THE BOOK
Hello! We are the CCCC Crew, a small team of passionate individuals based in Singapore who believe in celebrating the voices of our local combat community. Choke, Clinch, Crank, Combat was born out of our founder, Andrea’s, love for stories and martial arts. Nicknamed ‘chilli padi’, Andrea has spent more than half her life in a gym and has had the honour of meeting some of the most interesting individuals and listening to some of their stories. We wondered what it really meant to choose combat sport as a career or a hobby in Singapore, a nation that prizes pragmatism above all. What makes someone dedicate their entire lives to not just choosing combat sport as a career or a hobby, but to also grow the combat scene in Singapore.
What makes someone want to purposely put themselves at the receiving end of a punch? What does it mean to willingly choose a career in combat sports - especially in Singapore, a nation where pragmatism is so highly prized? In this book, we answer these questions. We speak to local professional fighters like Tiffany “No Chill” Teo and Syafiq “The Slasher” Abdul Samad who have made fighting their career. We ask promoters and gym owners like Arvind “The Juggernaut” Lalwani why he chooses to keep the lifeblood of the Singaporean scene flowing through the running of gyms and the staging of tournaments. We listen to the stories of instructors like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Alexsandro “Leke” Machado and Capoeira Master Silvano “Tucum” Santos who have travelled from places far and wide to set up home and gym on our sunny island.
This is Singapore’s fight scene.
What makes someone want to purposely put themselves at the receiving end of a punch? What does it mean to willingly choose a career in combat sports - especially in Singapore, a nation where pragmatism is so highly prized? In this book, we answer these questions. We speak to local professional fighters like Tiffany “No Chill” Teo and Syafiq “The Slasher” Abdul Samad who have made fighting their career. We ask promoters and gym owners like Arvind “The Juggernaut” Lalwani why he chooses to keep the lifeblood of the Singaporean scene flowing through the running of gyms and the staging of tournaments. We listen to the stories of instructors like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Alexsandro “Leke” Machado and Capoeira Master Silvano “Tucum” Santos who have travelled from places far and wide to set up home and gym on our sunny island.
This is Singapore’s fight scene.
What makes someone want to purposely put themselves at the receiving end of a punch? What does it mean to willingly choose a career in combat sports - especially in Singapore, a nation where pragmatism is so highly prized? In this book, we answer these questions. We speak to local professional fighters like Tiffany “No Chill” Teo and Syafiq “The Slasher” Abdul Samad who have made fighting their career. We ask promoters and gym owners like Arvind “The Juggernaut” Lalwani why he chooses to keep the lifeblood of the Singaporean scene flowing through the running of gyms and the staging of tournaments. We listen to the stories of instructors like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Alexsandro “Leke” Machado and Capoeira Master Silvano “Tucum” Santos who have travelled from places far and wide to set up home and gym on our sunny island.
This is Singapore’s fight scene.
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Community, Camaraderie, Compassion, Courage. These are not the first words that come to mind when we think about fighting. But beneath the blood, sweat and tears are the stories of community and camaraderie— the friendships that gets fighters through the gruelling training it takes to become great, the immense compassion and courage it takes to come back after a loss. These are the stories we do not hear. This is why we fight.
There is currently no other book like this in Singapore. The story of our local combat scene is one that has never been shared but one we believe must be heard by a larger community. While this is a book about combat sport, it is also a book about the resilience of Singaporeans, the strength of community, and a part of the wider story of what it means to live in Singapore.