KUCHING: Sarawak can easily become a boxing powerhouse because it has many youngsters who have the body build suitable for the sport.
The type, size and composition of bumiputra youngsters are very appropriate for the lighter weight categories.
Former national champion and prolific boxing coach Major Sapok Biki stated this in an interview recently.
“The genetic make-up of most bumiputra men are such that they are able to maintain consistently an ideal body weight and this is an important element in competitive boxing as boxers bulk up before fights and have to lose the extra weight before weigh-ins,” he said.
The lighter categories in boxing include the light flyweight (48 kgs), flyweight (49 kgs), super flyweight (51 kgs), bantamweight
(52kgs), super bantamweight (53.5 kgs) and featherweight (55 kgs).
Boxers who can switch from one category to another and sustain a particular weight consistently throughout a competition will be successful in their boxing career, Sapok said.
Manny Paqiuiao (Philippines), Chris John (Indonesia), Pongsaklek Wonjongkam and Poonsawat Kratingaenggym (Thailand) and Nonito Donaire (Philippines) are the top indigenous South-East Asian boxing personalities in the world, according to Sapok.
“I have personally spent six months in Cuba prior to the 1996 Olympics under the famous coach Pachico who produced champions like Olympic Gold medalists in the flyweight category Rogelio Marcello and Joel Casumayor in the bantamweight category,” he said.
“I was also only the 4th Malaysian to ever live in Cuba and it was there that I convinced myself that we (Southeast Asians) have pretty much the same body type like the Cubans and if they can do it (exell in boxing) why cant we?” he quipped.
“I have learnt most of the technical aspects of boxing in terms of inside the ring strategies and endurance from the Cubans and I have always shared my knowledge with my trainees.”
“In terms of training styles I have learnt from Malaysians, Americans, Russians, Thais, British, Filipino and Cuban coaches and all of them have different approaches so I have compiled all these and produced my own training manual where I have emphasised on safety,” said Sapok.
“In my training programmes I teach the boxers how to take care of their bodies and I draw up training modules for individuals based on their physiology,” he said.
“I have designed programmes for boxers at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels,” he added.
Sapok’s boxing career began in 1993 with the Commonwealth Games project and spanned 12 years in the ring.
In 2015 after going through the coaching mill, he finally attained the International Boxing Association’s Asian level certification for coaching in the sport.
The Simunjan-born Sapok joined the army right after school as a private and has gone up the ranks to be commissioned as an officer.
He has attained the highest rank of Major.
Sapok is also a proud father of five with one of his boys having taken up the sport.
Sapok junior competed in the Negeri Sembilan under-14 boxing tournament recently.
