“I WAS just your usual guy, raised to follow the traditional Chinese mould — go college, come out, do business, get rich… you know the drill!” begins Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) practitioner and two-time International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) Pan Pacific champion, Aaron Goh, somewhat candidly, as I listen intently while sipping my early morning coffee in the “al-fresco” section of a neighbourhood cafe in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL.
I’d just enquired casually what his upbringing was like growing up and Goh’s surprisingly not in the least bit reticent to share. The fact that we’d just met for the first time seems completely inconsequential to this genial KL-born martial artist.
Up ahead, among the trees, birds flit merrily and a pleasant calm blankets our leafy surrounds. Just a few doors away from where we are is Goh’s modest “dojo”, the Leverage gym, where those interested in martial arts, from BJJ (a martial art and combat sport system that focuses on grappling with emphasis on ground fighting) to Muay Thai (combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques), to kickboxing (a group of stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate mixed with boxing), converge to learn and hone their “crafts”.
Meanwhile, Goh, who’s preparing for the upcoming World Master IBJJF Jiu Jitsu Championship 2019 to be held in Las Vegas, USA in August, has taken time out from his busy training schedule to talk “shop” — and other things — whilst a high octane class is being conducted in his gym as we speak.
Continuing in the same matter-of-fact way he started, Goh, coach to the most dominant home grown BJJ team in Malaysia, shares: “My dad was a businessman and my mum was primarily a housewife — until my dad got sick. My dad was unfortunately not a health advocate. He was a “YOLO” kind of guy — one life, live life to the fullest, your everyday char kuey teow-guy!”
From a young age, Goh shares that he saw his father as a man who chased money but ignored his health. “My dad had a stroke and two heart attacks… he never believed in insurance. At his funeral, I remember no one had anything to say about him. Dad lived his life on his own terms, pursuing only what he thought was relevant. But really, he wasn’t making a difference to anybody — except providing for us.”
And that’s EXACTLY what the 37-year-old was intent NOT to do. From very early on, the young Goh knew that unlike his father, he wanted to do something that would one day allow him to leave behind a legacy when he was no longer around. “I’d want people to come to my funeral and talk about the fact that I’d made a difference. And that’s how I gravitated from business to pursuing something as ridiculous as Jiu Jitsu more than 10 years ago.”
LONG JOURNEY
Suffice to say, with his father a businessman, Goh inherited the entrepreneurial drive. From young, he was already involved in several businesses, most of them semi-successful. Towards the end, he was working in car customisation. “I’d actually studied Mass Communication with the intention of pursuing it. But when I came out and discovered how much I’d be paid to join this one agency in Damansara Heights, I was put off. It was sometime in 2004/2005 and the salary was RM1,400, not much higher than what I was raking in dabbling in all these part-time jobs.”
Rejecting the offer, he returned home, contemplated for several days and eventually decided to start a small business. “I was a small-time ‘business man’ to begin with,” shares Goh, pride lacing his voice. “I started off selling bubble tea outside a school. I’d drive my car, set up a table and sell bubble tea to the students and anyone who happened to be there. The first month, I made triple than what the advertising agency offered me. This was ‘clean’ and I worked only four hours a day.”
He’d rise early, prepare everything and would tout his “ware” from 12pm to 2pm. And in the evening, he’d return to catch the students from the second school session. “I’d be there from 5pm to 7pm. I did this for two years before I developed bigger aspirations.”
Ultimately, continues Goh, he just didn’t want to be poor. “I knew that business was key,” he says softly. “I didn’t want to work for people so I knew I had to be a businessman. What business, I didn’t know, but I knew that I didn’t want to be poor because of what I went through with my family. I had that hunger and desire. And throughout my 20s, I was just chasing that.”
LURE OF FIGHT SPORT
Unlike those who may have sought out martial arts to “toughen up” as a result of having been bullied, it was nothing of the sort for Goh. In his case, it was the magic of the film reels that lured him. Or more specifically, a certain Hong Kong film star and martial artist, Donnie Yen.
Chuckling, the eloquent Scorpio recounts: “My father’s idea of father-son bonding was sitting down together and watching action movies. Credit to him, he was the one that instilled in me the idea that men should be men and that we should know how to fight and defend those we love etc. That’s why I was always interested in martial arts and had an affinity for it. But back then, I didn’t know which of the ‘arts’ I would pursue.”
But one day, Goh decided that he’d try his hands at boxing and soon after, enrolled himself in a gym in Hartamas, KL. He was 23. Grinning, he recalls: “I started with boxing and loved it. But then I saw the dudes doing Muay Thai, and I thought to myself, “Eh, Muay Thai can kick, got knees and elbows wor!” so I fell in love with that martial art.”
By then, his boxing instructor was calling it a day at the Hartamas gym to teach at another location.
But Muay Thai. “So I decided to follow him there lor and do Muay Thai pulak!” That was until he saw a Donnie Yen movie.
