit nervous too! E.J has heard me play on a couple of occasions has always given me really good feedback about my sets. E.J herself is a really talented DJ and her music selection and her mixing is flawlesssss!! So her compliments and feedback are always appreciated!! You can check out E.J's music and promo mixes here. http://www.myspace.com/mynameisej

I dont usually get nervous DJing......I mean come on...I've had punches,knees,elbows and kicks thrown at me!! =) hahah But yeah I was abit edgy about this gig as I've played a couple of venues and it's been mainly in a smaller room and they aren't so strict on the music and you can tend to be abit more experimental with your music selection. I been to Supperclub numerous times and Ive always preffered the backroom where the music is abit more "intelligent".

Anyways,I took some time to plan a set for the mainroom gig and made sure I selected a few tracks here and there that I thought would work in the mainroom. Ranging from Deep House - Tech House - Minimal - Electro - Techno. (No Trance....!!!!!Sorry!!!!) I always try a range of sounds when DJing....Find that it works better than sticking to ONE paticular sound all night!!!

Lucky for me the tracks I selected and planned worked a treattttttttt and I didn't get bottled off the decks by 1215am!!!! hahahah I started at the stroke of Midnight building it up slowly and by 1am it was THUMPING!!!! =)

Pretty good turnout at Supperclub that night!!

Most of the guys from BNM Gym came down to have a boogie. My buddy and winner from the "R U Menshealth Competition 2009"Clement Ong brought down a decent crowd from his Dragonboat team and Shimah sent a mass mail out to everyone in Standard Chartered so we had a prettttty big turnout!!! Thanks guys for putting the word out and getting loads of people down to the event.

The flashing lights were awesome! The VJ and me did a good job on working the lights and sound that night!!

This image pretty much sums up what my night looked like from my point of view!!

So back to the real life of Muaythai.......Ive got a fight lined up in Sept and hopefully October too. Fight promoters can be a real pain in the ass sometimes with dates and keeping to their promises!!! So am not sure when the next time Im gonna be free from fight training to DJ again? =(

But once I do know when the next gig is I'll definetly keep everyone posted on Facebook or on here.

Alright before I pen off,enjoy my DJ mixes here on www.soundcloud.com/zigzach

LaterZ

Fights ,Fights,Fights & More Fights!

2009-07-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Been awhile since I've updated the blog. But it's been a hell of a busy month of June & July for me. Busy is always good....Busy = $$$ =)

There have been lotsa fights lately with some of Contender Asia Season 1 stars in it. One of the biggest lineup was over in Jamaica on the 26th June 2009 called,"Champions of Champions 2".
What a cool place that would have been to go for a fight!! When you mention Jamaica....immediately people think," dreadlocks,bob marley,rum and smoking loads of marijuana!!!".....I'm not a fan of any of those..and DEFINETLY not reggae music!!!! So if I ever go to Jamaica,I'll just be in a corner stuffing my face full of Jamaican Jerk Chicken!!! Yummm yummmm!

Jamaica's Champion of Champions 2 line up was pretty damn spectacular. I'll list a couple of em and I wont tell you the results incase you haven't watched it. The way the fighters were interviewed and showed them in training was very much like Contender Asia. Very cool how they've done the production work. Anyways,you can click on the link and watch the video at my fav website for watching fights kimjudas.blogspot.com!!

Eugene Elkeboom vs Ryan Simpson

Eugene known to be a strong grappler and a tough guy that never goes down taking a real dutch legend,he is prolly one of the oldest fighters still in the game,Ryan Simpson. I actually met Ryan Simpson on the streets of Amsterdam on my first ever visit to Holland.....He has been fighting for YEARS and has fought some of the biggest names in muaythai and kickboxing....to name a few...Yodechha Sityodtong,Jomhod Kiatisak,Lamsongkran Chuwattana and Ramon Dekker!!!!

Kaoklai Kaennorsing vs Clifton Brown

There was controversy over the first time these guys fought and who should have won. Kaoklai is a thai guy with BIG BALLS!! (not literally) He weighs 78kg and fought in K-1 with all the heavyweights,sometimes giving up as much as 40kg weight difference. He won some of em on points and even managed to knockout Mighty Mo with a SPECTACULAR headkick. Clifton Brown is one of the best fighters out of Canada. We trained in Koh Samui many years ago and I remember watching him train and being so impressed and he would help talk to me and give me tips. He also spoke fluent thai which reallly impressed me.

Paul Slowinkski vs Patrice Quateron

Paul Slowinkski K1-Europe GP champ in 2007 takes on Patrice Quateron. Patrice is seriously one BIG dude! I mean Paul is just slighlty taller than me and 115kgs....have a look at Patrice at the weigh in!! Never really met him so not gonna make any comments on that. Patrice is also known to be abit of a Raffik.....but I dont know I've never met him so I won't comment on it....but maybe they are misunderstood...and it's just a french thing? =P

Liam Harrison vs Anuwat Kaewsamrit

Liam Harrison is one of the better non thai muaythai fighters and at his weight which is really competitive. He's fought a couple of big name thais in his time. Having had a war with Saenchai 13 Coin Resort a few months ago..he now takes on Anuwat Kaewsamrit,a thai fighter who packs a SERIOUS PUNCH!! (and leg kicks!!)

John Wayne Parr and Buakaw Por Pramuk

My buddy JWP going up against the lean mean fighting machine,Buakaw Por Pramuk. Two of the biggest names in the sport. A rematch that has been talked about since their fight in K-1 4th March 2006.

Sean Wright vs Marco Pique

Sean Wright filling in for Dzhabar on this fight. This was meant to be a rematch as Dzhabar had beaten Marco Pique in the 8man K-1 Rumble of the Kings in Sweden last year. Marco Pique apparently has been confirmed as one of the fighters in Season 2 of Contender Asia. So watch out for him. You gotta watch this fight. All I can say is that punch came out of NO WHERE!!

Yodsaenklai Fairtex vs Cosmo Alexandre

Last but not least the always hungry eating machine,Yodsaenklai. I helped him out at the seminar he did here at BNM and he was in top form at training. He was supposed to fight Steve Wakeling....then supposed to fight Artem Levin...and then it changed lastly to Cosmo Alexandre. I dont think Yodsaenklai really cares who he's put up against... haha Cosmo didn't put up a good show in this fight but he is a pretty tough guy usually.

Nathan Carnage Corbett vs Tyrone Spong

This fight was the most talked about and was the one fight loads of fans were waiting to see. There were alot of issues before this fight took place.... talks about who was the best in the weight and then there was the talk about how much money they'd fight each other for.....and then the talk about the rules of the fights,K-1 or Full thai rules......and even after the fight it is still the most talked about fight as there was more controversy at the event! A seriously MUST WATCH Fight!!!!

Other fights that night were Julie Kitchen vs the lovely Angela Parr and Mosab Amrani vs Andrei Kulebin

And more recently the K-1 Max Final 8 on 13th July just a couple of days old. Check out some of the awesome fights from that night.

Arthur Kyshenko vs Andy Souwer

Arthur Kyshenko one of my favourite K-1 fighters. Just an all round good fighter with good hands and kicks. Already made a huge name for himself in the last few years at the K-1 event. Check out his fight in the final 8 with Andy Souwer.

Albert Kraus vs Giorgio Petrosyan

Giorgio Petrosyan who is another favourite of mine shows how he is fast becoming one of the rising stars in the sport. Awesome in the boxing department and just as good with his left leg and mid section kicks making him another perfect fighter for K-1. My dream match up would be to see him and Yodsaenklai go toe to toe...battle of the best southpaw!

Masato vs Tatsuya Kawajiri

This was a special event. K-1 vs MMA. Masato the star of K-1 taking on Tatsuya Kawajiri an MMA star in Japan. Always good to see Masato in action. He is retiring soon from fighting so it'll be good to see what they've got lined up for him.

Dzhabar Askerov vs Hinata

My brother from another mother,the hard hitting Russian,Dzhabar getting the by and getting a chance to fight again after his loss to Petrosyan in the K-1 Max Final 8. This was a classic case of Puncher vs Kicker. Jabba keeping the workrate up and never backing down. Taking loads of punishment but at the same time dishing it up as well. Awesome fight....could have gone either way. Dramatic ending!!!

Watching fights makes me miss fighting alot and training hard. But Singapore just isn't conducive to professional training and fighting. =(

Look forward to a couple of fights I've got lined up in a month or two so fingers crossed everything works out according to plan.

Enjoy the fights everyone.
Many thanks to kimjudas.blogspot.com for the videos. Keep up the great work!!

LaterZ

White Collar Boxing Singapore

2009-06-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

This is actually a very late write up about the White Collar Boxing. My apologies Ian!!

So what is the White Collar Boxing you might wonder? "White collar jobs" was a way of describing workers of relatively high status that always needed to dress up in suits and ties when turning up for work. White Collar Boxing started awhile ago in the 1990s over in America. It allowed people of White collar background to be able to train and compete on a more level playing field. Meaning they would be competing against guys who were working long hours in the office rather than competeing against a guy who would be working part time as a waiter at a restaurant that had a whole load of time to train and get fit and have a huge advantage over the White collar guy. So White Collar Boxing kinda leveled it out a fair bit.

White Collar Boxing arrived in Singapore in 2007,promoted by Ian Mullane who is the founder and owner of Vanda Boxing Club & Vanda Promotions. The first event done was held in a small function room in one of the hotels here and had a crowd of 300 - 400 people attending the fights to support their friends. Fast forward to just two years down the road to April 2009 and the last event was held in Suntec City Convention where they had pyrotechnics for the fighters as they walked out,lights,lasers and 1000 people attending the event!! A huge change in numbers attending,and a huge change in the production of the event and a huge sucess if you ask me?!! However,not only have they managed to turn their local events into a huge sucess....they've also now started to do events in HongKong,Bangkok,Australia and Japan!!!!

An awesome setup for the event.

I've been to 2 White Collar Boxing events so far and it is by far one of the BEST events I have attended in Singapore. Everything was well organized and very professional! I was sitting there thinking to myself,"Damn these guys fighting are SOOOO lucky!!" I started out fighting in some dingy function room with no airconditioning or proper lighting?! The microphone BARELY worked!! And the organizers forgot ice and water for inbetween the rounds!!! So yeah you would kinda be jealous when you saw all this =)

Yup she got that right!!! It was my 2nd time round at the event!!

White Collar Boxing events go that extra mile...wait...let me correct that...Extra 100MILES!! to make the event special. The event isn't in a stadium or in an arena where people just walk up and buy tickets,sit around eating hot dogs and munching on popcorn!?!...No No....There's Glitz and Glamour at these White Collar Boxing events. In other words its a "White Collar Boxing - Black Tie event!". Confused yet!!? =) Anyways,the women are all beautifully dressed in nice dresses with their hair and make up all done with lotsa bling bling jewellery. The men come in their expensive suits and dress shoes looking sharp! It's almost feels like you're at a red-carpet event that you watch on TV!! On top of that everyone is seated at a table where a very yummy 5 course meal is served as the fights go on. Good food,beautiful people and fights.....Have I died and gone to heaven?!?!?

The venue before people arrived & after everyone's had a couple of drinks!

P.J,Jaime Yeo,Me & Jaymee Ong!

Vanda Promotions selects the applicants. All these guys have a kind of a story or reason to fight or just even the fact that they are unlikely people to ever get in the ring to fight. The selected candidates are put thru 12 weeks of intensive training. The group of selected fighters train 3 times a week,building great friendship and teamwork to push each other past their own limits. It gives Ian and his team of trainers and event organizers a great sense of satisfaction to see these guys start from ZERO or not much experience in Boxing to then finally take center stage of a huge fight night!!

The action at White Collar Boxing events and fighters got better each time too!!

