Last month’s highly anticipated MMA tournament Ultimate Beatdown 14 attracted an outstanding selection of participants who put on highly entertaining performances for the blood hungry crowd. Into its fourth year the Malaysian tournament has evolved to the stadium environment giving athletes the perfect opportunity to perform their martial combat in an exhilarating environment.
In general, a dedicated fighter might take around two months to put him or herself through their own fight camp, training under their own gym coach and sometimes visiting other gyms to gain more experience in difference disciplines, particularly when training for a mixed martial art event which covers everything from stand up to ground work. Fighters taking part in Ultimate Beatdown prepare themselves by testing all aspects of skill, endurance, power, stamina, strength and mental power.
But what happens when a journalist with no martial art background or fighting experience steps inside the cage?
Twenty-seven year old Muhammad Hazwady is one of the contenders who truly felt the commitment and effort that it takes to prepare oneself for such a tournament.
Hazwady is first and foremost a MMA journalist for the thefightscene.com.sg who trained for just one month to compete in the amateur section. The courageous journalist recently put together a series of videos showcasing himself visiting gyms in Malaysia and Singapore and decided to finish the series with his own fighting challenge to show what he had learned.
“My main objective of doing the series and ultimately the fight is to encourage more people to come and train. To prove that any regular guy or girl regardless of their weight or size can come to train MMA.”
Muhammad certainly has the advantage of knowledge in the game. As a keen fan of martial arts he has followed MMA since the tender age of twelve and has interviewed fighters from almost every major organization including the UFC (Tarec Saffiedine, Tatsuya Kawajiri), Bellator (Anthony Leone) and One Fighting Championship.
To physically prepare for the fight he drilled basic MMA and wrestling techniques in Team SC Martial Arts and trained with Rebel FC fighter Mohamed Ashraf to perfect his stand up. His persistence and dedication surely paid off when he claimed the ultimate win over his opponent Alex ‘The Blur’ from Reps Fitness.
“It was intensive from the day I stepped foot in the gym. For five days every week for a whole month I trained like a fighter. Head coach Shawn Cheah who is probably the best strength and conditioning coach in Singapore, put me through some extremely hard core training. I also had the experience of one-on-one training with Singapore’s top wrestler Lou Hong Yeow.”
Hazwady who is a keen ambassador for MMA and is helping to build and promote the sport in the region, notes that it wasn’t an easy task to step into the cage.
“Training recreationally is a fun and humbling experience but training for a fight takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I don’t know if I would want to go through all of that again but I would never say never. Every fighter that steps foot in that cage is an inspiration to me.”
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Photos: David Ash and Low Sze Sen
