Every Mixed Martial Artist has his/her story, and Evolve MMA’s Eddie ‘The Magician’ Ng is no different.
The 26-year-old Hong Kong native grew up in England, and had his fair share of adversities during his young tenure. Being a minority in the United Kingdom, Eddie was a victim of bullying and racism. But he stood his ground and found Martial Arts through his idol, Bruce Lee, and has now become one of Asia’s top Mixed Martial Artists.
Eddie Ng’s life could very well be documented into a 3-hour movie, having battled a myriad of obstacles throughout his career:
“The reason why I started doing Martial Arts was because being a Chinese kid growing up in the UK, I was a minority and I experienced a lot of bullying and racism growing up. It’s not just like name-calling, but they would also like hit and stuff. And, it wasn’t so much of the violence that got me started. I started to think that wouldn’t it be so much easier if I was white, you know, growing up in the UK? I also started having a little bit of resentment towards my parents, and like asked myself why do I have to be Chinese?” he said. “I then saw a Bruce Lee movie, and he’ll be like fighting and beating 10 people easily. I was very entertained and drawn to that. And also, the people in my school actually felt the same about Bruce Lee and they were like ‘whoa, he can beat ten people without getting touched!’ But Bruce Lee was Chinese so I thought how come this guy is Chinese and everyone has so much respect for him? But for me, why are they being so racist? The same people who were racist towards me – how come they loved Bruce Lee? And it wasn’t because he was Chinese and it wasn’t because of where he’s from or anything like that but rather the fact that he was an incredible martial artist and what he can do on the street. So that got me to think hmm .. maybe if I start martial arts, people will stop bullying me and stop being racist towards me.”
The Hong Kong native admitted that Wing Chun, a martial art that was made famous by the ‘Ip Man’ movie sequels, was one of the first disciplines that he decided to learn. But he left it after realizing that the patterns and such were too fixed:
“11 or 12 years ago, I started training. And the very first thing I started was Wing Chun. But maybe for about 2 months only,” the 26-year-old recalled. “And then I stopped after 2 months because I found that there were too many patterns and it was too fixed. So it’s like if I punch this way, you block this way; And if you block that way than you have to do this. But in a combat or live situation, it never happens that way. So I stopped because I realized it was too fixed.”
Eddie never doubted himself as a fighter growing up, because it wasn’t a career path that he was planning in pursuing. He was abandoned by his friends because of his no-nonsense straight edge lifestyle, and his willingness to train on a daily basis. They made fun of him, and even told him he would never make it far in the combat scene. But Ng was determined to prove them wrong, and that was when he decided to start competing:
“Well not too much of doubting questions, but initially when I first started competing I never thought I was going to make it so there was never a time where I thought: ‘okay, I’m going to dedicate my entire life to be a professional MMA fighter.’ It just kind of like happened by accident, so in that sense I never doubted myself because I never wanted to make it and besides, back in the day MMA was still at its infancy, and it was very new,” Ng said. “So for me the reason why I started was because back when I first started training, I was at an age where a lot of people were going out to party or drink, but I would never do such things. My friends would say like, ‘Let’s go out and party this weekend.’ But I would say no. The second week, someone has a birthday party and they’ll invite me to go. But I won’t. And that’s okay right, because it’s just two weeks. But the third time they asked, I would say no once again. And the same people that are supposed to be your friends, will say, ‘Why do you not want to go out? Because you want to train? What is the point in that? What benefit will you get by doing that? You should live your life and enjoy yourself. ’ And because of that they stopped asking and I fell out of the social circle. They said I’d never be able to do anything, like Mixed Martial Arts. So the reason why I first started competing was because I wanted to prove them wrong. That’s how I started competing so I actually never doubted myself because it’s not something I wanted to do and I never thought I was going to make it.”
The Hong Kong native was also full of superlatives for Evolve MMA, a state-of-the-art Mixed Martial Arts facility that’s based in Singapore. Ng is currently strutting his skills at the renowned gym, and loves the relationship and understanding that he possesses with his training partners and instructors. He also talks about what he normally does in his training agendas:
“I train like twice a day and 5-6 days a week. So usually, what happens is, in the morning session I train with the Evolve Fight team and Heath Sims, who is like an Olympic and renowned wrestler. And he used to be an MMA coach for Dan Henderson. So the Evolve fight team trains together in the morning and Heath Sims overlooks the training. He dictates the situations and we’ll work on them. Heath and Chatri Sityodtong (who is also like our MMA coach) decide what we need to work on specifically for a fight. So in the morning sessions, we focus on MMA and like how to transition between striking and wrestling (Ground-and-pound, for an example). In the afternoons, I train with Namsaknoi, who is perhaps one of the biggest Muay Thai legends. We focus more on Muay Thai and Boxing, and we’ll work on some pad work and some technique drills, also,” he said. “I think what makes it very unique or different here in Evolve is that I’m very close to the rest of the fighters and also to the instructors, and that makes it a little bit better because once you become close and you’re like friends, you want to see them do well. Not as a training partner, you want to see your FRIEND do well. So when we’re training, and if I do something that isn’t quite right, and somebody else sees that, he’ll be like: ‘No, no, no, no… don’t put your foot there, put it here. ‘ And we’re not just training together, we want to see our friends be successful, you know, and I think this makes the training in Evolve much different than everywhere else because we have that relationship. Even when I work with Namsaknoi, he knows what my physical ability is, and he knows what my mental state is when I fight so example we could watch a fight and he’d say: ‘what would you do in this situation?’ And I would say this. So because we know each other so well when it comes to training, he knows what techniques will fit my style so he doesn’t just go, ‘here are some techniques, just do this.’ I mean, what works for you, doesn’t necessarily work for somebody else. And the best thing about being here is that the instructors all realize that and they have so much experience that they can tailor certain techniques, certain strategies, and I’m very like lucky, to be part of that.”