However the event isn't just about getting a bunch of over worked,over stressed middle aged guys into a ring to vent their frustrations!! Vanda Promotions also ties the event in with different charity groups to help raise money. The previous event they managed to raise $114,000 for Children's Surgical Centre in Cambodia . To raise money there is an auction midway thru the event. With items like Muhammad Ali signed gloves,Lewis Hamilton signed helmet,Nadal's signed tennis racket,Pele & Maradonna's signed football jersey all items framed nicely!!

The amount that was raised and handed over to Dr Jim Gollogy

At the end of the evening,White Collar Boxing isn't just another fight night that just happened. It's an AMAZING fight night and all for a good cause. The fighters get to have fun and feel like real professional boxers with all the lights,pyrotechnics,crowd cheering for them. The crowd get to dress up have a nice meal and cheer on for their friends who are there to fight or to catch up with other friends in the community! The people who buy these signed and framed sports memorabilia get to spend money on an amazing item and not feel so bad about it,knowing that the money goes to charity!!!!! =)

Days like this,I wish there were proper promoters to do a good Muaythai event here in Singapore. Who knows maybe at some point maybe do even a White Collar Muaythai event??

Ian if you ask me,Hell Yeah I'd be up for Round 3 at another White Collar Boxing event!!

Thanks for everything,buddy!

LaterZ

New Part-Time Job!

2009-06-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the late update once again. The days seem to just vanish when you're busy!! Especially now that I've got a new part-time job!! No no..I haven't traded in my muaythai gloves and shorts for oven mits/rubber gloves at McDonalds!! haha

Im actually now working part-time at Baan Nak Muay (BNM). Baan Nak Muay means ("Home of Muaythai fighters"). BNM is a really nice gym,seriously check out the gallery! BNM currently has 1 permanent Thai trainer and another 2 that are always on rotation coming from the famous Fairtex gym.

How the job came about was because I've helped Francis,the owner of BNM to run some of the Company events that he has done at the gym and he really liked the way I held the classes,so he had asked me to help him organize and structure the classes on Tues and Thurs,6pm - 730pm & 730pm - 9pm as those were his busiest days at the gym.

I've been running the classes for about 3 weeks and so far it's been pretty good (I THINK!). I've had some of the students come up to me and Francis to say that they really liked the way I run the classes and how classes have suddenly gotten alot more tiring for everyone since I've started running the class!! I take that as a compliment =)

I do enjoy running the big classes actually. It's good practice for me as I've done seminars too and the first few times it was rather awkward trying to organize 30 - 40 people!! But now Im slowly getting the hang of things walking around during the class and trying to help and explain as much as I can but at the same time trying to make it a fun and great workout for everyone.

So if you're keen on joining lessons conducted by me,you know where to find me at,Tues & Thurs 6pm - 9pm at BNM Gym!!

Lastly check out the ZoCard,that was designed by one of BNM students Grace (She also designed the BNM Website!)!!! The photo was taken by Carolyn Strover,who took this without using a speed shutter meaning she caught the kick in mid air EVERY TIME..was pretty impressive!!! The ZoCard was designed to promote the gym and ME coming on board as one of the trainers now at BNM. Serioulsy,how AWESOME is the Zig Zach ZoCard!! So I've been on buses,magazines,posters,tv,radio and now Im a POSTCARD! =P Playgirl magazine here I come!

LaterZ

A New Super Cool Sponsor!!!

2009-05-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Not sure if you've noticed but I've added to the list of "SPONSORS",a new logo. The one I've added on is 3rdborn. 3rdborn is an independent street & surf wear brand coming out of Bali,Indonesia. 3rdborn was started by Australian,David Eagles who has now been living in Bali for over 10years and has been selling his 3rdborn brand since 2001!! David is no stranger to street & surf wear and has over 20years of experience in design. At one point even working on graphics for the super famous Quiksilver brand for 9 years!! He has since sold 3rdborn to dozens of stores in Australia,USA and Japan!! (Hopefully Singapore soon!) He also has been painting and exhibiting since the 80's!!

David Eagles: Nature's Own

How David came up with the name 3rdborn is as random as how I found out about the brand!?! In 1997,his parents admitted to him that they had wanted two children....and OOPS! Out came David. hahaha The story behind me finding 3rdborn was just as random and just as much an accident! I was out at the Oasis concert in at the indoor stadium here in Singapore and I saw this guy wearing a really cool tshirt with a very stylish Lightning Bolt across the chest. Me being "Zig Zach" thought it would be appropriate to try and get hold of it to add to my collection of Lightning Bolts and Zig Zag tshirts!

The cool Tshirt that gave me so many sleepless nights!! haha

So instead of going up to the guy like a complete dork and a freak I actually loitered around and tried to find out the brand name. (Yeah...!! Like that was a much cooler way to do it!!!!) I managed to find out the brand and it was 3rdborn. That night after the concert I went on google and searched for it and managed to find a website and a contact. So I asked them if they knew which design I was talking about and said that I was more than happy to pay for shipping and whatever else as long as I could get my hands on it!!

Sadly David replied saying that this was an old design and they had sold out of it. I was gutted about it,but....."What's meant to be...will be." He signed off his email saying,"Next time you're in Bali drop by the gym and train kickboxing with us!" haha So we then chatted casually about Marital Arts and it turns out he has trained in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu with one of the early founders of BJJ in Australia...The legendary, John Will!!! When David moved to Bali,he started a Kickboxing class as there weren'tt any proper classes there and he couldn't find anyone to wrestle with in Bali. 8 years down the road his kickboxing classes are still running in Bali with a small group who attend religiously each week to train and keep fit.

After alot of emailing back and forth with David,he has agreed to be one of my sponsors. =) I guess both of us being martial artist and the fact that I really like alot of his 3rdborn designs was a very cool connection. The internet is AMAZING isn't it!? Never met David before and just by chatting and having a cool understanding between us he's agreed to sponsor me =) Thank you very much David,I really appreciate it.

David has sent me 4 Tshirts and I called up a good friend and a very talented photographer,Daniel Lois to help do a cool photoshoot and this is one of the designs that I've selected to use from now on. This will be my new DJ profile picture when I send it out to club promoters whenever they wanna do a flyer or poster.

So if any of you are interested in 3rdborn products and you're headed over to beautiful Bali anytime soon. Check out their store there. The address is:

3rdborn

Jl. Raya Seminyak XSeminyak,

Kuta, Bali 80361,

Indonesia

Tel: +62 361 733 760

If you are not going to Bali anytime soon...! As the aussies like to say,"CRIKEY!!" haha Uhmm oops I meant the other saying thatAussies like to use,"No worries mate!!" You can check out their internet store www.3rdborn.etsy.com to get hold of their stuff. They are slowly uploading images on to the online store as they are busy with their store in Bali and mailing out orders to their international distributors.

Also check out their Facebook fanpage to see some of their older Tshirt designs and to get updates on what new designs are coming in!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/3rdborn/29260689689

Im really hoping to make my trip up to Bali at some point this year for a nice holiday,some good food,some awesome partying and definetly to hold a Muay Thai seminar for David and his students! Thank you David for becoming a sponsor. Im looking forward to wearing your Tshirts to DJ gigs and parties!!

As they say in Bali,"Sampai Jumpa"

LaterZ

Video of my latest fight in Bangla Stadium,Phuket. (12-05-2009)

2009-05-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

So I got back yesterday afternoon from Phuket and been rushing around the island to do some photoshoots and interviews. Ahhh what a tough life!! haha I fought at Bangla Stadium on Tuesday and was only up there for a couple of days. Sadly this time I didn't get to train at all in Thailand before the fight. Works been busy and I can't keep leaving clients hanging all the time....It's not very professional.

So I did my own training here in sunny singapore. Running and skipping most of the time to get my stamina up. Hit BNM a couple of times to hit the pads and bags. Do some strength & conditionng work. So I felt pretty good. I usually cycle to all my clients so that KINDA helps abit I guess? Since I bought my bicycle in the 2nd week of October til today I've done 2118.4Km on it to be exact!!!! Thats a whole lot of cycling.....even the guy at the Treknology shop was pretty impressed when I told him how much I've done on my bicycle!!

Fight night felt DIFFERENT this time. I really didn't feel like I was there to fight. Maybe coz my mates Dan and James who came up with me were there partying all the time and coming back with funny stories the next day and it kept me amuzed and my mind off the fight. haha

I arrived at the new Bangla stadium and I told the staff at the door that I was a fighting tonight so they said ok check your name. I looked and saw "Fighter - Singapore FIXFEC" hahahahhahaha Right the thai's can't seem to ever get my name right...Phi Phi was "SIXSAX" and now it's "FIXFEC" hahaha So I got in and it was already the 3rd fight of the night and Bao,Bangman's son was fighting. Bao won his fight on points and looked good doing it kicking,blocking and clinchng his way for 5 rounds!! He has improved alot since his younger days. Who wouldn't if your dad was Bangman!! haha

I was fight number 5 so after Bao's fight was over I got ready. Met my fighter as he was getting ready and I just smiled at him politely. He acknowledged. I saw he did't look as fit but then again neither does Bangman look fit and he's won almost all his fights still with bloody knockouts!! So never underestimate any thai!! Bangman gave me some advice on what to do in the fight as he taped my hands. Hands taped,oiled up,warmed up and before you know it,I had my arm bands tied on my arab headress over and down we went to the ring.

Did my full wai kru this time and got a good cheer from the Thai's who always appreciate when someone does a good Wai Kru. Bangman says a prayer for me as he removes my headdress and off it was Rd 1.

We both started out just slowly testing with kicks,push kicks. He hit me with one or two kicks and felt pretty strong. I went for his back leg a couple of times with some hard low left kicks and it kind of bothered him abit. He landed a left kicks on my glove and I remember thinking.."Bloody hell he's pretty quick with that,right hands up!!". I tried to high left kick him and he leaned back making me miss. I could really tell that me not sparring in my preparation for this fight was not a good idea!!! I just felt awkward and couldn't gauge my distance and felt abit jumpy when he came in close. We got tied up in the clinch and he tries to elbow me but doesn't hit. Ref breaks us up and I go back to working the low kicks. He threw a punch combo and finished with an Elbow. And Im glad I had my hands guarded high up coz I felt that Elbow on my left glove and I thought,"Right he means business..." so I gave him a little smile and a shrug to wind him up abit. We were close to my corner and he lands another left kick and I didn't manage to block it and so I contered with a right low kick to his standing leg hard!! And then the bell goes.

I get to my corner and Bangmans saying to me,"Take your time you're doing good just block and see what he's got to give. Don't miss kicks and don't rush.Take your time and wait for a good chance then work the elbows."

Round two starts and I do low kicks again. Making sure I land them even if he blocks at least it's doing SOME damage and it looks better to the judges when it lands!! I had to stop making him look like the better fighter!! I kinda sensed he wanted to stay on the outside and kept using pushkicks to keep me away. I tried to kick and he lands a push kick throwing me off balance. Im feeling abit annoyed at myself now. I try breaking the distance and come in with a push kick and kicking his inside of the left thai. Then landing hard low kicks again. I tried another left kick to the mid section and and bloody hell of course it misses he couters and I brought my leg up in time to block it!!

