ESPNSTAR.com profiles Singapore's first MMA fighter Radeem Bin Abdul Rahman as he bids to become champion of the world.
By Marcus Chhan
Mike Tyson once said: "Everyone has a plan - until they get punched in the face."
For
25-year-old Mixed Martial Artist Radeem Bin Abdul Rahman that
proverbial punch to the face has yet to materialise. It is early days,
of course, in the career of Singapore's first MMA fighter, but Rahman's
plan to become the country's first world champion in the sport is
progressing quite smoothly.
Rahman made his professional MMA
debut at One FC's Champion vs Champion event in September 2011 -
stunning everyone except himself and his team-mates at Evolve MMA with a
three minute destruction of Indian Susovan Ghosh in Singapore.
"Basically I just focused on the game plan," Rahman told
ESPNSTAR.com.
"I stuck to the game plan. I just went in and did what I had to do. The moment I knew I won I was like ‘It's unbelievable'.
"And then everyone was cheering for me. I was like: ‘Wow, I will never forget this moment.'".
The
moment Rahman was talking about came when 7,000 fans inside the
Singapore Indoor Stadium reacted with delirious joy to his TKO win over
Ghosh in the first round. According to the Singapore fighter, the fans
played a part in his victory. Their role began as soon as Rahman stepped
into the cage and felt the full force of the boisterous support
surrounding him - even before he had aimed a kick at Ghosh.
"I felt excited. I felt pumped up," he said.
"When
there's a crowd behind me and cheering for me and motivating me, I
don't want to be a disappointment. I want to show them what I can do."
With
great support come great expectations, but Rahman insists he does not
feel the pressure of being the poster boy for MMA in Singapore - a
rapidly growing sport in the country.
"Nah, I don't feel under
any pressure at all because for me I am usually focused more on the
Martial Arts [perspective]. So I don't really care that ‘Oh man they put
high hopes on me.' I look at myself in terms of self-improvement," he
said.
"Every day I want to improve bit by bit. In Mixed Martial
Arts you have to constantly evolve. You can't just be the same person
all the way. And that's why if you want to be a champion you have to do
this."
And Rahman has been doing it.
He's dreamed of being
a professional since he was 11-years old and set off on the long road
to perfecting his fighting technique.
When he was in primary
school, his parents fed his love for Martial Arts by taking him to watch
local Taekwondo competitions. When that wasn't enough to satisfy his
appetite, Rahman had to supplement it by watching DVDs of fights. From
this early age, he took to the art of Muay Thai and submerged himself in
books and YouTube videos to learn this violent yet graceful craft.
Three
years ago he finally found an academy where he could take his basic
Muay Thai skills to the next level - Evolve MMA. It was the chance of a
lifetime for Rahman, an opportunity to train with Muay Thai world
champions. He took it with both fists and has even gone on to test
himself against Thai fighters in their own backyard. Quite a gung-ho
thing to do, but it's all part of the philosophy Rahman has adopted on
self-improvement and rounding the edges of his game.
"Fighting
Thai guys was, of course, tough because they grew up in a country that
is really established [in Martial Arts] with Muay Thai. And I have just
started learning, but because I trained here [at Evolve] with world
champions, my defence, my strategy, and my attack was put to good use,"
Rahman said.
However, a true MMA fighter knows how to fight
standing up as well as on the ground and even mix things up a bit with
some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, if need be. For some, this sort of all-around
dedication might be a turn-off, but for Rahman this is the reason why
becoming a professional MMA fighter appealed to him much more than
simply becoming an expert at Muay Thai.
"Basically
when you talk about Mixed Martial Arts, it's about the combination of
all Martial Arts. Usually, the Martial Arts which are commonly used are
Muay Thai, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and even Wrestling," Rahman
said.
He added: "I feel that MMA is exciting. What matters to me
is unpredictability. So you never know [what will happen next] even
though your opponent is a grappler or he is standing up, you never know
if he knows additional background in other martial arts. And that is
what makes it exciting."
Rahman's Muay Thai background was on
full display during his debut victory over Ghosh in September 2011. His
powerful strikes set him up for the TKO win and earned him an early
reputation for being aggressive.
"I prefer it that way," he said.
"In the cage I like to be aggressive. I don't know why but it is exciting to be aggressive."
Don't
be mistaken though. Rahman is not some brawler from the streets of
Singapore who happened to find his way into the Evolve gym and Mixed
Martial Arts. He understands perfectly that Martial Arts is about
developing the Body, Mind and Spirit.
Body is developed through
the physical exercises involved in martial arts training - by all
accounts Rahman already was a very fit individual. The type of person
who "would go for a 12KM run if there was nothing to do at home".
Training
the Mind and Spirit is a slightly more highbrow affair. Meditation may
be involved but the idea is to coordinate thinking with movement - this
aids the MMA fighter with his footwork and teaches him how to relax and
focus on the task at hand.
Even if the goal is to beat your
opponent until he surrenders - Rahman says you do not have to be an
angry person to be a professional in MMA.
"I disagree with that," he said.
"Usually
when I am in the cage, I don't feel pressure, I tell myself ‘okay now I
have an opponent this is the challenge for me'. It's like taking an
exam. You train so hard and now it is time to put the real work in.
"I tell myself to relax and also that the biggest opponent is myself. I want to see how much I have improved."
The
pursuit of personal improvement is a massive part of what makes Rahman
tick. He trains six days a week for up five or six hours. He has a
notebook where he jots down new moves so he does not forget any of the
minor details told to him by his trainers.
"I have a dream to be a
world champion just like my instructors [at Evolve]. Every day I see
them training even though they are world champions, it is amazing to
watch," he said.
"When I go against them [in practice], of course
I lose out to them. The positive thing is that let's say I get taken
down 10 times, I want to try and minimise this to five or six the next
day."
Pushing yourself to the limit in training does have its own
perils - something which Rahman experienced late last month. He
dislocated a finger two weeks before his scheduled fight at One FC's
Rise of Kings, October 6th event. This disappointingly ruled him out of a
second appearance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium but it should be seen
as just a minor bump in the road of a burgeoning career.
In Mike Tyson's terms it was more of a slight poke in the eye rather than a full-blooded punch to the face.
