Emotional victory for Hisyam

HAVING lost his father on Friday, Hisyam Samsudin scored an emotional win in ONE Championship’s Total Victory event at the Jakarta Convention Centre on Friday night.

Fighting for only the second time in the ONE Championship franchise, the Tawau-born displayed great maturity to weather an early onslaught from Indonesian Jeremy Meciaz before landing some heavy blows of his own en route to a first round technical knockout (TKO) win.

His father Samsudin Masaleko, who flew from Tawau to Jakarta with his mother Nurbaiti Jasimin on Thursday, passed away suddenly the next day. He was 63.

Hisyam disclosed that it was his mother who gave him the strength to go on with the featherweight class fight.

“I took some selfies with Dad at the hotel in Jakarta (Thursday) and then he went to my aunt’s place. The next day my mum told me Dad was in hospital,” said Hisyam after his fight.

“When I got there (hospital), Mum told me he was not with us anymore. He passed away in his sleep.

“I was not sure whether to continue with the fight or not but Mum told me to do it because Dad had come all the way to see me fight.

“He came here to support me and see me win. I got it Dad, this (win) is for you.”

Hisyam, however, did not disclose the cause of his father’s death.

The 26-year-old added that he had expected Jeremy to come out aggressively.

“From his previous fights, I knew that he likes to rush in from the start so when he had me in a leg lock, I just waited for him to tire out.

“His lock was not tight, so I just waited for my chance.”

Hisyam had lost to fellow Malaysian Muhammad Aiman Raziz Affindi via unanimous decision in his ONE Championship debut at Stadium Negara (Unbreakable Warriors), just over a year ago.

The Total Victory headliner between Kazakhstan’s Kairat Akhmetov and Filipino Geje Eustaquio saw the former winning the flyweight bout via split decision.