Grrrrrrrrr I felt really rigid and really bad with getting my range. So I said to myself "Right change of tactics see how he likes me in close then?" I step in with a Jab and he sticks his arm out to hold me out and I did the "B-man Special" on him!! Bangman is the elbow specialist!! I always work elbows soo much with him when we're training together and there was one of the techniques that he drills into me all the time. And I put that into good use this time....I land an elbow HARD on him and he goes DOWN Im actually surprised he got up again. After that I knew that right hes doesn't like me up close I keep pressing in and changed worked the punches,knees and elbows dept. I pressed forward and landed a straight knee and as I threw a right elbow he leaned back and I miss..."D'OH!!" He actually elbowed at the same time too and mised me so was pretty lucky!! He counters with a kick and i just stay close to him. I tie him up and land another elbow again on him but he shrugs it off. He presses forward knowing that he's down on points he's ready for a right elbow so I switch and step in with an uppercut elbow and it misses him by an inch. We get tied up in the clinch again and I slip out and land an elbow that catches him!! I see him falling and as he goes down I throw another one. Ref gives him an 8 count and I press in again I fake with the right and throw a short left elbow. I dont really think it hit him but I think he had enough and didn't wanna risk getting hit by anymore elbows. FixFec wins Round 2 Knockout! =)

Bangman was very happy with my performance. He said that I did everything we had trained before and put it into good use this time and I looked realy strong in the fight. I thought I did well and the only thing I would work on was the distance and my reaction. This is why sparring is so important when preparing for a fight. You see your opponents moves better and notice things better!! You don't get so jumpy and nervous when they move in.

So I sat down to watch some of the fights and took pictures with some of the crowd who approached me. There was an english couple who actually were on holiday and recongnized me from Contender Asia =) haha There were two swedish girls who sat infront of us and congratulated me and I just made friendly conversation and said yeah I've been to Sweden and all that. And turns out she actually trains,runs her own gym and used to fight too...and funny enough she knows EVERYONE that I know in Sweden!! From my brother Yukay to the Playboy Hugh Hefner of Sweden....Bingo!!! But yeah it's a smaaaaaaaaaallllllll world. So who knows maybe next time Im in Europe I'll get to do a seminar in Sweden!! =) She also writes a blog but it's in Swedish!!!

http://www.fightplay.tv/author/susanne

Right so I got out of this fight injury free!! =) So I'll mayb try to get another fight in 2 or 3 weeks time. We'll see. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

Many thanks for dropping by Laterz!!!!!!!!

The Dummies Guide to K-1

2009-04-21T20:19:00.001-07:00

As many of you know K-1 is prolly one of the biggest event and highest paying Kickboxing events around the world. If you've never heard of K-1??? Where on earth have you been??

What I would love to have hold up my jeans!! THE K-1 BELT!!!

K-1 started in 1993 by Mr Kazuyoshi Ishii. He had the best fighters from Kickboxing,Karate,Kenpo,Kungu even normal Boxing to battle it out in ONE ring,all fighting under ONE Rule to level the playing field. I read this somewhere not sure how far it's true but. Notice all the K's and how his name starts with K and how everyone who fights wants to be Number 1. Also because the concept of the tournament was very much like the racing grand prix,F-1. From there the name K-1 was born!!

The original K-1 was an OPEN weight category meaning there were no weight division. One of my first few trainers the Legendary MuayThai superstar, Nokweed Davy was the LIGHTEST fighter in K-1 in 1995 when he fought French fighter Jerome Le Banner. Nokweed lost the fight to Jerome Le Banner on points.....But hey Nokweed was 75kg and at the END of his career and Jerome weight 40KGS MORE than Nokweed!!! A decent effort for going 5 rounds with someone that much bigger than you!! =)

A very young Zig Zach =) with the Legend and one of the hardest kickers in the business,Nokweed Davy!!

Like the F-1 racing....K-1 did smiliar Grand Prix and qualifiers all over the world and then later all the winners from all the Grand Prix battling in the Tokyo Dome in Japan for the K-1 World Grand Prix Champion titl,a super slick belt + $400,000 USD Prize money!!!! K-1 was a huge hit in Japan and Europe. It made superstars out of the REAL fighters. K-1 was the equivalent to WWE and Boxing put together. It meant that Kickboxing tournaments practically had a facelift!!! The fireworks...the music and the grand entry.....the suits and the press conference. It made fighters realize they deserve just as much attention and glory as the guys in WWE jumping of the top rope!! K-1 fighters were the REAL DEAL. No fake story line...no fake titted girls with bad acting getting slapped around!! =) What alot of fighters make compared to what the more established guys in K-1 make is just UNBELIEVABLE!! Basically alot of us are making loose change!!

With every K-1 passing. Fighters were soon turned to SUPERSTARS!! Names like Branco Cikatic (1st ever K-1 winner 93), Peter Aerts(At age 39 has won 3 K-1 and was runner-up for the last two years!!!!),Ernesto Hoost, Ray Sefo,The late Andy Hug, Jerome Le Banner were made famous in the fighting circle. And now a new generation of fighters have come on the scene like The Flying dutchman Remy Bojavsky,Bad Boy Badhr Hari,Paul Slowinkski,Tyrone Spong,Semmy Schilt the list goes on.

Peter Aerts & the late Andy Hug in action.

K-1 fighters are the "A "List of standup fighters in the world!! And most fighters have a dream of making it ig there!! Who wouldn't!!??? What some fighters make out of fighting in smaller tournaments,compared to what some of the more established guys in K-1 make is just UNBELIEVABLE!! Basically Im making loose change compared to them!!

"K-1 Max" later was born in 2002. The weight set at 70.5kgs. Fight fans wanting to see leaner...fitter...faster yet hard hitting guys in the ring rather than some of the K-1 heavyweight "freakshows"....Akebono the Yokozuna from Sumo Wrestling, Bob Sapp "The Beast!" an Ex-NFL Pro Footballer,The Korean giant,Hong Mun Choi who is a towering 7ft 2Inches who is pretty much as tall as me even when he is sitting down!!!

Image Left:Hong Man Choi vs Kaoklai Image Right: Akebono vs Bob Sapp

K-1 Max has already established some superstars since it's first tournament in 2002
2002 K-1 Max Champ - Alber Kraus
2003,2008 K-1 Max Champ - Masato
2004,2006 K-1 Max Champ - Buakaw Por Pramuk
2005,2007 K-1 Max Champ - Andy Souwer.
Gago Drago, Taishin Kohiruimaki,Mike Zambidis,Sato,John Wayne Parr,Ole Baguio Laursen and last but not least one of my personal favourite fighters who has been making waves the hard hitting Ukranian, Artur Kyshenko.

Albert Kraus after 2002 Final. Andy Souwer winning in 2005.

Buakaw & Masato at a K-1 Press Conf then later bashing each other up in the final.

This years K-1 Max has a couple of new faces,one new fighter who Ive been following for awhile. And is really making a name for himself. He is currently at the top of his game winning everyone from Raffik Bakkouri to Andy Souwer! A name not to forget - Giorgio Pertrosyan. Another deadly southpaw who even managed a draw with Buakaw a couple of years back. Would love to see him and Yoddy go toe to toe!! Battle of the southpaws!!

Also in this years line up,The Contender Asia's smallest,youngest but hardest hitter and my fellow teammate from the Tiger Kings.......... Dzhabar Askerov!! All of us in The Contender Asia knew that he would get the chance one day.

Ohhh and lastly the new show man to the K-1 Max,a worthy mention coz of his Cosplay outfits!!
- Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima of Japan. Wacko is good...Look where it got Zidov!! =) haha

Another event of the night worth mentioning is the Exhibition fight between K-1 Max 2004,2009 and a Legend in the K-1 circle and a Superstar in Japan, Masato!!!! sparring with The japanese wonder boy and K-1 Max champ hopefully next time,Hiroya!! Masato is on his way to retirement and this will be one of his last 3 fights before he leaves the ring for good.

Read More about the Final 16 K-1 Max 2009 Fighters here: http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/b09_0410.htm

Sadly in Singapore...We don't get much Fighting sports aired on TV. So if anyone from Mediacorp.......ESPN....Starworld...Super Sports.......if you're reading this.....GET WITH THE TIMES AND THERE IS MORE TO SPORTS THAN ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank god for the internet and this website where you can watch the latest K-1 fights,UFC and other fight shows!! Ahhhh you gotta love the internet!! So check out http://kimjudas.blogspot.com!!

Right and just as a special treat. I've got the latest fight from K-1 Max Final 16 which happened on 21st April. It's one fight that I wished happened in the final rather than the Eliminatin rounds! The fight is between Dzhabar Askerov and Giorgio Petrosyan. Im not gonna say what happens. Enjoy!!

LaterZ

Nikon - Care To Give Charity Campaign!

2009-04-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

Right so if you've read my facebook status. You'll know that Im one of the Ambassadors for "Nikon - Care To Give" charity campaign. If you haven't read it yet...Well,NOW YOU KNOW! haha =)

It's a real honour for me,that Nikon has asked me to be an Ambassador for their campaign. I've always wanted to do something for charity as it's a great way to help the under privileged. Apart from all my work,training,fighting and DJing. I try to do abit of good every now and then, like how after every fight I donate money to my neighbourhood mosque and even when I was in Thailand I went with my trainers to the local mosque during the fasting month and bought fruits and donated money to the mosque. But all that is something on a small scale. This is something pretty big as Im sorta using my "STATUS" to promote a good cause. I always believe,"What goes around comes around."

So what is this "Nikon - Care To Give" all about. The link will lead you to a site where you can actually play around and make your own message for the website. Each word provided is said by a different child and you can jumble them up to make some pretty cool messages. Go on to the "MENU" and click on Supporteres and you'll be able to see the message I made.

The elected Charity for Nikon's - Care To Give campaign is the Singapore Children's Society. They were set up in 1952 and have since then reached out to more than 15,000 kids!!! The society helps children of all races and religion. They help children who are neglected,have social problems/issues, are from dysfunctional families and even those who are abused.

There will be a $1 donation to the Singapore Children's Society when you sign up to Nikon's "My Picture Town". Nikon's "My Picture Town" is a FREE online storage and sharing portal. It's very easy to use and it's a perfect site for me coz whenever I'm training in Thailand or travelling abroad and don't have all my pictures on my external harddisk I can just go online to to "My Picture Town" and send it to the promoters,booking agencies or even to the reporters for an interview if it's urgent. For every sign up to "My Picture Town",Nikon will donate $1 to The Singapore Children's Society. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet deal isn't it??

So I really hope you guys after reading this will sign up and help the little kids out. =) Come on people!!! It's FREE and it only takes you ONE MINUTE,and that $1 doesnt even come out of YOUR pocket!!!!

LaterZ

2 weeks of all in ONE blog post!!

2009-04-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry for not updating for so long. It's been a BUSSSSSSYYY 2 weeks. I have visited 5 cities in Thailand in 2 weeks!!! I was in Samui,Krabi,Koh Phi Phi,Trang and Koh Phagnan!!!

I was in Samui for ONE night and caught a flight out the next day to Krabi. Where I stayed and trained at Emerald Gym for a week. However upon arriving at the airport,My trainer Bangman said to me in Thai "You're fighting on Sat in Koh Phi Phi.Ok?" I was like...."WHAT?!? It's Thursday today!!!" In the end I thought whatever......been training pretty well the last 2 or 3 weeks so it should be alright.

So I accepted the fight and worked a couple of stuff with him over the next day and a half!! It's always so good to train with him. He immediately see's my mistakes and corrects me back to the way he wants me to fight. Everytime I see him he goes,"Everytime you go back to Singapore ...You train Muay Thai but Farang style!! I always have to slow you down and work on techniques again rather than rush through 5 rounds."

Here's an older video of me training at Emerald Gym.

Saturday morning came quickly and I've had a day and a half training. Was actually abit sore even from grappling with the other Thai trainer,Petch and the owner of the gym,famous french fighter Wilfred Montagne!! We had to drive to the Pier in Krabi and then jump on a ferry that took an hour and a half to Koh Phi Phi. Upon arriving we went straight to Aswindum Stadium where I was to be fighting. They showed us the room...and it was like 3 mattress (and there were 4 of us!!!!!) and the room was sooooooooooooooooooooo hot and had a tiny fan!! So we weren't too pleased and we all decided that we'd get a room elsewhere. Eventually found a room and me,Bangman and Jason (An American Korean Guy who was staying at the camp) shared a much nicer room with a better working fan! Everyone went off to walk around Phi Phi and I decided to stay in the room to rest.

