Klinch aims to produce home-grown MMA fighters

For Malaysia, 2013 is considered a big year for MMA with the emergence of gyms, top fighters as well as the country’s very own professionally-managed MMA championship, and not forgetting the huge turn-out at the ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) tournaments.

Joining the heat is Klinch MMA, an MMA gym which was recently opened that aims to groom an average joe into well-trained fighters.

What’s interesting is that one can even train to have the physical fitness and appearance of a fighter but not necessarily fight, as the gym is all about fitness.

“Here at Klinch MMA we promote fight fitness. We try to promote members to look like a fighter... they don’t have to fight, it’s all about fitness,” said Klinch MMA founder, Chris Leow to Astro AWANI.

Located in Sooka Sentral, he said the main idea of opening the gym was to provide fighters a complete training ground that includes fight training, weight training, nutrition monitoring, strength conditioning and physiotherapy.

Chris said there’s even a development programme to turn people from an amateur fighter into a professional fighter.

“The response is good, because we provide lots of premium services and facilities and our gym is basically a full sized gym with proper toilets, towel services, saunas, treadmills, weight equipments, lots of punching bags and a 3000 square feet of mat that can hold a class of at least 50 people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Klinch’s head of marketing, Adrian Chow said the gym targets is to change the face of MMA in Malaysia.

Admitting the fact that the sport in the country has been previously ‘dominated’ by foreign talents, he now sees more and more local fighters emerging as top contenders.

For that, Klinch has recruited Malaysian-bred fighters like Malaysian Invasion Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Championship (MIMMA FC) bantamweight champion, Prabu Somainadu as one of the instructors in the gym.

Chow also said that he wish to see more Malaysians from all walks of life participate in the sport to encourage them in practicing a healthy fitness-oriented lifestyle.

Klinch provides a safe training environment to its members and fighters, with a total fitness plan that suits the young and old.

The gym has a stable of top-class trainers both local and international professionals, specialising in boxing, MMA, kick boxing, muay thai, grappling and Olympic style wrestling.