Tune Talk to bring full online experience in MIMMA 4

0
kch-bp2003316-mgg-mmaonline-p3

Two local fighters going all out during the grappling session.

KUCHING: Tune Talk plans to further expand the virtual presence of its flagship amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) tournament by shifting most of its operations online this year.

The group — touted as the fastest-growing mobile virtual network operator (MNVO) — will begin the phase during the final leg of its ‘Malaysian Invasion MMA (MIMMA) Season 4’ campaign in Kuala Lumpur this weekend.

Today (March 20) marks the conclusion of the two-day Sarawak-leg tryout session at Plaza Merdeka here — the fourth after Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Johor Baharu.

According to Tune Talk head of public relations Fara Hasan, the tournament’s progression into full-fledged online experience will include digital registration, dissemination of information and also live streaming of auditions, preliminary rounds and the highly-anticipated grand finals, scheduled to be held this October — hopefully to coincide with National Sports Day 2016.

kch-bp2003316-mgg-mmaonline-p1

Fara (front, third left) and her team.

“MIMMA has always been its digital platform to reach the masses — from social networking to seamless live-streaming on certain events — but for the fourth season, we’re taking it to the next level.

“The fights, the categories, the rules — all will still be the same, but the excitement will be further enhanced through the online experience, which MIMMA fans will soon be able to access via www.malaysianinvasion.com,” she told The Borneo Post when met at the tryout here, which saw more than 100 hopefuls qualifying for the pre-selection sessions — namely striking session, grappling session and cage sparring

Back on the full digitalisation of MIMMA, Fara said this would be tied back to Tune Talk, in that the company would boost its prepaid offerings for a seamless online experience.

“We are enhancing several packages towards this end. Going online has successfully brought MIMMA to the rest of the world, enabling us to introduce the ‘Foreign Pride’ category in last year’s championships. We are very optimistic of this,” she said.

On MIMMA entering its fourth season, Fara viewed it as a significant milestone for Tune Talk, in that it justified the status of MIMMA as Asia’s largest amateur MMA fighting championships — if not the world.

“It was a gamble to host a sport event that was fairly new in the Malaysian martial arts scene back then, but this was the vision of our (Tune Talk) chief executive Jason Lo, and it paid off.

“Our partnership with ONE Championship, forged three years ago, has helped tremendously not only in raising awareness on MMA among the Malaysian public, but also producing professional fighters like Agilan Thani and Keanu Subba — both former MIMMA champions.

“We want more Agilans and Keanus to emerge from this amateur programme,” she said.

Reigning MIMMA champions Jace Law and Joanna Yap — respective Season 3’s Lightweight and Women’s Pride titleholders — are also at the tryout today, supporting fellow fighters and also meeting their fans.

The final leg will take place at Paradigm Mall in Kuala Lumpur in the coming weekend.

Jace and Joanna hope that their presence at the tryout would inspire and motivate fellow Sarawakians to give MMA a go.

Jace and Joanna hope that their presence at the tryout would inspire and motivate fellow Sarawakians to give MMA a go.