Arriving in Koh Phi Phi!!

730pm and I went to the stadium. Where I met my fighter who was called in to fight coz my opponent couldn't make it. (This was the first of many changes in my opponents!!!). Bangman was actually supposed to fight that night too,but had his fight canceled. Reason: They were scared of Bangman =) His is pretty known now in the South Thailand as he's been winning all his last fights with some nasty elbows. The promoter than says to me,"We gonna go do promotion"...this is prolly the FUNNIEST thing I've ever had to do for promoting a fight was to wear my muaythai shorts and walk around the whole of Phi Phi Island distributing flyers =) hahah Uhmmmmmm didn't help that the poster said..."SixSax from Australia" AND IT WAS A BLOODY WHITE GUY ON THE PICTURE!!!!!!!!!

SIXSAX!!! We look soooo alike!!

Got back to the stadium and by about 10pm and I got ready and saw my opponent wrapped and ready. And the promoter tells me.....There's a thai guy who wants to fight you? I was like????? Bangman said it'd be better to fight the tall guy coz he's about the same height and size and it would be a better fight for the crowd. But the shorter thai guy kept insisiting he wanted to fight me....Bangman got pissed and said,"Whatever,he'll fight either of them. See you in the ring." haha So yeah I basically had no idea who I was gonna fight til about 20mins before the fight when I see the shorter guy's trainer massaging him. Funny enough while massaging his fighter....his huge ass PISTOL gun slipped out from under his shirt and me and the boys were all like..."Ohhhh shit!!Right...maybe I should lose this fight????" but the thai guy assured us that it was for he was from the Army and was a high ranking officer. Yeah ok...that still didn't really make me any more comfortable!! haha

Getting Ready to Rumble!!

Was really not in the mood when I got in the ring. I just did a quarter of my wai kru and even realized I forgotten my armband!!...Bell went and off we went. Started out nice and easy and I kinda gauged he wasn't THAT good so wanted to take my time and pick him apart slowly.....But he had other plans!!! Next thing I know he's coming at me hard.....So I covered up and threw a couple of straight knees to keep him away. Alot of em landed but he didn't go down. So kept him away with a couple of hard left kicks and then he came at me again. Right I had enough. He dropped his guard alot so I lef loose a couple of left elbows when he punched and the 2nd one cut him open. I saw some blood...the Ref checked and said it was ok to carry on. He still kept trying to come towards me and I must have landed about 5 elbows on him and he didn't go down. There was one I hit right across his forehead and I looked at him and smiled and I was thinking this MUST cut him!! But Nope....NOTHING!!! Bloody hell........Bell goes and we're in the corner.

After some words of wisdom for Bangman. I stand up and am ready for Round 2. I try to keep my distance but he keeps pressing forward hoping to land a good punch on me to knock me out. I just throw some straight knees and same thing it all catches him but he just didn't go down!!! He gets me in the corner and starts firing straight punches and for a minute I think the crowd thought he had me. I covered up well and waited for him to stop then landed a huge elbow and a big knee into him. He stumbles...The ref tries to pull me apart but Im desperate to keep going....I get back to the neutral corner and the ref gives him an 8 count. Once the counts over I charge in and land a huge knee again to the solar plexus and as he covers up I land a HUGE right elbow on the jaw and you can hear a loud "CLUCK" sound as his eyes go back and he stumbles,I land another left elbow and he goes DOWN!! Fight was over Rd 2. =)

I was hoping to not be injured and fight again the next week in Phuket. But yeah my Elbow was sooooo sore from hitting him on the head!! D'OH!!! hahah So yeah it was party time in Koh PhiPhi and when we got back to Krabi I just trained abit on techniques with Bangman and did a couple of weights session.

During my time off from training one day. Me,Bangman with his wife and kids took a road trip back to his home town,Trang. Which was about an hour and a half drive from Krabi. Was nice for me as I got to meet his family and he took me around his favorite places. Loads of people knew Bangman coz he's one of the FEW that has made a name for himself in Muaythai coming out of Trang. There was a small Thai Boxing gym next to his house that his ex fighter,Siamchai had built for the kids. There were about 20 - 30 kids and one of the 8yr olds had to get on a bike with his dad everyday 20km just to get to the gym. Shows you how much they LOVE the sport. Then there were all these old men who would sit there and give advice and tell the boys what to do. It was really nice to see so much KNOWLEDGE and so much PASSION for the sport from all the villagers. Bangman had to train his son,Bao,as he had a fight soon. So the whole gym watched as Bangman trained Bao. Bangman does not show ANY mercy when he's training fighters....not to his other fighters in Bkk...not to ME...and definetly not to Bao!!!! After Bangman finished training his son,some of the fathers who were siting around asked him to please just do one or two rounds with their son. It was very cool to see that people respected him so much back in his small village....Bangman the superstar trainer! =) Everyone from Trang knew that Bangman was a very good trainer and loved Muaythai very very much. The stories I can tell you about Bangman are pretttttty damn cool. He left home at 12years old with very little money and against his parents wishes to chase his dream of being a Muaythai Fighter in Bkk!!

Bangman and one of the boys doign some technique before he fights next week.

After my quiet days in Krabi at Emerald Gym it was time to head over to Party town Samui again. And this time it was just pure HOLIDAYING!!! =) I was actually there for Jaymee Ong's wedding. yes thats right guys.....I can hear all your hearts cracking into a million pieces as I said that...Jaymee Ong's Wedding!!! Becky introduced me to Jaymee and Matt (her husband)...and we've known them from even way before Contender Asia. So was weird when we found out we were working on the same show =) There gonna be people from America,Singaporea and mainly Australia who were gonna be at Jaymee's wedding.

My home for a couple of months in 2004!

I managed to head over to the WMC Camp in Lamai where it was once my home for 4 months!! Some of the old trainers are still there and the little boys have all grown up. Some familiar faces and some people from the shops around the gym still even remember my name!!! I mean this was the first time in 5 years that I've been back in Koh Samui!!! So much has changed and yet still some of them still remember my name. Crazy!!

DJing at Hush on Soi Green Mango

On the Friday night in Samui I even scored myself a DJ gig at the club HUSH on Soi Green Mango. Samui is a real paaaaaaaarty town with some very cool clubs and after hours places playing some decent dance music. Tho alot of places still play the same old shittyRnB and HipHop music that I last heard 5 years ago too!! YUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!! The DJ before me played exactly what every other DJ played... RnB/HipHop crap that was going on everywhere....I got tired of listening to him and my friends were telling me to go on ASAP....So I kicked him off the decks and soon the club started to get a flow of crowd going. Had an awesome night DJing some good proper dance music!!...Another club to add to my list. =)

So after a mad night of DJing and 2 hours of sleep...It's Sat morning and I suddenly find myself on a speed boat headed for Koh Phagnan with 25 loud drunken aussies giving wedgies to whoever had anything on under their boardshorts!! (Im soooo glad I didn't have any on!!!!) The day goes by and it only gets "fun" when soon one by one started spewing and one by one started to fail the "follow the line" drunk test we had on the beach!!! Yes this was a a sign of a good bachelor party!! =) hahah

The wedding was like a fairytale! It'sgGonna be hard to top what they've done!!

Sunday left everyone unable to do much except lie by the pool and relax in the sun. Not that it was a bad thing coz the Baan Taling Ngam Resort was just BEAUTIFUL!!!! There was a Buddhist Wedding with 9 monks blessing the bride and groom on Monday which was very special for Jaymee's dad who is buddhist, and even just for the Aussies and American guys who flew over to see something different. Tuesday arrived and it was the actual wedding day,and I have to say that this wedding on the beach was one you would imagine out of a movie. Everything was PERFECT!! The music that played as Jaymee and her dad walked down the aisle,the exchange of vows...everything was verrrrrrrryyy touching. Yes yes even I had to shed a tear!!!

After the sun had set and we finished listening to a couple of touching speeches. We had to go to the beach and light paper lanterns that flew up into the sky. It was prolly the most beautiful thing seeing all those lanterns go up in the sky. Just AMAZING!! We were then seated down for a buffet dinner and had to listen to a couple more speeches. And I think Matt's brother,Reds prolly wrote one of the BEST POEMS/BEST MAN SPEECH I HAVE EVER HEARD!!! It was 3 pages long telling us about what Matt was like as a young boy and all his mischief right up til the wedding day. It was soooooo funny and best part is it all RHYMED too!! Damn he must have a lot of free time!!! This was followed up by the bride and grooms first dance. Was very beautiful to see them so happy. And to top the night off.....There were some SERIOUS fireworks!!!!!!!!! That was the icing on the cake to end an amazing night and amazing few days at the hotel!!

Leaving Baan Taling Ngam Resort was hard....but I gotta get back to the real world. It was a GREAT trip altogether,having had good training at Emerald Gym...Fighting in Phi Phi...DJing in Samui....and then the beautiful wedding to end things off. This trip is gonna be one of the best in 2009 I think!!

Until next time! =)

LaterZ

R U Mens Health Enough?

2009-03-12T20:59:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

If you've picked up a copy of this months Mens Health you'll probably know I'm in the "R U Mens Health" Competition. Its nothing serious. All 10 of us have a different story to tell and a different story that will maybe inspire others?

Just incase you're wondering where that beach is. ITS A FAKE BACKGROUND!!! Can you imagne how HOT it would be wearing a jacket to the beach!!!!!!!

I've already met the guys and yeah they're cool and we all have a laugh. Don't think any of us really take this "competition" seriously and feel that it's a real competition. Just out there to have fun. One of the guys, Azam is actually my Secondary school classmate!?!? What are the chances of that!!!?

Anyways we had the first Workshop and funny enough it was at the new MMA Gym in Singapore,Evolve. Evolve is a nice gym and they are prolly up there with being World class!! Having the Thai Trainers from the famous Sityodtong gym in Pattaya,Thailand. Then running the MMA side of thing is the Gracie family. You couldn't ask for a better mixture than that.

The workshop was pretty fun. (And Painful!!) To start things off we had a nutriton talk by Mitch,he does my Strength & Conditioning at Skyfitness and is now also the Strength & Conditioning Coach at Evolve. He also gave us some good info about the pretty amazing product Berocca. I've heard of Berocca from friends coz they use it to cure hangovers!!! hahah But yeah Berocca is alot more than just a hangover cure... and it has vitamins and minerals that act as an anti-depressant which helps keeps the mind sharp.

After all that talking it was time to get down to business!!! Mitch had planned out "Light" circuit that is used by MMA Fighters. Ive been through some stuff with him before so I kinda knew one way or another....IT'S GONNA HURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yeah it was preeeeeeeeettty intense!!! Everyone was sore the next couple of days haha. "If it ain't hurting it aint training!"

After the circuit we were taught some simple stuff on Wrestling. How to shoot in and take someone down...and how to prevent the take down by "sprawling". After that it was followed by som Brazillian Ju Jit Su.....Learning some simple chokes....locks....and how to get out of certain positions. All I can say is....Im seriously NOT A FAN OF MMA. Dont get me wrong MMA fighters are by far one of the FITTEST and HARDEST bunch of fighters around,I have the UTMOST respect for the sport and the guys who do it...But I seriously just dont like having a sweaty guy rolling on top of me and having me in rather "AWKWARD" postions!!! =)

Lastly we had a some simple stuff on MuayThai. One of the trainers Neungpichit Sityodtong ran the other boys through some stuff showing them how to punch and kick. Then it was back to doing a Muaythai round of circuit on the bags and pads with the trainers. I can safely say I breeeeeezed through this bit haha =)

So after the whole workshop was over......The winner for the day was ...............James Tan. =) Congrats James. He won a pair of gloves,a pair of shorts and 3 month Free Membership at the gym. Im just gonna keep telling myself they didn't let me win it coz what would I do with the 3 month membership at Evolve!?!?!? =P

Anyways,you can watch the workshop and some interviews on Razor.Tv
http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/search/?searchQuery=evolve&hiddenvalue=initial

LaterZ ppl!

