Strike Redemption matches

Strike Promotions founder, Firdaus Zainidi (centre) with event partners and charitable foundation representatives during the press conference last weekend

STRIKE Promotions will be hosting its second regional Amateur Boxing and Kickboxing Tournament titled ‘STRIKE: Redemption’ which will take place from 9-10 March at The Jerudong Park Amphitheatre. This event is being supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and sports and sanctioned by the International Sports Kickboxing Association and the Brunei Darussalam Boxing Association.

There are a total of 63 confirmed participants from 18 local and regional gyms who will be competing in the amateur tournaments. Regional gyms participating in this event include Kinabalu Fighter Martial Art and Fitness Centre, CoachPro from Philippines, Team Karabaw and Sabah Top team.

The event will kick-off with an Amateur Kickboxing Tournament on Saturday 9th March followed by the Main event which will take place on Saturday evening. On Sunday, the Brunei Darussalam Boxing Association will be hosting its Amateur Boxing Tournament. The Main event will feature a total of 8 pro-fights and will feature local fighters Aaron Lee of Project Mayhem, Wali Rahman of Silverback Muay Thai and Saufy Jaman of Nak Muay Fight Gym. Out of the eight bouts, 4 will be title fights and they will be for the Borneo ISKA 57KG K-1 title, STRIKE 73KG K-1 title, STRIKE 56KG K-1 title and the STRIKE 60KG K-1 title.

Firdaus ensuring that there is ample security personnel during the event. There will also be police officers overlooking the upcoming event.

Representatives from Setia Motors (Hyundai) handing over Strike tickets to one of the charitable foundations

This event will be unlike any other as the main event will showcase special needs athlete Sunny ‘The Silencer’ Sabornido who is the first and only hearing impaired Muay Thai fighter from Malaysia. The objective of this event is to raise public awareness to ensure inclusiveness and equality of persons with disabilities as well as to inspire them to pursue martial arts. To support this cause, the promotion has partnered with Setia Motors Sdn. Bhd., BruPay Sdn. Bhd. and Jerudong Park Country Club (JPCC) to invite various special needs organizations which include Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam, Persatuan KACA and Persatuan Orang Kurang Pendengaran Kebangsaan (OKP) to attend the event.

In addition, STRIKE and BruPay Sdn. Bhd, the payment provider partner for the event, will be running a donation campaign in support of Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam from 2nd March through 31st March. Members of the public can submit their donations through the BruPay app by scanning a shareable QR code, which can be found on BruPay’s and Strike’s social media pages.

Setia Motors Sdn Bhd, the official car partner for STRIKE: Redemption will also be having a special promotion from now through 30th April for anyone who purchases any Hyundai model where they can stand a chance to win a brand new Hyundai i30.

Tickets to the event are available to purchase online now at Brunei.events. You can follow them on @strike.bn IG and also on Facebook (Strikebrunei) and also on email info@strike-promotions.com

The Strike Promotions’ first ever hybrid K1 and Boxing event was a huge success on the first day until the incident happened in the evening on 10th November 2018 at The Airport Mall

STATEMENT FROM STRIKE PROMOTIONS. As we and most people have probably seen videos that were showing an altercation during Strike Battle of Pride Event. An individual came into the airport mall and instigated and assaulted someone while the competition was still ongoing. A struggle ensued and the participants and gym owners intervened by trying to separate them, Nurhidayat and some of the Khalifa MMA members who appeared in one of the viralized video acted bravely to attempted to hold back the individual. The altercation ended swiftly and the event proceeded smoothly with the participants and crowd enjoying the rest of the evening with fun filled action pack bouts.

Unfortunately due to this incident we have been told to cancel Sunday day 2 events and the finals bouts. It is with great regret and disapointment that the hard work and efforts of all the participants who have been training for months and months, organising committee and crew members who have been planning and working towards this from early this year and the foreign participants who came all the way to Brunei to participate cannot do so. The altercation was very minor and ended swiftly but it was enough to go viral and it was blown out of proportion to the point we are not allowed to continue the event.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank every participating teams and players who took part in the tournament and the organizer have decided to refund all the main event ticket sold, please contact info@strike-promotions.com to claim your refund.

We are deeply affected by the outcome from last night’s incident as it has tarnished the beautiful effort and hard work of everyone from the management to the fans who came in droves yesterday to support the event. Again we sincerely apologised to everyone who got involved and who are affected by this.

Insha Allah our next step is to work with the relevant authority on providing the best safety and security measures for our future tournament and we will take last night’s incident as a learning lesson to grow this beautiful sport called combat Sports in this country.

On the positive side, the local athletes was able to compete in the pre-liminaries and gained some valuable experience. The event was a platform to identify athletes for future SEA Games and future events to help bring back pride from international games.

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Latest info: The organizer Strike Promotions have lodged a police report and include the footage of the incident that have gone viral. The Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) confirmed the report and it has already taken statements from spectators (witnesses) and the victim of the altercation.

Strike Promotions also have taken legal action and cooperating with the RBPF for future investigation. It has confirmed that the RBPF have arrested the individual, named Herdy Wandy bin Yussof, who was involved in the altercation last Saturday.

The police warned that it is an offence under Section 159 (Affray) of the Penal Code Chapter 22 to cause public disturbance through unwarranted brawls.  If guilty, offender is liable to an imprisonment term of up to three years and a fine.

Ahmad Faez (Ezy) of Khalifa MMA was dominating in his division and crowned champion in the light weight division of The Palawan Amateur Boxing Competition 2017

Wan Farhan Hj Ibrahim also won his division last weekend

This was the first time I saw a real boxing competition in Brunei. Well, I did see one long time ago when I was still a little kid. Thanks to @pahlawanboxingbrunei for making this event a reality and there were surprisingly many entries (more than 50 boxers).

The event was dubbed The Palawan Amateur Boxing Competition 2017 and it was organised by Palawan Boxing Club. The boxers came from different local clubs in the Sultanate, namely Khalifa Mixed Martial Arts, Chainblock Gym, ATIM boxing, Wolfpack, Pahlawan Boxing Club, Abdul Rahman Boxing and 018 MMA to name a few.

I managed to catch Ahmad Faez (Ezy) of Khalifa MMA in action and wow, he was really solid as a boxer. All his matches and even the finals forced his opponents to retirement. He was solid from start to finish and dominated in the light heavyweight division. The best performer of the tournament by far.

Another friend of mine Wan Farhan Hj Ibrahim won his respective final in the middle weight class. Well done, mate 🙂

For the rest of the news and results, you can check out Brusports stories.

Well done to the organizer on making this event possible. I hope to see more of boxing competition in Brunei. More room for growth indeed.

Quite a crowd that showed up at Sungkai Kebun Sports Complex

By the ropes

The participants and volunteers during the tournament

Ready for a fight