‘The Magician’ is currently 5-1 in his professional MMA career, and has never made it into the 3rd stanza in all of his bouts. Although this bears testament to Eddie’s fighting style, often times it could be a problem for fighters if they’ve not gone the distance.
When asked if that’s something that he should be worried or concerned about, Eddie shrugged it off and believes he’s got that problem covered:
“It’s not really a disadvantage and the reason why is because I simply don’t like my fights to go to a decision. I’ll try and finish fights regardless of how, and I’m always looking to finish all the time. I’ll be happy if my fight goes to a decision, in all honesty. But it’s not a concern because I know how I’ve trained. And in training, even though it’s not the same as a fight situation (because you don’t have all that mental aspects that you’ve got to deal with), I know that 3 rounds is no problem,” he said. “Heath has had a lot of experience training high level MMA athletes and he instructs our training in a way that if it went 3 rounds, it wouldn’t be a problem. So usually in training we do more than 3 rounds anyway, so I don’t think it’s going to be a problem whatsoever.”
An exuberant fighter who is undoubtedly in the upper echelon of ONE FC’s Lightweight division, Eddie Ng is proud to be competing in Asia’s largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion:
“Crazy, crazy, crazy… because I never thought about it when I first started competing (you know, fighting on a local show was a big thing to me). ONE FC is like the largest promotion in Asia and already it’s picking up a lot of momentum; A lot of my friends in the UK watch it and it’s picked up momentum like in the UK, US and with each event that they have, it grows,” he said. “So, to fight for ONE FC is difficult to come to terms with because I never thought that would ever happen to me. Fighting in the UK, I never thought that I would ever get an opportunity to fight on such a large stage.”
Eddie Ng is next slated to face Muayfit’s Arnaud Lepont , a French MMA champion who’s currently 1-1 under the ONE FC banner. This fight has been scheduled for April 5th, at ONE FC 8: Kings & Champions in Singapore. Ng was respectful of his opponent, stating that the heart of Lepont’s was second to none:
“Arnaud is a very well-rounded fighter, so he is very capable stand-up wise and very capable on the ground as well. I know he has solid striking skills and grappling skills. I think the biggest threat that Arnaud has against me and everyone else, is the fact that he has a very, very big heart. Somebody like that, to me, it’s like: Unless you finish the person, you’re never going to quit. You’re never, ever, going to quit. So you’re going to go continuously for a hundred miles per hour until you win, basically,” he said. “The thing with these sort of fighters is you have to finish them. Finish them with a submission, or a KO. The guy’s not going to stop. If he’s still conscious, you can guarantee that he will still be looking to finish the fight. And that poses a problem, because it’s a threat not just at the start of the fight, but as you saw in his fight with Brian Choi, he came back in the 3rd round and that’s a testament to his heart. People with smaller hearts may have stopped and just cruised the 3rd round. But Arnaud came back and tried to finish the fight.”
The Hong Kong native also spoke about how training camp has gone thus far, and insists he trains on a daily basis to improve his skills as Mixed Martial Artist:
“Training has went well and besides, even without a fight, I train like consistently anyway. If there’s no fight coming up, I still train like 5-6 days a week, and twice a day because for me it’s about improvement. First and foremost about being a Mixed Martial Artist, you have to improve yourself. So I always look to improve myself in striking, wrestling or BJJ… something. So regardless of a fight, I need to achieve that. Otherwise, I feel that a day’s been wasted – I haven’t achieved anything. If I just go in and I come out, and I don’t get any better… then what have I done for that day, you know?” he stated. “So I’m always looking to improve in something, one thing. It could be anything. So I’m always continuously training and for this fight, I’ve pretty much been continuing the way I have been anyway because Arnaud is not just a striker. He’s not just a grappler. He can do both. So, I can’t just focus on one or the other, you know. I have to make sure that I’m ready stand-up wise, wrestling wise and Jiu-Jitsu wise. And I think I’m surrounded by the best team in the world anyway: we’ve got like world champions in Muay Thai, Boxing, Olympic wrestlers, world champion BJJ guys… so I feel like I’m in good hands.”
And the 26-year-old had this to say to fans who will be in attendance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, on April 5th:
“Win or lose, if you want me to be happy or cheer me up or something, get me the biggest burger you can find!”
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Follow Thinesh on Twitter (@ThineshJohnMMA), and keep up with the latest MMA news from MMASucka via Twitter (@MMASucka) and Facebook