Another Zig Zach Highlight!!

2009-02-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

As the post says..."Another Zig Zach Highlight!!"..So thats is Number 2!! I wish I had abit more footage of me to give these guys.....but it's hard when the older stuff that I have is taken from a crappy digital camera or a crappy tape recorder and the tape has prolly gone all mouldy!!!! Yes the joy of living in a humid country......MOULD!!!! Bleeegghhh!!

This new highlight was done by a guy in Canada named,Julian Loy. Funny how my highlights are all done by NON Singaporeans!! =) haha I dont KNOW Julian or Dennis (he did my first Highlight),I've only ever chatted to them on facebook. Im on facebook afair bit (Im lying....Im on it ALOT!) sometimes so if people msg or ask me stuff about muaythai or just wanna chat I do my best to answer them if Im not too busy.

Im really flattered that the two of em have actually taken time to do a highlight for me...Staring and editing my ugly mug for a couple of hours straight can be quite painful on the eyes I can imagine!

Nontheless,THANK YOU VERY MUCH Julian for making the video!! I appreciate and am flattered to know that I can inspire and motivate people all over the world into being a better Muay Thai fighter...or to even just start doing Muay Thai. Thanks for reminding me why I love doing what I do.

Right,enough rambling........Enjoy the 2nd Highlight of your one and only Zig Zach!

Hope you guys enjoyed it!!

LaterZ!!

Nuttritonpark.com Challenge

2009-02-18T22:58:00.000-08:00

So a couple of weeks ago I got a msg on facebook from a guy telling me about a sponsorship programe being offered by an online health and fitness company called NUTRITIONPARK.COM He sent me a link to the site and I read the rules for the competition and I thought......... "I've already emailed numerous of companies regarding sponsorship and have never got a reply........so what harm is one little blog post gonna do?????"...So here goes....

NUTRITIONPARK.com should select me to be their ambassador because..............

I am the best at what I do in Singapore!!
I am Singapore's ONLY professional Muay Thai fighter that travels to fight internationally.
I've been on an international hit reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett called The Contender Asia!!!(Meaning I been on more channels worldwide than both the 2 winners of bloody Singapore Idol put together!!)
I bust my ass out in training and in my fights to put my name and Singapore on the world map.
I have been featured in numerous magazines and newspaper interviews locally and internationally.
I was Mens Health Cover May 2008!!
I was Juice Magazines DUDE OF THE MONTH a couple of years ago!! hahah!! (Knew this would come in handy!!!)
With my website having been viewed by almost 80,000 visitors worldwide,Im sure I could provide some sort of marketing/P.R help for Nutritionpark.com.
I am hoping that Nutritionpark.com will prove me wrong about my views on most Singaporean health/fitness companies, and actually stand out by being DIFFERENT and offering SUPPORT to the local athletes. (Not just bloody swimming and table tennis!!!!)
Uhmmm....Have I mentioned that I am the best at what I do in Singapore????????

Hmmmhmm did I leave anything out...?? Maybe my you guys can write some reasons why I should get sponsored by Nutritionpark.com??

Right we'll see how it goes and hopefully I'll get an email from them???...

I have a couple of other updates.....but I'll leave it for another time!

Alright people catch you around.

LaterZ

LaterZ

Time to get back on track!!

2009-02-09T19:08:00.001-08:00

Thanks to those who made it down to the two DJ gigs at Le Noir and Cafe Del Mar. We realllly had an awesome time behind the decks.

Funny that me and Keishi both thought that Le Noir was gonna be a harder club to please...but in the end we both rocked it and were there til about 3am on a Thursday!!! Pretty good job I must admit. Always awesome to see Keishi behind the decks,very talented and very technical...took over from the resident DJ at Le Noir with some housey stuff then turned it into a full on minimal party!!! haha We even had a famous celebrity at the party (NO NOT ME!) One of the Singers,Calvin Choy Yat Chi from the cantopop band Grasshoppers!!! Here are some pics from that night. And a short videoclip.

Hopefully Le Noir or their bigger mainroom club,Attica Too will have us play for them on a weekend to really bring the house down!!

Cafe Del Mar was alot of fun too. Loads of bikini clad women walking around!! =) And uhmm for the girls (or guys!!), there were men in speedos!!!!!! Tho we were at the mercy of mother nature,as sometimes it drizzled.....then it rained...then it was sunny..then it drizzled!! It didn't stop a few people to keep dancing and drinking!! Weather cleared up towards the late afternoon evening bit and it was nice. Ended off the night with a really awesome remix of Coldplays - Clocks that track NEVER fails to bring on the goosebumps!!!! =) Some pics taken from that day up on this site www.lifestyleasia.com. Here are a few of my favourites.

Cafe Del Mar another club I can tick off my list. The BNM crew also came down that day!!

The Gang there to show some support. And TINNNY me in the console!!

So after a madddddddddd week of partying...djing....and eating loads of Chinese New Year goodies!! =) Its time to get back on track. I haven't forgotten my goals and my dreams. Just wish training and making weight was as fun as jumping around behind the decks while loads of bikini clad women prance and dance around infront of ya!!!! haha

So today Im gonna send some emails around....and call some promoters and hopefully get a fight in by 2nd week of March? I'll see how it goes as it depends on my fitness and whether I feel fighting fit yet.

TUFFBOXING NOW IN SINGAPORE,AVAILABLE AT BNM!!

Last but not least...for all those of you who like the tuffboxing tshirts that Im always in. You can now get them at BNM. So just walk in to the gym and tell em you wanna buy the Tshirts. Tshirts are going at $25 each and if you buy 2 you get them for $45. The designs available at the shop are shown below. There are Small,Medium and Large sizes in stock. Once these are cleared I'll get in the new range of stuff that tuff has lauched....Coz they are EVEN COOLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check it out www.tuffclothing.com (Turn down your speaker or headphone volume to avoid a heartattack!!)

Right thats all I have for this blog update!! Catch you all around soon!!

LaterZ

Gong Xi...Gong Xi...Gong Xi Ni!!!

2009-01-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Wishing you guys "Gong Xi Fa Cai!!" May 2009 bring you and your loved ones lotsa wealth,health and prosperity!! And may the financial crisis/credit crunch get the F@&% outta of our lives ASAP!!!

By the way the flyers for the two gigs are ready.

First up 29th Jan 2009 Thirstday pres. Digital Disco with Zig Zach & DJ Keishi

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=45859778594&ref=mf

Gonna try and play some cooler funkier tunes rather than some crap ass hand bag house at this gig!!!

The second gig will be on the 31st of Jan 2009 at Cafe Del Mar called "I love 2009!!"

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=57362917754&ref=mf

I think me and Keishi are playing the late afternoon slot...from 3 or 4 til 9pm? I'll be there early coz I gotta do a sound check and all. So come early and have a day of fun in the sun!!

Alright Im just gonna go get ready to head out to Sunday brunch with the gang at the Hyatt!!! Mhhmmm can't wait!!!

Alright everyone enjoy the long weekend!!! Once again "Gong Xi Fa Cai!!"

LaterZ

3 weeks in to 2009...ALREADY!?!?

2009-01-18T19:44:00.001-08:00

Wow this has got to be the longest I haven't blogged in awhile!! Where are the days going?!? We're already in the 3rd week of Jan of 2009....Geezzz!!

So what has been happening over the last 3 weeks.

I was up in Phuket and Krabi....on a quick Holiday with Becky. Also to catch up with my trainer Bangman. Bangman has now left Rawai and is working for a newly opened gym in Ao Nang,Krabi called Emerald Gym. The gym is set up by one of France's top fighter,Wilfred Montagne. He's had some tough fights against some tough if not TOUGHEST thai's Naruepol Fairtex and Samkor Kiatmontep.

The legendary Samkor Kiamontep

Speaking of Samkor Kiatmontep.....If you don't know who he is...You better start reading up on him. He is a south paw fighter with one of the hardest and fastest left kicks!! Sounds familiar to another South paw fighter.....Yodsaenklai?!? Samkor is also one of the trainers at Emerald Gym. With Samkor and Bangman as trainers there..................DAMN it's gonna be an AWEEEEEESOME gym!!

Im happy for Bangman coz he is really happy and settled at Emerald Gym now. Will saw what a great trainer Bangman is,his pad holding skills and his patience with training ppl is just awesome. He is also just so amazing in the grapple and elbow department!! He has trained 3 boys from nobodies to becoming Bangkok champions and one mean ass Singaporean who was on The Contender Asia!! hahahah Wilfred is so lucky to have Bangman as his trainer full-time now.....I wish I had that!!! Anyways..Im looking forward to going back to Emerald Gym sometime this year and hopefully staying there for awhile to train and fight.

If you are interested in training there,you can contact them on their website and if you need to speak to them,they converse in English,Cantonese and French. Here is a quick video on Emerald Gym. You can see Will kicking pads and the little Thai boy kicking pads is Bangman's son!! What a cool dad to have!! You seriously wouldn't wanna get on the wrong side of him tho!!

Apart from that trip to Phuket & Krabi I was recently selected by Mens Health for their "R U Men's Health Enough?" competition. Im one of their 10 Finalist. Well the competition motto is," We are not looking for models...we are looking for Role Models." Should be good fun as they have loads of workshops and stuff for us to attend and do. I had the photoshoot with em on Sat and from what I know it'll be out in March?...So look out for March's copy of Men's Health.

As for what will be happening in the next few weeks.

As of 22nd JanAs many of you know Im now training alot at Baan Nak Muay (BNM) in Singapore. I've been talking to the big boss and I will be offering Personal Training at BNM. If you are interested in training with me call up BNM and arrange a date and I'll let them know if Im available for training. Also for a very limited time Soren arrives in Singapore on the 22nd of Jan for a week and he'll also be available for Personal Training at BNM. Book early so that you get a chance to train with him while he's here. It'll be a really good experience!!

Train with me or Soren at BNM.

Another thing soon to be available at BNM are the awesome Tuff Boxing Tshirts. And if there are any paticular designs that you want not in stock or not brought in. Just leave and order with me or BNM and I'll get it in for ya.

Some of the Tuff Boxing Tshirst that I've brought in.

Lastly all work and no play makes Zach an old boring fart....so decided to add abit of FUN to my hectic schedule!!! Abit of fun never killed no body!!!!.......Right so me and my buddy Keishi (Stellar Music,Juice DJ Quest 2004 Winner,Ex Centro and Lola resident DJ) will be DJing at Le Noir on Thurs the 29th : Thirstday presents Digitale Disco. Should be good fun!!! Will try and not play too much cheesy vocal mainstream stuff that night.....but yeah....we'll see how the crowd goes. Also the 31st me and Keishi will again be DJing at Cafe Del Mar on Sentosa!!! Now that is definetly gonna be FUN!!! We're gonna be playing the late afternoon set so come on down for some minimalish-techy-electroish-progressive music!?! I'll update more again next week about the two DJ gigs.....hopefully the flyers will be ready by then too!! Bloody taking foreverrrrrrrrr!!

Right so it's been alot of meetings.....phonecalls...interviews...and planning the lat 3 weeks!! After Chinese New Year & Jan is over...it's back to the real world and I wanna start getting in touch with promoters again to start planning some fights. Hopefully get some time to stay and train at Emerald Gym too!!

So far 2009 seems good!!! Just hope the good will spread out over the next 11 months and not just end in January!!!

Alright sorry for the late update ppl see you all at Le Noir on the 29th or Cafe Del Mar on 31st!!

LaterZ

2008 in one blogpost!!

