Lap Cheong to fight in Gansu next month
Local gym Macao Boxing House will be holding a charity boxing event tomorrow with proceeds going to Fuhong Society of Macau.
The name of the event is “Once You’re High You Will Explode 2” according to the organiser, owner of and trainer at Macao Boxing House Cheong Wai.
There will be nine fights, five boxing and four kick boxing bouts. The event had originally been planned with five kick boxing bouts but the rematch of last June’s fight between Cai Jun Long and Jacob Anthony Davies, which Cai won had to be cancelled as Davies pulled out. Cheong said that Cai will be awarded the fight by default tomorrow.
The pugilists will be from Macao Boxing House, local gyms Warrior Fitness and Life Project as well as gyms in Zhuhai.
The Macau Post Daily caught up with the two female pugilists who will be representing Macao Boxing House tomorrow while they were training at the gym in Fat Lei Industrial Building in Areia Preta on Wednesday.
‘Not nervous but excited’
Tang Choi Ieng, studying for her master’s degree in Physical Education at the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM), will be having her second fight tomorrow after winning her first against Huang Li Ya in a unanimous decision of 30-27 in June.
Tang said, “I was a little nervous last time but this time I am not nervous I am excited.”
Tang said she had only been training a few months as she hurt her hand in the last fight so couldn’t train too much. “I spent a couple of months training my legs and my left hand, then last month my right hand which I had hurt, so I am okay now, I am ready,” she said.
“When I was injured I wanted to practise more and more to make my body better, to get more power in my training,” said Tang, going on to say, “Now I only have to go to IPM in the evening, I can train morning and afternoon, I enjoy this schedule very much.
“I train twice on Monday to Friday and Saturday morning. In the mornings I go running and in the afternoon I do gym work. On Saturday the coach [Cheong Wai] takes us running on the hill in Taipa and two weeks ago we went to Zhuhai to spar with mainland boxers at a boxing school there. After this I realised I needed more training to improve my power,” she continued.
Tang will be fighting Kaci Wilson from Warrior Fitness tomorrow. “I don’t know what she is like, but I have been told it is her first fight,” said Tang.
Fellow officer
In her first fight in 13 years, Public Security Police (PSP) officer Chong Lai Kuan told The Macau Post Daily that she had stopped boxing because her mother said it was a dangerous sport and nagged her every night until she stopped. “I started again in September this year to release my working pressure,” said Chong, “Now that I am boxing again I feel so much better and happy,” she said.
When asked how she felt when she started again, Chong said, “It was very difficult at the start and when I did one sparring round with [Tang] Choi Ieng I was really out of breath and breathing heavy, I wanted to die,” she said with a laugh. “I am now fitter and can go [spar] three rounds,” she added.
Chong’s opponent is fellow PSP officer Cheong Iok Heng, who is representing a Zhuhai gym in what will be her first fight, Chong said, “I work with her every day, she has been training since January in Macau although she is representing a Zhuhai gym”. She went on to say, “I am nervous as I am afraid of losing”, emphasising, “I don’t want to lose, if I lose I shall have to face her every day, she is 10 years younger than me too.”
Chong can only train in the evenings because of work and only does body training due to injuries to her legs in the past, but insists: “My strength is in my right hook.”
First fight for a year
The Macau Post Daily also spoke to local professional boxer Cheong Lap Cheong (8 -0-0, 4 KOs) who happened to be training at the gym during the interview and will be fighting in Gansu on December 12. “I am fighting Zhang Fangyong (15-4-1), who is supposed to be a champion food delivery driver in the mainland,” Lap Cheong said with a laugh. “I am very excited as I have had no fight for a year because of COVID-19, so I am feeling good as I have had a year to train and prepare. I am feeling stronger than before to go the 10 rounds”, he added. None of Lap Cheong’s 10 round fights have gone the distance as he has always knocked his opponent out.
Live streaming, prizes to be won
Cheong Wai said that they have been preparing for this event (“Once You’re High You Will Explode 2”) for four months, adding, “We hope to raise more than the over 35,000 patacas we raised last time [in June for Macau Special Olympics]. This time we are live streaming the event on Facebook and to get people involved we are asking them to guess who will be the winner of two fights, which are for Thai kick boxing belts. The two people that guess the winners of the two fights will win a pair of Airpads Pro 2.”
Tickets to tomorrow’s event cost 200 patacas and can be bought from Macao Boxing House on the 7th floor of Fat Lei Industrial Building in Areia Preta or Fu Hong Happy Market on the 6th floor of the same building or at the door tomorrow night. The fighting starts at 7 p.m. with all proceeds going to Fuhong Society of Macau.
Chong Lai Kuan (from left to right), Cheong Wai and Tang Choi Ieng pose at Macao Boxing House gym in Areia Preta on Wednesday. Photos: Lesley Wells
Cheong Lap Cheong (left) training in Cavite, Philippines, at the end of last year. Photo supplied by Macao Boxing House.
