Should I?

Wow, I really haven't been writing in a while. Should I start over?

ONE Fighting Championship - Warrior Spirit

About a week ago I had the chance of shooting for a major MMA event --- the ONE Fighting Championship - Warrior Spirit held at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil. I felt privileged to have been given access to a photography area in the arena quite close to the ring which gave me better photographic opportunities compared to even the VIP seats. Also my cousin Ashraf was kind enough to lend me his D7000 and Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8, a combination of which gave me the ability to shoot zoom in lowlight conditions where flash photography is not allowed. I used quite a high ISO, generally 3200 and above for all these shots, but the Nikon D7000 handled it perfectly well without too much noise.

Behold, some of the shots I managed to take of the bouts.

WELTERWEIGHT CLASS

Steven Durr of the USA grappling Samir Mrabet of Belgium...

... but in the end, Samir Mrabet managed to convince all the judges that the match was in his favor.

FLYWEIGHT CLASS

Malaysia's Saiful Merican (black shorts) tries to take down Tok Sophon of Cambodia.

Saiful dominates most of the match with Tok Sophon.

With a bleeding cut above his left eye, Tok Sophon lost the match to Saiful Merican by judges' unanimous decision.

Malaysians: Gianni Suba vs Chen Yun Ting

Gianni Suba won the match by TKO.

FEATHERWEIGHT CLASS

A.J. Lias Mansor vs Melvin Yeoh, both from Malaysia.

Lias won the match by judges' unanimous decision.

MAD RESPECT FOR THIS MAN --- he announces that he will donate all his winning prize money towards helping the victims of the recent typhoon disaster in the Philippines. Article here.

 LIGHTWEIGHT CLASS

Malaysia's Peter Davis vs. Egypt's Alaa Mazloum

Peter Davis managed to win the match through submission by rear naked choke

HEAVYWEIGHT CLASS

Americans Chris Lokteff and Tony Johnson's fight got bloody really quickly

In the end, Lokteff scraped the win by judges' split decision

MIDDLEWEIGHT CLASS

Brayan Rafiq (France) sizes up Leandro Ataides (Brazil) at the beginning of their match

Rafiq manages to deflect a kick from Ataides

The match ended with a win to Leandro Ataides when he managed to punch Brayan Rafiq to KO.

CATCHWEIGHT CLASS

A lot of punches and takedowns during the match between Yusup Saadulaev (USA) and Adriano Moraes (Brazil)

It was quite a gripping match between the two MMA fighters

The match was too close to call, but in the end the judges gave the match to Saadulaev by split decision

I also managed to spot some familiar faces in the arena and after the event.

Jason Lo, CEO of TuneTalk

Moots! of the Malaysian band Pop Shuvit

Moots! was cool enough when I asked to take a picture with him!

For more photos from the event, you can visit my FB page at Ihsankhairir Photography. Please support me by Liking the page as well!

Cheers!

-ihsankhairir-

I Am Officially an Uncle

My dear sister Kim gave birth to her first baby two weeks ago, which upgraded everybody's statuses to uncles, aunts, parents and grandparents.

Introducing the latest member of our family, Muhammad Hakeem bin Mohd Ariff.

Yeah somehow, when I was home for the weekend, he seemed to have no trouble sleeping through all the commotion and noise of the hundreds of guest who came to visit us. For most of my waking hours at least, he was always comfortably snoozing away.

This baby is born to a pair of doctors, so I hope his parents' smarts are passed down onto him!

P/S: I have lost the ability to write properly. Not blogging has killed my penmanship and my literary prowess (I don't even know if I am using the correct words).