2008-12-30T06:48:00.000-08:00

Only a day more til 2009!! I can't belive I've been blogging for a whole year!!!!!! What is even more bizzare is I can't believe people actually read my blog after a whole year?!?!?!? haha

So I happened to open up and read my DJ buddy,Keishi's blog the other day and I was thinking to myself..."Damn this guy has had one hell of a year!!!!!" You gotta read it!!

http://djkeishi.blogspot.com/2008/12/counting-my-blessings-for-2008.html

So I was wondering if my 2008 was anywhere close to being as good as his????? Here's a quick and fairly detailed recap of my 2008!!

Jan 16th - Press Conference,Party and Debut of The Contender Asia on AXN!! Met loads of press and media...did interviews and then had a quick preview of Episode 1 where I got to see me FALLING at the challenge...D'OH!!!!!! Disastrous start to my TV debut!!! But this night was still definitely gonna change my life!!!

The man behind so many hit Reality TV shows.....Mark Burnett

March 3rd - My first time in Rawai Muay Thai and training with my favourite and long time trainer Bangman!! My first comeback fight after having had surgery on both my shoulders in Oct & Nov 2007. Won with a first round Techincal Knockout. Was a weird fight....but happy that my shoulders felt alright as I knew I had a more important score to settle.

April 12th- I had flown in my long time trainer from Thailand to live with me for 2 weeks and he trained me hard for my Rematch against Zidov at the Indoor Stadium. It worked a treat!! I fought one of my best fights and won with a 5th Round TKO. Was AWESOME to be fighting and winning the rematch infront of a home crowd of 6000 over people!!! Unbelieveable feeling when the crowd roared!! Will never forget that experience!!!

One of my favourite shot of the stadium that night and a picture of me Jabbing Zidov after I elbowed his nose!!!ooowwww!!

May - I was Mens Health Cover!! Cmon I gotta be proud of that!!!! Now just gotta get on the cover or Forbes 50 Richest People!!!

Gone are those abs....I know I shouldn't have had that last piece of Turkey!!!!

May 16th til June 10th - My trip back to London,Stockholm and Amsterdam!!!!! Seriously awesome times!! London for Becky's brothers wedding and also getting to see one of the guys who has taught me alot in life and made me who I am today,Darren Wardle. Sweden was a place I've always wanted to vist for some reason??? I really love Stockholm!! Was there for K-1 Scandinavia and met loads of famous fighters,Ray Sefo,Jurgen Kruts,Jordan Tai,Marco Pique, but most importantly I was there to help corner for Jabba. Most of the time was spent hanging out with Yukay and his family,I really hope to make it soon!! Then it was off to Holland to see my family....it's was 7 years ago that I was last in Europe...hopefully wont take me another 7 years to get there again!!! Got to hang out with my buddy and K-1 European Champ 2007 Paul Slowinski!

London,Stockholm and Amsterdam!!!

July 5th - International Super Fights K.L....What a nightmareeeeeeeeee this proved to be!!!! Had slighlty more than 3 weeks to prepare for my fight after a long break in Europe. 1st week I was still abit jetlagged....2nd week I was really ill....3rd week I got a decent week of training....and off it was to the fights. I got cut in the 1st Round with an Elbow....!!! Then in Round 2,decided to throw a hook (stupidest idea ever!!!) and my shoulder popped out.......Was in shock as I stood in the ring....I tried to shrug it off....and I take a punch on the inside of my arm and it throws my shoulder out again...!!! Freak accident!! The fight was called off. I was reaaaaaaaaaaally upset......and I remember sitting at the hospital in tears and not knowing what to do,and thinking why the injury reoccured......I guess it was coz I was so busy working on my stamina and also busy trying to get in as many personal trainings and get as much padwork/bagwork in as often as I could that I neglected my shoulder conditining excersices? All I know was that I felt rubbish as I sat in that hospital waiting to get stitched up. To make things worse,I had to get 14 fucking stitches for the cut!!! PAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Learnt a VALUBLE lesson that night....Never forget/neglect to do my shoulder conditioning excersices before a fight!!! Surgery doesn't mean Im 100% safe!!

A constant reminder that I shouldn't take my shoulder surgery and injury for granted.

Aug 28th til Sept 2nd - Holiday in Bali!!! For Becky's birthday and also just coz everyone was bored of Singapore.....We all chipped in to rent out the amazing Villa Raja in Bali!! I have to say that this trip to Bali was probably THE MOST relaxing holiday I've ever had!!...Although I had to still do big runs everyday....as I had a fight coming up. Just lazing around the villa and going down the water slide!! The helpers were soooooo nice too and they cooked up a feast on Becky's birthday!! Took us 3 days to finish it!!! Can't wait to get back there again!!! Also thanks to Jaymee Ong, I discovered "DIGESTIVE ENZYMES" For when you're feeling ridiculously full and bloated!!! hahaha

Villa Raja. The name says it all Villa for a King!!

Sept 15th - I found out that I was in the running for WMC Asian Title and had to win this fight to get a shot at the belt. I spent two weeks at with my trainer Bangman at Rawai Muay Thai trainng hard for my fight against Takeshi an old friend and a Japanese champ. It was an important fight for me,but unfortunately...I only managed a DRAW....and in all honesty I thought I lost that fight. I remember being in the room before my fight telling my trainer to massage my legs harder and stretch them more as they just felt sooo heavy and sooo tired....on top of that the constant fear about dislocating my shoulder was lingering and it affected my fight................definetly wasn't how I wanted it to go......I was fed up and felt so demoralized....one loss in KL and one draw in Singapore.......I was not happy with my performance and myself!!

Sept 25th,26th & 27th - Singapore made history by holding the 1st ever night race. It was a really fun weekend as I got to train F-1 driver Mark Webber and I also got to actually go into the Pit area where they prepare for the race. I met the legendary Maxi Preist from the dance group Faithless. I also got to meet and party backstage with the band that pretty much got me hooked on dance music,Chicane!!! It was one hell of a weekend!!

After training Mark Webber,Meeting Maxi from Faithless,In the Pit area of the Redbull Racing Team and later backstage with Chicane!!!!

November 6th - Trained hard at the new Baan Nak Muay Gym at Havelock Road with Thai trainer Ton, who is Matsuer's brother. Matsuer is the S-1 Champion for 2007. I fought Dutch Champion,Roel Rink in HongKong on the "Hong Kong Contender" Event. It was almost 10 years ago that I was last in HongKong....barely remembered anything about the place!! Having Lost in July and only managing a Draw in Sept...I was really annoyed with myself and trained hard for this fight. I listened to some good advice from close friends,fighters and trainers. I reminded myself in the ring what they had said to me and in between rounds Petch who was in my corner did a great job keeping my spirits up. I won the fight on points and I was happy to be back in the winners circle!! While I was there I also managed to squeeze in abit of DJing at the famous club Volar!!!

Kicking it with Roel Rink. Then some good old DJing at Volar!!!!

My last look out Derrick and Sarah's apartment before I rushed out the door after my DJ set to catch my flight!!!

Dec 6th - It has always been my dream to fight in Australia...I think that Australia is probably the 2nd best country in Muay Thai around the world. I remember always reading up on fights from the Evolution series as they probably have the best line up and usually one of the best event worldwide!! So it was a real honour to have been invited to fight there.....However,my fight on Evolution 15 with Soren was probably the most awkward fight I've ever had to take. As much as we say "Business Is Business".....when you and your best friend go in the ring it's just awkward!!! As I mentioned if anyone who saw the fight and think that is how I normally fight....you are gonna be in for a treat!!! Hopefully I'll get another chance to fight out there. So after the fight it was Rest & Relax!! Spent the rest of my time in Brisbane hanging out with Soren meeting some of his cool friends and his lovely mom and sis. Then it was off to the very beautiful Goldcoast to hangout with JWP and family!!

Me and my brother from another mother,Soren Eminent Air NTG!

The beautiful Surfers Paradise in Goldcoast!!

After being back from Australia...the days have just sped past me...the very fun night with friends at ZoukOut on the 13th,then Xmas day with Becky,Jaymee Ong and family eating a giant 11kg Turkey then playing board games and later getting on the Wii and realizing that I am a NATURAL at Guitar Hero!!

2008 is coming to an end and I can say that I've definetly done alot of cool things this year!!
Im really looking forward to 2009 and hopefully it'll be alot more interesting!!!!

Wanna say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has made 2008 so special for me. And also to all my awesome sponsors Tuffboxing,BXGFitness,Baan Nak Muay (BNM),Skyfitness,VandaBoxing,O.P.R.C,Toni & Guy and the lovely people at Nikon!!! You guys have really helped me out alot. THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!

So to all my readers have an amazing New Years Eve party and I'll see you in 2009!!!!

LaterZ

JWP,Boonchu Gym & The Goldcoast!! Aussie Aussie Aussie!! Pt 2!

2008-12-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

The eating has begun!! This whole week has just been catching up with friends in town,lunches,dinners,coffees and going out with friends!! The bank account is getting smaller but the tummy is getting bigger!!

Anyways part 2 of my Aussie trip coming up.

Soren,Dane and Ray decide to take a road trip and drive me down to the beautiful Goldcoast!! Was prolly bout a 40 - 50 min drive down from Brisbane. On the way you could see like all the theme parks and famous attractions of the Goldcoast!

Upon arrival we were greeted by the Muaythai Superstar of Australia himself,Mr JWP!! =) Seriously you can't walk down the street for 10mins without someone going,"Hey it's JWP!!"..."Hey it's that guy from The Contender Asia!"....Sheesh!!!!

We had a meal at the yummy Thai Restaurant,Boonchu!! Boonchu is also the name of JWP's gym in the Goldcoast. The owner of the restaurant has helped JWP alot throughout his career and also is a huge fan of MuayThai. In the restaurant you'll find pictures of muaythai fights in Australia...you'll find memorabilias autographed by JWP and other famous fighters!! But seriously Boonchu Thai Restaurant is a MUST VISIT if you're a muaythai fan....and if you love thai food!! =)

JWP posters and pictures everywhere in the restaurant!!

Went back to JWP's place and it was nice to see Angie Parr again and also Jasmine (Jazzy)!! I also finally got to meet their new family member Jesse James Parr!! I dropped my bags off and we were off to the other Boonchu for some muaythai!!!

Angie taking one of her students on the pads at Boonchu Gym!

Boonchu is one of the nicest gyms I've seen...it's in a warehouse and it's big...bright....spacious and has a high ceiling!! It's great coz that way it doesn't get too stuffy when there are too many people in the class! And boy does it get busy at the gym!!...I know coz I had to teach a class of 30 over while JWP and Angie were busy!!

So I watched the training and saw how the gym was run and how there were different sort of "Gradings" done by JWP and Angie. It is a cool system!! And JWP is pretty TOUGH on his grading!! As most of us who already train in Muay Thai,we know that there isn't really a "GRADING" system....??? You know how good you are when you get in the ring to fight I guess!? (And to me that means more than the colour of belt I got in trainnig!!!!) But not everyone wants to test themselves by fighting!?!..

JWP has different kinds of BELT to show which level he's in!!

So there isn't really a way of identifying what level a person is in MuayThai....Unlike in Karate or Tae Kwon Do....where you've got the white belt...blue belt..black belts. Having a grading system is a good way of making students work HARD to improve....coz you can't go up to the next grade if you don't pass! And that way the trainees will work harder if that is what they want...to be good at the sport or to become a fighter?

Jesse James Parr learning the ropes at an early age at Boonchu!!

Some of the boys were preparing for a fight over the weekend and...All I can say is....The boys at Boonchu train HARD!! And having a head trainer like JWP,lwith his vast knowledge and experience in the ring running things in the gym....You can only get better and better!!! the padholders there were really good too,very thaistyle!! Allowing the fighter to freestyle on the pads alot of the time. Meaning the pad holder wont say or shout any commands and just catch whatever the fighter decides to throw. Prety impressive!! You only usually see it in Thailand......but it seems like some of the aussie gyms I've been to have some really good padholders who know how to do it too.

