K-1 and Kickboxing in the Maltese Islands

The 1980’s and 1990’s saw the sport of martial arts develop and evolve. The Maltese, Martial Arts scene also evolved keeping pace with other much larger countries.

Ying Yang Kickboxing Club is located on the small island of Malta in Europe and was founded by Master Noel Mercieca on the 17th November 1996. 

Ying Yang was the first Maltese club to join the WKN family. This was a decision that was to reap benefits for this club in the years to come.

By Alex Zammit

Combat sports have always been popular in the Maltese Islands. In the prewar and post war era of the Second World War, boxing was perhaps the most popular, introduced by the British Army in the late 1800’s. In the 1960’s other forms of combat sports started to appear on the local scene such as Judo, Olympic Wrestling and Karate. Most of these sports were practiced in “Culture Clubs” or in Garages on straw mats.

The 1970’s – The big screen introduced the legendary Bruce Lee, staring in, The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon amongst others. Martial Arts fever griped the world and Malta was no exception. Martial Arts Clubs started to spring up everywhere. Associations for the various fight styles started to be formed and many Maltese started to receive instructions in various combat forms in other countries.  

The 1980’s and 1990’s saw the sport of martial arts develop and evolve. The Maltese, Martial Arts scene also evolved keeping pace with other much larger countries.

The nineties and noughties brought with it new innovations to the world of Martial Arts and amongst those who took the plunge in introducing these styles to the Maltese Islands was, Master Noel Mercieca a 4th Dan Black Belt who in 1996 established the ‘Ying Yang Kicking Boxing Club’. This club soon established it self as a leader on the local scene and started to amass a number of titles both locally and abroad.

In 2007 – the ‘World Kickboxing Network’ (WKN) one of the largest Martial Arts sanctioning bodies in the world was introduced to the Maltese Islands, through Master Adrian Axsisa, a Spirit Combat expert.

Noel was the first in Malta to join the WKN family. This was a decision that was to reap benefits for his club in the years to come.

Malta’s baptism of fire under the WKN banner came in 2007 in Torino, Italy, when Ruben Azzopardi became the first Maltese to fight in a K – 1 competition (Oriental rules). While Ruben was well prepared physically he obviously lacked the experience necessary to win his first fight under the K-1 rules. However to his merit Ruben only lost on points.

In October of 2007 – Ying Yang’s – Daniel “The Jet” Zahra  became the first Maltese to win a major title when he became WKN EUROPEAN CHAMPION – Kickboxing Rules, Amateur Light Middleweight after beating Adrien Lafaurie (France) in Malta.

Noel Mercieca also set out to further enrich his coaching abilities and since 2007 has attended several advanced technical courses and training seminars for K-1 in Italy, Cyprus, France, United Kingdom and Corsica.

Malta second experience in K-1 was also in Torino, Italy. Malta’s Charles Buhagar, was defeated on points. However the technical improvements were obvious and encouraging.

The Ying Yang, Kick boxers and K-1 fighters, were to suffer a number of defeats before tasting success. In February of 2009 - Ruth Tanti lost on points in France, In 2009 Ruben Azzopardi - became the first Maltese to participate in a pro tournament in Cyprus – he lost to Christo Nikolao on points.  

It was in the last quarter of 2009, that the hard work put in by the Ying Yang fighters, training under Noel Mercieca, started to bear fruit – during this period the Maltese club took no less than four major WKN kickboxing titles and one major title under the K-1 rules.  

Daniel “The Jet” Zahra – proved himself to be flagship product of the Ying Yang Gym.

(Daniel “The Jet” Zahra) WKN WORLD CHAMPION – Kickboxing Rules, Amateur Middleweight, beating Furleton (Northern Ireland) in Malta, September 2009

(Daniel “The Jet” Zahra) WKN EUROPEAN  CHAMPION –  K1 Rules, Semi-Pro Middleweight, beating Mohamed Jama (Holland) in Malta, February 2009

(Daniel “The Jet” Zahra) Defending Title - Semi-Pro Middleweight, beating Mark Bird (Northern Ireland) in Belfast, April 2010

Other members of the Ying Yang club also enjoyed a good measure of success:

Ruth Tanti - WKN WORLD CHAMPION – Kickboxing Rules, Amateur Featherweight, Nuura Mohamed Sayed Ahmed (Egypt) in Malta, September 2009

Stefan Cassar - WKN WORLD CHAMPION – Kickboxing Rules, Amateur Super Middleweight, beating Kiriakos Konikkos (Cyprus) in Malta, September 2009

Kursten Borg - WKN WORLD CHAMPION – Kickboxing Rules, Junior Amateur Light Heavyweight, beating Ali Hanedar (Belguim) in Malta, September 2009

Terence Cilia - WKN EUROPEAN CHAMPION – K1 Rules, Amateur Middleweight, beating Stuart Jess (Northern Ireland) in Malta, May 2010

Presently the Ying Yang club is home to no less than four national champions in Kickboxing: Ruth Tanti – Lightweight, Kyle Stone – Middleweight, Nicholas Ellul – Cruiserweight and Lucienne Rosso – Superheavyweight

While there are other competent and good clubs in the Maltese Islands, Ying Yang has taken this sport to the next level. The success of this club when considering the size of Malta is astounding.

This year (2011) Daniel Zahra, the WKN World and European Amateur Champion was nominated for the Maltese, ‘Sportsman of the Year Award’ although he was not shortlisted for the final awards, it served as a clear indication of the publics appreciation for the efforts and achievements of this young man and his club.

Club President: Isaac Checuti and club founder Master Noel Mercieca, attribute their success to the daily dedication of their members and the support of a sterling team who work behind the scenes ensuring that Ying Yang retains its position as one of the leading Martial Arts Clubs in Malta.

The World Kickboxing Network (WKN) is a professional kick boxing and thai boxing organization and is one of the largest professional sanctioning organizations in the world, represented in more than 100 countries. WKN was created in late 1994 as a subsidiary of International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) to capture new markets, as ISKA's operations were concentrated in the North American market. But the predominantly American administration of ISKA considered WKN as a threat to its authority and the two organizations fully split in late 1998 and ever since WKN runs as a fully independent fight sport organization.

History of K-1 - K-1's predecessor Seidokaikan Karate was formed in 1980 by Kazuyoshi Ishii, a former Kyokushin karate practitioner who had formed his own organization to help promote the best stand-up martial artists. Seidokaikan arranged several successful challenge events against other martial arts organizations, originally using rules based on the Kyokushin Knockdown karate rules, but gradually adapting and changing closer to kickboxing rules. In 1993, Mr. Ishii founded the K-1 organization exclusively as a kickboxing organization, closely cooperating with, but independent from Seidokaikan.