There’s an exciting martial arts movie or reality show just waiting to be made in Singapore.

Its working title would be MMA (for Mixed Martial Arts). The main story line is the mushrooming of fight clubs here, with white collar professionals - local and expatriate - signing up. The trainers are a growing community of Thai and Brazilian expats, with some local Singaporeans among them.

It opens in a glamorous setting - integrated resort Resorts World Sentosa  - and the story is replete with action, the drama of competition, colourful characters and, to top it all, romance.
MMA is mixed martial arts - a combination of Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Capoeira (a form of Brazilian defence disguised as acrobatic dance moves), boxing and wrestling.

Most practitioners of MMA are 20- and 30-something males, but local trainer Darren De Silva says there are also a few secondary school students and a handful of women among the 200 to 250 members of his gym, Fight G, which he started 10 years ago.

Of MMA’s appeal, Darren says: “Like what (martial arts legend) Bruce Lee said, it’s about finding what’s useful and ditching the rest.” Or, put it another way, MMA is like making the perfect dish for oneself, with each individual adopting techniques from a martial art that will work best for him when facing an opponent — whether it is a crushing Muay Thai roundhouse kick or shoulder-popping BJJ armbar submission lock.

Back in 2000, there were only a couple of other MMA gyms in Singapore. These days, there are at least 20 gyms specialising in Muay Thai alone, and at least five offering MMA.

A reason to fight

There has been a rise in the number of foreign martial arts exponents too. Since its inception two years ago, Evolve MMA, with its two huge gyms, has brought in 12 Brazilian BJJ title holders and eight Thai kickboxing champions to meet the growing demand for this emerging lifestyle mix of physical training and competition.

Singaporean Loh Kain Kai, 34, an instructor at Impact MMA, says: “You have people from all walks of life signing up - from tattoo artists to lawyers and teenagers. More are using it as an alternative outlet to exercise, or to de-stress. Together with exercise drills which cover cardiovascular and muscle development, learning and perfecting new fighting techniques makes it less boring.”

Or, as Singapore Navy technician Joshua Hong, 23, puts it: “Hitting the gym can be repetitive and boring. With MMA, I’m always learning something new and getting fit at the same time.”

Part of the attraction is that MMA is a “personal challenge”, says Joshua, who trains at Fight G at North Canal Road. “Team sports like football don’t interest me ... I prefer facing off against an opponent in the ring. Win or lose, you only have yourself to answer for it. That’s why I can’t get enough of training – it’s really what I look forward to after a long day at work, because I can relieve stress, work out, and meet my friends.”

Taking the battle further

But back to MMA’s colourful characters. Among them is Evolve MMA’s founder Chatri Sityodtong, 39, a Harvard-trained Singapore-based Thai businessman. “Singapore is a great place to do business,” he says, of his decision to invest $4 million in his two gyms here.

"The government is supportive of foreign investors,” he adds. “I felt the Singapore martial arts scene was still underdeveloped when compared to its neighbours, but [I also] saw its potential to become a major MMA hub.”

Chatri wants to help fellow-Thai kickboxers by taking them out of Thailand to a better life — he plans on launching another 50 MMA gyms around Asia in the coming years to add to the two in Singapore, and one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

While it would not be difficult for Thais to settle here, it seems crazy for Brazilians to travel halfway around the world to a country some had never heard of. But it took little convincing for five-time Brazil National Champion and Evolve head coach Rafael “Gordinho” Correa de Lima to move here.

"Chatri initially approached me to get recommendations for BJJ instructors,” says Rafael, who trained Chatri in MMA in New York. “[But] I decided I wanted to be a part of Evolve as well, and be one of the first here to grow a bigger BJJ community.”

Brazilian Leandro Thomas Issa da Silva, a Mundials World Champion – the world’s most prestigious BJJ tournament – is another Evolve instructor. The 27-year-old has won numerous regional and national titles in Brazil during his 13 years in the sport. Explaining his move to Singapore, he says: “There are scores of BJJ exponents in Brazil, so making it a sustainable career there is hard.”

Fight club, Singapore style

Evolve has also seen a rise in the number of Brazilian – as well as other South American – expatriates training there. “We’re becoming more like a Brazilian community centre,” laughs Rafael. “It’s a way for them to reconnect with the homeland. We even serve açaí berry drink (a popular fruit beverage in Brazil) at our juice bar!”

The growing Brazilian martial arts community also includes Capoeira exponents. In 2002, Brazilian Jose M.C. da Costa (better know as Master Ousado) founded the Association of Capoeira Argola De Ouro (Singapore) – the first official Capoeira association in Asia.

Backed by the Fundacao International de Capoeira de Angola (Portuguese for International Capoeira Angola Foundation), his mission to bring Capoeira to Singapore was simply because “there was no Capoeira presence here at the time”.

Now a Permanent Resident, Master Ousado looks set on promoting Capoeira here for the long run – especially after his Indonesian wife gave birth to their first child (a girl) here in January 2010.

“Although I sometimes miss the winters in Maranhão [his hometown], I’m happy to have brought Capoeira’s beauty and history to Singapore,” he says. “Just as important, I’m proud to now call Singapore home for me and my family.”

Ousado isn’t the only MMA exponent starting a family here (enter the romance part): MMA not only helped German part-time mechanical engineer Denis Alexander Holder, 28, integrate into Singapore society, it found him a wife too.

“Though I met other Germans at Fight G [where he trains three times a week], I find myself friends with more of the locals.” He met his Singaporean wife at a local friend’s birthday party, married her in March 2010 and is now a new dad.

Where MMA goes, glamour isn’t far away. In May 2010 Singapore’s first integrated resort, Resorts World Sentosa, hosted Martial Combat. Over six months, Asia’s biggest MMA tournament held battles one weekend a month, replete with Las Vegas-style glamour.

Ring girls paraded the ballroom as male and female MMA champions from Brazil to Japan competed in a 9.8m cylindrical cage for the championship belt in front of cheering spectators.

The second season is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2011, and will see the debut of Hadi Omar, a 25-year-old and the first Singaporean to turn professional in MMA.

So, with such a storyline of hopes and dreams set against a backdrop of martial arts, it shouldn’t be long before a local latter-day Bruce Lee — or Jet Li, or Manny Pacquiao or Michelle Yeoh — rises to stardom.

* This article was written by Gene Hor and first published in Singapore Magazine (Jan-Mar 2011 issue).