So the next day,the Parrs decided to take me to Surfers Paradise!! Seriously beaches in Australia are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Beautiful. When you look out its just endless water!!! The horizon is clear and looks just amazing!!! Made me reallly hate going back the next day when I thought of the beaches that we have here in Singapore......... boooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooo!! =.(

The beautiful Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast!!

Jazzy having a blast in the cold water!!

So the next day bright and early i said my farewells to the Parrs and I was back off to Brisbane to catch my flight to Singapore!! I had an AWESOME time in Brisbane and in Goldcoast. JWP and Angie thank you so much for having me over!! Hope the kids are well!! Miss the little munchkins!!

Right so thats it! My time in Australia!!! Really hope to make it back there soon again. Australia is a beautiful country and just has soooo much about it that makes you wanna keep going back!!

Alright people have a good Xmas and I'll update the blog again before the end of the year!

LaterZ

Evolution 15,Brisbane!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Pt 1

2008-12-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

So after writing in to the New Paper....and having the article published....what good has that done for me....??....Absolutely FUCK ALL!!!! Gotta love it here in Singapore sometimes.......................

As always I've been pretty busy with work,training and travelling. Finally back in Singapore and settled down abit. Recovering from my massive weekend at Zoukout!!! God what a night!! =) Wish there more parties like Zoukout to keep life interesting in SingaBore!!!!

So yeah last fight of the year is over and Im not just enjoying my hoiday and rest til 2009 and hopefully all my injuries will have healed up by then!! Not much of 2008 left but Im definetly gonna make the most of the year off!!

Most of you prolly know I was up in Brisbane for Evolution 15 to take on my best friend Soren!!! I left Singapore on the 4th of Dec at about 9pm and arrived at like 630am in Brisbane Airport. Was a horrrrrible flight. Some kid infront of me constantly crying and the mom kept turning on the lights to attend to her child.....Ohh Goddddd!!! But yeah....what can you do.
I been to Brisbane before but maybe....3 years ago?? Brisbane was pretty cool. It's not toooooooooo busy and not too hectic and prolly one of the more quiet cities in Australia.

Before I left for Brisbane,I contacted Nikon and swapped in my old Nikon S700 for the super slick White,Nikon S60 which is a touch screen camera!! It's just sooooo cool!!! So just wanna say a thank you to Nikon quickly!! Check out the Nikon S60!!

Upon arrival we were greeted at the airport by the promoter,Nugget and his assistant,Chicko. They took us to our hotel/motel to quickly get freshened up and then went down to the famous Nuggets Gym before lunch to check our weight to see if we could eat,or if we had to starve til after the weigh in!! Soren was there waiting for us at the gym and we all had a good time catching up. We all quickly checked our weight and most of us were pretty much spot on or slightly off so we went down to,The Valley,which is sorta like the Chinatown of Brisbane for a tiny bit of Thai Food. After lunch it was about 1pm and we were all sooo tired from the flight,we decided to go back to the hotel to rest. We were told that we had to be at Nuggets Gym at 6pm for a weigh-in and press conference.

The famous Nuggets Gym in Brisbane.

We got to the weigh in slightly early so that we could do a small run just to sweat off the last kilo or so. The gym got more and more busy with fighters,managers,officials,tv crews and all sorts?!?! Was good to catch up with some of my aussie friends that I've met over the years from staying in boxing camps and also from just training/fighting at different gyms/events. Was good to meet one of Australia's most famous fighter,Nathan "Carnage" Corbett!!

Here are the pics of the weigh in at Nuggets Gyms. Pictures taken by Scottya.

Benny Ritter vs Daddy Cool, Zach vs Soren, Preacher vs Jabba

Eli Madigan,Warren "Wazza" Elson,Greg Foley & Jasonc Scerri, Sean vs JWP

Evolution 15 had a seriously AWESOME lineup!!! 6 Contender Asia Fighters...ALLL of Australia's top fighters all in one event! Crazzzzzzyyyy!!!

So on fight night Benny Ritter was p first against Daddy Cool. Daddy Cool has the coolest entrance EVER!!! Those who are familiar with the Evolution series will know what Im talking about. The fight was a real good one....as both fighters have won 1 fight each and this was the decider. Daddy Cool won with a 2nd Round KO.

After Benny's fight the 4 Man Qualifier was up...Eli Madigan beat Jason Scerri with a KO in rd 2 and Warren Elson beat Greg Foley on points to secure themselves a spot in the the final for the 4Man Contender Qualifier. So the there you go the final was between Eli Madigan and Warren Elson!

After the 1st round of Qualifiers was over...it was time for me and Soren to get it on!! As much as we both been saying,"yeah it's cool we'll be alright fighting each other and it's just business".....It really was HARD. It was gonna be a hard fight wether I was friends with him or not...dont get me wrong!! Sometimes we fight friends in this sport....but we're not CLOSE friends....with me and Soren it's totally different. We've been really good friends for a long time now and it really got the better of both of us. I remember Rd 1 being a very good round for both of us. Very technical and I landed lots of leg kicks on Soren. Round 2 Soren stepped it up and came in with some punches. I ate a couple of stupid uppercuts and it gave me a bloody nose...!! haha Didnt hurt as much but yeah...just looked bad!! Rd 3 Soren rocked me with some pretty good body shots and I went down close to the end of the Rd. It was a totaaallly awkward fight...We both barely threw any knees and elbows?!?! It just wasn't our usual selves fighting. People who think that my fight against Soren is how I usually fight and Im an easy target...they better think twice!!

Next up another fight that was talked about by everyone!! Preacher vs Jabba!! After both of their recent fights it was hard to say who was gonna win....Preacher knocking out Daniel Dawson.....and Jabba having some good fights in Sweden and HongKong. I rushed out from the changing room after my fight to help Jabba remove his Arab headdress. It started off well with Preacher coming in and landing a couple of good leg kicks and punches and moving around the ring. Jabba however stood his ground in the centre of the ring and came back strong with some good leg kicks followed up by some BIG hooks. A couple of his hooks landed and you could kinda see Preacher's reaction changed. And before you know it....Jabba landed the same over hand right that took out Soren!!!! Preacher tried to get up but his body just wasn't responding!!...The ref could have counted to 30 and he'd still be there.... Jabba once again shows his awesome power in his hands with a Rd 1 KO!! Damn that crazy ruski!!!!

Carnage was up next against I think his names Tony....He's from New Zealand. Sorry my memory is CRAPPP!!! Carnage as always does what he does best....comes in a fight and smashes everyone. Carnage won with a 2nd Round KO. Landed a hook on the guys nose and I think he broke it!? Think fight fans are all wondering who is gonna step up to take on Carnage...??!?

2nd Last fight of the night was the 4 Man Qualifier between Eli and Wazza. Two very different styles!!! Eli who is a in and out sorta fighter...hitting and moving around the ring....and Wazza who is a grappler and like staying in close. And just as most people expected.....Wazza spent the fight chasing Eli around the ring trying to get his hold on him. To be fair he was strong in the grapple and Eli did really well push kicking....and then countering with hard punches and kicks. But Wazza just pressed on!!!!! The fight goes the distance and the winner was declared Eli Madigan! Congratulations to Eli and all the best in the Contender Asia Season 2.

Last fight of the night....JWP vs Sean Wright..what was meant to be a war....was over in the 2nd or 3rd. Not due to a KO....but due to illness. Sean Wright who had spent 3 days trying to get to Brisbane.....coz of all the airport trouble...flying from Chiang Mai to Samui....Samui to Singapore...and then Singapore to Brisbane. Sean Wright stepped into fight not to dissapoint all his fans. JWP landed some good bodyshots on Sean and everytime we saw it on the screen we were like...."Ohhhhhh....Ahhhh...Owww" Jabba said to me he's never been punched harder by anyone in all his years of fighting!! A pity the fight of the night didn't go the way we all wanted....but Ive heard there's a talk of a rematch. Hopefully Sean will be ready for war then!

So what a night of fights. Sucks that it all ended so FAST!! I really enjoyed the Evolution experience. I never ever thought I'd be invited to fight on Evolution. Evolution has got to be one of the best series INTERNATIONALLY! Sucks that I had to fight my best friend and couldn't put on a good performance!!....But Im still happy and I know I'll do better for my next fight.

To be honest,I never ever thought that I'd ever fight Soren!!!! (Or be on Contender Asia!!) I remember meeting Soren in 2004 when I lived in Thailand and it was at the start of my career.... we hung out and trained together.....and I remember thinking,"Damn,when will I ever get this good!?!!?" The fights over and we're still best of friends!! We hung out heaps after the fight as I stayed a couple of days in Brisbane hanging out with Soren,met some of his crazy friends and even got to meet his lovely mom and sister!

Me and Soren goofing around at the after fight party!

Brisbane was great fun....Met soo many cool people there and had some awesome parties and some crazy nights out!!! Thanks to everyone who took such awesome care of me while I was there!! Dane,Ray,Nugget,Chicko,Daniel and Jules and whoever I've left out!! Right guys,I hope to be back soon! If not for a fight....for a night out!!

Next blog entry will be about my time in Goldcoast with Mr.JWP and family!!!

Until next time everyone!

LaterZ

The New Paper: "Does It Pay To Be A World Champ In Singapore"

2008-11-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

Been reading the The New Paper in Singapore recently and they wrote something about being an Athlete here.

They wrote about a Singapore Silat fighter who recently won a World Title and how he intends to quit due to the lack of funding and recognition from the Singapore Sports Council.

On top of that,recently Singapore's bowler,Jasmine Yeoh-Nathan won Gold at AMF World Cup in Hermosillo, Mexico and also recieved nothing from the Singapore Sports Council. She did recieve some money that was raised by her association.

You can read the articles here.

"Does It Pay To Be A World Champ"

"No,It Does Not"

"Must It Always Be About Money?"

I actually decided to take time to write to The New Paper over the weekend. I never write in to any papers or magazines but this kinda affects me in a way.

You can read my letter to them here.
(I had to remove a couple of vulgarities to make it sound abit more professional!!)

Dear New Paper,

I'm writing in regards to the articles that I've been following over the last few days, "Does it pay to be a world champ?" Well my answer is NO not in Singapore!

I am a Professional Muay Thai fighter and I've been Professional for the last 5 years. I was a fighter on Mark Burnett's Reality TV series "The Contender Asia." I've fought on the prestigious King's Birthday in Thailand. I won a WMC Muay Thai Against Drugs Challenge belt. I was a Quater Finalist at the Amateur World Championships. I train and fight professionally around the world and I currently run my own personal training business in Singapore.

I know Muay Thai hasn't been in the NSA long, and it's not one of the 'elite' Sports like Swimming, Badminton or Table Tennis for example. Therefore I am not expecting to receive any monetary reward. However, I would like to voice my views on being a Professional athlete in Singapore.

I fully understand where Muhammad Razif Moklas is coming from when he says he is considering retiring. There have been many times when I have thought about hanging up my gloves and calling it quits. Why? Because there isn't any sponsorship or help from the SSC or external companies here in Singapore.

I have placed Singapore on the World Map of Muay Thai. Very few people even knew Singapore participated in Muay Thai. However, when I fought and won my place to be one of the fighters in The Contender Asia, many people on the internet and in the media and sports world were talking about me,"Who's this Singaporean?" "Why is he even in there?" "Do Singapore do Muay Thai?" The Contender Asia aired globally this year and had viewing figures of several million. Many of these viewers had never even heard of Singapore until they saw the show. Now I get hundreds of emails from all over the world offering support, recognising me and congratulating me on my win during the Finals at the Indoor Stadium.

