#KiwiUFC What To Know About City Kickboxing: Lineage
City Kickboxing appeared to come out of nowhere to take over the world of Mixed Martial Arts and in the process they aligned with Aotearoa's sporting excellence. Thanks to such a swift and powerful rise through the levels of MMA/combat sports, there is a weird mix in perspectives as kiwi sports fans aren't really in tune with the feats of CKB and MMA media who cover UFC antics know very little about how kiwis go about sporting excellence.
Having done my bestest to document the rise of CKB, along with excellent video content via Combat TV, EMG Access and other Youtube channels, this thing serves as an outline of the information that I know. The past few years have been super buzzy, seeing CKB emerge as kiwi sports leaders and making global moves, perhaps even arriving at a point of being among the top-five (definitely), or top-three (likely) kiwi sports teams currently in operation.
Learning about how the folks involved at CKB fit into the history of combat sports in Aotearoa has been a pleasure for someone like me, who isn't a fighter and was dragged into the world of combat sports by South Auckland hero David Tua. CKB isn't just a team of Aotearoa's best fighters with some good coaches, instead we need to view CKB as the current incarnation of Aotearoa combat sports and that means that all that has come prior flows in, filling up the CKB cup.
To the best of my knowledge, CKB was a seed that fell off the hearty pohutukawa tree that was/is Balmoral Lee Gar. Coach Lolo Heimuli is an absolute OG of combat sports in Aotearoa, kaumatua of all of this having played a role in the careers of Aotearoa fighting legends Ray Sefo and Mark Hunt among others. CKB coaches Eugene Bareman and Doug Viney, trained under Heimuli, competing in kick-boxing/MMA as they transitioned into starting CKB.
With just Bareman and Viney, ponder for a second the knowledge that would have been passed down from the previous bastion of kiwi combat sports in Balmoral Lee Gar. Heimuli pivoted away from Balmoral Lee Gar, to City Lee Gar by the looks of things and there is still a connection between Heimuli and CKB; heavyweight boxer Junior Fa has spent time training under Heimuli and CKB for example.
The beautiful thing about CKB is that there is a small army of coaches who deepen this coaching lineage, most notably Mike Angove. For many, like myself, Angove's voice is synonymous with combat sports in Aotearoa as Angove was the main commentator for many major boxing bouts in Aotearoa over the past 10-15 years. Angove was a world-class kick-boxer himself before essentially being the voice of the early stages in Joseph Parker's career, now Angove is part of the CKB coaching staff.
Tristam Apikotoa otherwise known as 'Twist' is also an intriguing figure of the CKB coaching staff, given that he also came up through the Balmoral Lee Gar system as a kick-boxer. Dan Hooker said of coach Apikotoa back in 2019: "Twist is my secret weapon. It's a real honour to be his student. Somehow I got past his 2 or 3 year screening process before he'll coach you".
Small army is no under-statement when describing the CKB coaching staff and as I'll explore in the coming days, such quality in the coaching department across the various disciplines of MMA and the art of MMA itself has been crucial to the success of CKB. In trying to build this picture of what makes CKB such a force, my belief is that this starts with the roots and I also have a personal belief that the best, dealing in excellence, draw from those roots that connect them to Aotearoa and the wealth of fighting knowledge.
CKB isn't just CKB. To me, this feels like all the work that those before Heimuli put in for combat sports then all the work of Heimuli, Bareman, Viney etc has lead us to this point where Aotearoa is at the forefront of the combat sports world. This definitely isn't a team/gym that popped up, found a few good fighters and pounced on the UFC's growth.
CKB is a gym that is entrenched in the history of Aotearoa sports. With that in mind, the next to chapters of this are 'Style' and 'Culture', which obviously needs to follow the 'Lineage' chapter as I believe the key elements of CKB's talent and culture stem from those roots. Also worth noting here is the fact that CKB is in Auckland, started in Auckland and remains in Auckland while having a immense impact on the UFC.
Like with any high-quality sports team culture, there is a level of alignment through beliefs, values and action. CKB has built a system that does not require fighters to venture elsewhere other than Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand, instead fighters like UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski come to CKB to be part of the team. I view this as honouring the lineage, honouring the work of those before CKB and considering the history of combat sports in Aotearoa, there has long been enough skill, knowledge and athletes within Aotearoa.
In a way, this could be described as CKB being the vessel for combat sports in Aotearoa to move forward. CKB have honoured the history and lineage, adding their own insight and nuance on top of those foundations. The style and culture of CKB are rooted in the values and morals of kiwis. All of this starts with honouring combat sports' history in Aotearoa and being in alignment with this lineage, ensuring a positive influence on the combat sports landscape in Aotearoa.
Finding little nuggets of basic information about this lineage has been fascinating for me. I'm definitely no expert, so if you've got further knowledge then let it be known.
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Peace and love 27.