Saturday night saw local gym Macao Boxing House hold a charity boxing event in Fat Lei Industrial Building in Areia Preta with all money raised going to Fuhong Society of Macau in celebration of its 17th anniversary.
Titled in Chinese “Once You’re High You Will Explode 2”, it was a night of fast and furious boxing and kickboxing bouts in front of a raucous, noisy full house.
The pugilists were from Macao Boxing House, local gyms Warrior Fitness and Life Project as well as gyms in Zhuhai, taking part in five boxing and four kickboxing bouts.
Ladies start off the night
The first fight saw two female Public Security Police (PSP) officers slugging it out over three rounds. Cheong Lai Kuan spoke to The Macau Post Daily during training last week, revealing she hadn’t fought for 13 years after being nagged by her mother to give it up, and was too modest to say that she had actually fought for Macao in her previous fights. She faced off against Cheong Iok Heng, who had been trained by Ng Kuok Kun – aka The Macao Kid, aka KK, who has not lost any of his 13 professional fights – in her first fight. She’s 10 years younger than Cheong.
It was very close but experience won out with Cheong coming out on top, winning the three rounds 29-28, 29-28, 29-28.
After the fight, The Macau Post Daily spoke to Cheong who said, “I was nervous – even though it was not my first fight – before the fight but once the bell rang, I was very excited, the atmosphere was exciting and I became very focused. It is the first time that I have felt like that. It gave me a real lift.
“It was really good to release all the stress I was feeling in the ring and it was great that I beat my colleague,” Cheong said.
The next two fights were Thai kickboxing rounds, the first of which ended in a draw after the scheduled two rounds so it had go to a third much to the delight of the crowd.
Next up was a male boxing bout with Macao Boxing House’s Ho Chon Pong losing to Warrior Fitness’ Mel Eddiva.
Showboating & a belt
The next two bouts were Thai kickboxing with two pugilists representing Zhuhai gyms. Luo Leng Zhong and Dhamala were up first. Luo was showboating in the first round, telling Dhamala to come and get him and hit him. The crowd started baying at the poor sportsmanship, which stopped and then the fight was fast and furious with Dhamala getting knocked down in the first round and looked like he was not able to continue but the referee counted him down and restarted the bout. At the end of the first round, Dhamala looked completely dazed and despite starting the second round, the referee stopped the fight when he was knocked down again.
The second fight was between Io Ka Hou representing a Zhuhai gym and Ng Man Long representing local Life Project gym. This fight was over five rounds for a belt. The crowd was in full flow and crowding round the ring yelling for their respective pugilists. It was a skilful fight by both pugilists that was eventually won by Io.
Student wins with TKO
Physical Education master’s student at Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) Tang Choi Ieng was representing Macao Boxing House in her second fight against Warrior Fitness’ Kaci Wilson in her first fight. Tang came out on the attack from the bell and had the crowd yelling as she punched and chased Wilson around the ring. The fight was stopped in the second round with a TKO for Tang.
After the fight Tang told The Macau Post Daily, “I am very happy, I just wanted to win this fight and actually found it easier than my first fight [in June].”
“I was excited and a little nervous at first, but when I got in the ring I just had it in my mind I want to win”, Tang said.
When asked what she planned to do next, Tang went on to say, “I hope I can find more opponents and I want to practise my skills more. I would like to fight in another city or country, maybe even go professional eventually.
“I have another fight in four months, so I am going to take a week off and then go to Guangzhou for a few days at a training camp.”
Black Panther overpowers Mio
The last fight of the evening was Macao’s João Ramos aka Black Panther, representing himself against Mio Iat San from a Zhuhai gym in a Thai kickboxing fight for a belt.
It was a fast and furious fight with both pugilists having a huge support yelling, screaming and baying for blood, which they did as Mio was bleeding profusely at the end of the fight which Black Panther won, to the delight of his huge swathe of support.
‘Very happy’
At the end of the evening, The Macau Post Daily spoke to a grinning organiser, owner of and trainer at Macao Boxing House, Cheong Wai, “I am very happy, it has been such a successful night and I can’t thank everyone enough for the huge amount of support.
“I want to provide different fighters in Macao with this stage and put it on the Internet and Facebook so that everyone knows about it”, he added.
He went on to say, “We want to put on events regularly here to give more opportunities to more fighters to show their skills.”
When asked how he felt about Tang’s win, Cheong said, “I want her next fight to be a professional fight.”
The money raised was handed over the Fuhong Society immediately and the amount was not known at the time of going to press late last night.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macao News)
Photo by Lesley Wells