Both before and since The Contender Asia aired globally, I have been featured in numerous local and International magazine and newspaper articles. Sad to say all the exposure hasn't really done much for me. I've approached many sports brands and fitness related companies to sit down and discuss sponsorship deals or endorsement with me but, to this day I've had very little success. Sadly, sports companies would rather give products like running shoes and training clothes to TV Stars (who probably go to slimming centres instead of working out to keep fit!). Instead why not give it to the local athletes like Muhammad Razif, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, Remy Ong or even me?

Help doesn't have to come in the form of money. Things like running shoes, training clothes or even sports supplements are also a way to help the athletes. I run about 10 -15km a day during training. I change running shoes every 3-4 months and the cost is considerable. I spend hundreds of dollars on Protein and other supplements to help me recover and perform better in training and competitions but when I've contacted some of the Fitness Supplement companies here about sponsorship they don't even reply to my messages!

In regards to Singapore Sailing Presidents comment, "Why must it always be about monetary incentives? Why can't we take part in sports just for the sake of sports?" Not all athletes come from wealthy families. When athletes here have to work 9-5 just to survive and on top of that, train as a professional athlete it is not easy. Athletes have to be in top physical and mental condition to perform at their best. How can they perform at their best if they are struggling to pay bills and make ends meet? I have done and am still doing the sport I love out of Passion. But Passion doesn't pay for my running shoes, my supplements, my medical bills when I get injured. I don't know what injuries you get from sailing but I can tell you the injuries I've got from Muay thai! But, I have never asked for money from the Sports Council and am not about to.

When I was younger I played football for the S-League Youth Clubs and I also played for the Singapore Combined Schools Sepak Takraw team. We were expected to attend training almost every day. What did we get in return for playing for the team? A jersey and a tracksuit. Thinking back I could have bought almost 4 or 5 tracksuits with all the money that I spent on transport to training. Many of the talented players I knew back then have given up professional football and don't play at all anymore. Why? Because there is no incentive here in Singapore. A lack of recognition and incentive kills the drive and passion required to be a professional athlete.

I was once asked who I represent when I fight at tournaments. I replied that I represent Singapore, myself and the gym that I'm fighting for. When asked whether Singapore gives me any incentives when I fight in the way of money, awards or certificates I replied, "nothing." So why do I represent Singapore? Good question! The fact that I am Singaporean is the only reason that I represent Singapore but even that is slowly losing it's meaning. For all I know Singapore could just buy a Thai national and give him P.R status and he could easily replace me as Singapore's best Muay Thai fighter. Kids dreams are dashed when they know that as hard as they try and as much as they train, Singapore could easily overlook local talent and just 'buy' foreign athletes to represent them. If all the money spent on Foreign Talent were used to groom the local youths and even the semi-pro athletes they would be just as good as the imported talent.

In summary, I feel that Singapore does not offer the support and recognition that local athletes deserve. When local companies would rather endorse and promote TV celebrities than athletes is it any wonder Singaporean youths are deterred from chasing their sporting dreams? I am not asking for money from the government or the SSC or from anyone else for that matter. However, I am expecting the recognition and the respect that I deserve for putting my body on the line and representing my country.

So thats just my two cents worth on this whole discussion. One thing that really got me annoyed was the Singapore Sailing Presidents comment. That really annoyed the hell out of me. Maybe he didn't mean it that way? Maybe I was just so angry when I was reading the article I took it thw wrong way? I mean,you would probably have to be wealthy to be able to afford to do a sport like sailing anyways?!! So maybe money isn't a prob to him and his sport...?? But not all of us were born with a silver spoon up the ass.....so bitching and whining abit for recognition and funds is normal for us middle class athletes.

I hope the new paper read it. There is so much more I would like to say in it,but I reckon I'd just lose my temper.......and just end up getting in trouble!!

So you readers decide if what I have said in the letter makes sense...or am I just a grumpy pissed off Thai Boxer.

LaterZ ppl.

Ohhhh before I forget...!!! On another note...there is an amateur muaythai event on the 29th of November at Jurong Sports Hall. Check the poster out. I should be there that day to catch up with some friends/fighters and all. For more details contact Punch Academy

Hong Kong Contender Event

2008-11-11T17:22:00.000-08:00

Late update again....I know sorry!! So I've just edited some of the pics taken from my Nikon S700 and so here is the latest blog update!!!

On Nov 4th I left with Contender trainer Petch from BNM to Hong Kong. This was my 2nd visit to Hong Kong. I was there maybe....some 10 years ago??? I barely remembered anything about Hong Kong except for the street food and the crazy shopping!!

We arrived at 8.pm at night and the promoter,Jeremy Chan,the Thai fighter, trainer and owner of "King Professional" were already there. We sat down chatted....and while the owner and promoter had a bite to eat and drink....I just stared and drooled coz we needed to make weight the next day!! About 30mins later Jabba, Soren and Zidov arrived,was good to see the boys again!! Jabba and Zidov are like an OLD Couple after being married for 40years or something!!? They have this "Love-Hate relationship". Always cracks me and Soren up to see them take the piss out of each other it's just hours of entertainment!!!!

So as always it's straight to work....We got to the Wunique Gym. Home of Hong Kong Muay Thai Superstar,Heung Pak Wing!!! We had to do a video sorta thing and do some quick photo stuff for the event. We were all hungry and tired....not a good combo!! We finished up quick and we were taken to our hotels where I shared a room with my buddy Soren, and the old couple Zidov and Jabba were put togeher.

Apartments near the hotel we stayed at.

Arriving at night is always weird...you dont know where you are...you dont know what to expect. So me and Soren got up the next morning around 9am,we opened the curtains and it was just....grey grey grey..!! I mean HongKong is just a Concrete Jungle!! Buildings all packed in soo close to one another and reaaallly small!!! I can only imagine what the apartments would be like to live in there. So we did a run around the area as we needed to make weight and also just wanted to see what the place was like,and to see what we could get up to later when we've finished with our weigh in. After sweating off the last few kilos,we all met up at the lobby at around lunch and were taken back to Wunique Gym where we all made weight.....and were finally allowed to EAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Streets of North Point,the area we lived in.

The rest of the day we were left on our own to do whatever we wanted. We went back to the hotel and wandered around the area we stayed at called "North Point" for abit before we went to get some rest. Evening came and Soren and me went down to Causeway Bay,Times Square and Sogo!! We walked around and it was SERIOUSLY just BUSY!!!! People EVERYWHERE!! In Soren's own words....."there's so many people its like ANTS!! But even Ants are more organized coz they only move in a straight line!!! Here,they are EVERYWHERE!?!?" haha Me and Soren met my sisters friend,Phoebe for some japanese food and then it was off to beddddddddddddd to rest for the fight tmrw night!!

Sogo at Causeway Bay,Sooo busy!! Me getting hungry!!

After a whole day of just bumming around in the hotel. We were off to the stadium at about 4pm. We were given instructions on the event when we got to the venue and then we were all off to our dressing rooms. The 4 of us and the Thai fighter from King Professional were in the same room. It was very very professional how the Hong Kong Muay Thai ran the show. I mean I've been to some events and....it's just a mess....no water...no ice...no food....nothing!! We got taped up,oiled and just kept warm by shadow boxing and stretching in the dressing room and watched the fights from our room on the tv screens.

Before I knew it...I was up next!! Got abit more oiled rubbed on me....got my armbands on,put my new shorts that was designed by my buddy Oak at Kombat Gear I love them and they are just awesome!! Had my Arab headdress placed over my head as Jabba and I said our prayers. After that I was ready waiting for them to announce me and was just shadow boxing and trying to keep myself warm!!...It was blooooody cold in the stadium....!!!!

We were told before in the dressing room by the promoter,Jeremy that we can only do Wai Kru for not longer than 3 mins!!! and I roughly knew that mine takes about 5mins!!! And I was considering to cut out Shooting the arrow...but I remembered last time I didn't do that bit I got KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT in a fight so...NOPE!! Gonna stick to it!! Got in said my prayers hurried through the Wai Kru and Jabba was in my corner to help me remove my Arab Headress. Always nice to have my bro in my corner for this part!!

I didn't really know anything about my fighter...!!?!? So the fight started slow and we both started out just trying to get a feel of each others style. I remembered him coming at me with hard punches. And I thought to myself.."Right gotta keep my guard up!!" close to the end of the first round I caught a pretty good knee from him in the grapple...and as the ref said break I relaxed and he pushed my head down and I kinda got caught with his knee to the side of my face! Unintentinonal so not too bothered about it. And that was it.... End of Round 1!

Went back to my corner, and for the first time ever I had Petch in my corner. And I must say he is a reallly good corner man to have. Matsuer (who fought Yodsaenklai in Singapore) was also in my corner and the two of them were really good. I listened and I followed exactly what they told me to do and it was perfect!!

I found it hard in the first 2 rounds to get my judgement with Roel. He would hit and stay out of distance alot of the time. Made me miss my kicks a fair bit at the start.... but soon I got my rhythm and my distancing right.....and I managed to get a few left kicks to his body and right leg kicks...and in the grapple locked him out and managed to slip in an elbow on him.

Roel landed a couple of good bodyshots and knees again on me in the later rounds and also caught me with an elbow!! Thank god it didn't cut!!! I gotta say he had some pretty strong punches!! But I just stuck to the game plan that Petch and Matsuer had and it worked a treat!!! Experience in the corner make a difference!! Between them they would have had 800 fights maybe!?!?Nothing like having a great corner men on your side!!!

Soon it was end of Round 5!!! And I was declared the winner!! =) I got on the microphone and said a few words in Cantonese and then spoke in Mandarin..haha Being in HongKong the few days before I reaaaaaally had to use my mandarin alot..Ordering food for everyone and asking for directions. hahah The crowd loved the speech and I think alot of people prolly were wondering what the hell is this guy!?..Singapore,comes out in the Arab headress but speaks cantonese mandarin?? Just abit more info on me that many people dont know....I studied Mandarin in school and my mom's dialect is Cantonese! Just incase you're wondering!??!!!

All fight photos here on this site were taken by Thomson Wong,check them all out at his album
http://www.fotop.net/thomsonw/20081106HKContender

After the whole event I stayed on a few extra days to catch up with some good friends who were living in Hong Kong,Derrick and Sarah!!! They housed me for the weekend and they took me out partying and it was AWESOME!! Hong Kong has such a good nightlife!!! We met a brazillian friend of mine who is based in Hong Kong,his name is J.P and he who promotes DJs in the region and he hooked me up with the very talented resident DJ Fabio Moretts from Brazil (Who also happens to train Muay Thai!!) So we chatted and he later offered me to jam with him on Sat night at the famous club VOLAR in Lan Kwai Fong!!!

Fabio and Me played the 3am - 6am slot and we ROCKED the dance floor!!!!!!! We played back 2 back....playing 2 songs each on the decks! It's really hard to play back to back especially if it's the first time playing together!!! But me and Fabio got along well and kept the clubs vibe up all night!! It was so much fun to DJ again!!!! I realllly missed DJing!! So after another late night of partying in the city that never sleeps.....I got home from DJing at 8am packed my bags and was straight out the door to catch my flight back home to Singapore!!

I had an AMAZING time in Hong Kong this time round. I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Jeremy Chan for giving me the oppurtunity to fight in Hong Kong and for taking such good care of us during our stay. To my buddies Derrick and Sarah,thanks for having me over on the weekend,you guys know how to P A R T Y!!! Love you guys!! J.P and Fabio Thank You Sooooooo Much for letting me DJ at Volar on such short notice. It was a FUN night!! And now I can add VOLAR to the list of cool places I've DJed at!!!! Hope to be back there again soon!!!!

The last look at the magnificent view from Derrick & Sarah's apartment in HK before I headed to the airport!!

LaterZ everyone am off to O.P.R.C to see my miracle man Jose to get rid of some pain!!!!