Chuckling, Goh recounts: “I was in awe. I thought, “Eh, apa mamat cina ni buat (what’s this Chinese dude doing)?” There were throws, chokes, kicks and punches. Yen was the first to integrate mixed martial arts in movies. This was like 13 years ago.”
Excitedly, Goh proceeded to do some research and discovered that Yen was a trained martial artist — but in the art of Kung Fu. But just for the movie, he got himself trained in mixed martial arts. “So I delved deeper into it to find out what mixed martial arts was about. I learnt that it’s a hybrid system in which the striking involves either Muay Thai, boxing, or kick boxing, while the grappling aspects are either wrestling or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Believe it or not, the first athlete that represented this was Adam ‘Shogun’ Kayoom, a BJJ black belt — and a Malaysian.”
Kayoom, elaborates Goh, was an old school pioneer and one of the first Malaysians to go to Brazil to learn mixed martial arts. “I found out about him online and learnt that he was teaching in Bangsar in a small dojo. So I went to that gym only to discover that he had relocated to Bangkok.”
Fortunately, the gym did have what he was looking for — Brazilian Jiu Jitsu — so Goh signed up.
Grinning, he recalls: “Like a geek, I bought everything they sold to me, like the uniform and whatnot.
Within three months I’d fallen in love with it even though I sucked at it. I had no coordination and I was pretty much the worst student!”
If he was so bad, why did he continue, I pose. And again that good-natured grin spreads across his face. Looking at me intently, Goh replies: “Because it was so hard, I knew that if I could master it to a certain degree, I’d have a serious advantage if I were to ever be in a situation where I’d need to defend myself. There’s no way the guy opposite me would have such mastery and therefore my ability to defend myself would be very high.” BJJ prides itself as being the “gentle art”, allowing a smaller, weaker person to use leverage and submissions (chokes, locks) to defend himself against a bigger opponent.
SACRIFICES AND DISCIPLINE
Once he’d made the decision that BJJ would be his life path, Goh never looked back. Despite the struggles and sacrifices he has had to make, including an injury whom everyone believed would put an end to his journey as a martial artist, Goh continues to defy the odds, sight focused on the legacy he intends to leave.
His expression earnest, Goh confides: “A lot of what I’m doing now is a big deal because I suffered a neck injury a year ago and was told that I’d never be able to do what I’m doing now. I’d been doing
BJJ up to that point for 11 years and one fine day I had to pay the price. My neck got folded during normal training. It was just an ordinary position but the pain was severe.”
He continued as if nothing was wrong – until his condition got from bad to worse. “That’s when I got it checked and learnt that I had something akin to a slipped disc — but in my neck,” elaborates Goh, continuing: “I didn’t want surgery so I decided to pursue traditional options like Chiro, Sinseh (traditional Chinese medicine), acupuncture, deep tissue etc but nothing worked until I forced myself to get an MRI. By that point, I’d spent so much money trying to cure myself, I didn’t have money for an MRI. It was a private client that stepped in and provided me with the money to do it.”
The MRI clearly diagnosed what he had and when he sought out five of the country’s top neurosurgeons for their opinions, all told him to just fuse his neck and retire. Says Goh: “None of them could fathom my request — that all I wanted was to be fixed so that I could return to my sport.
They just kept saying to do the surgery and leave the sport. I mean, I’d been doing this for 11 years without any thoughts of a Plan B. What else was I going to do? I have no other talents other than strangling people!”
His decision not to proceed with surgery or retire led Goh to discovering the legendary Dr Peter Goldman, a chiropractor in the US. “This guy had fixed worse cases, including the American mixed martial artist, BJ Penn, who, at the peak of his career suffered a worse neck injury and was told what I was told. BJ Penn went on to become a two-time UFC champion.”
Suffice to say, the whole process cost him a bomb, but it was during this trying time that he discovered who his real friends were, confides Goh. “I was broke because I’d spent all my money in the quest to get better. These are the things insurance won’t cover. But slowly my friends heard about my situation and everyone rallied around to help generate the funds to get me better.”
One guy who had a T-shirt company offered to launch a series of T-shirts, which would be sold to raise some funds. “I thought maybe I’d end up selling 30 or 50 T-shirts,” recalls Goh, adding: “But I
ended up selling almost 300! Meanwhile, a client stepped up and offered to buy my flight ticket to San Francisco.”
All these things that happened made him realise that perhaps people did feel that he was making a difference and deserved the help. Because up to that point, he hadn’t actually reached out to anyone. Shares Goh: “I was just not in the gym and my classes were being replaced. I was in a very dark place and I didn’t want anybody to see me at my lowest because I felt very embarrassed. I wanted to give up but then my friends stepped in.”
Today, says the animal-loving athlete (Goh lives with 11 cats, five dogs and feeds strays that he meets), he’s not 100 per cent cured but the treatment has enabled him to return to training and back into competitions.
As the coolness of the morning morphs into the humidity of the afternoon, I throw Goh a final question. Why is he really doing this? After all, a fighter’s life isn’t a long one and a single injury contracted in mere seconds can shatter what you’ve worked for. And with no Plan B too? His brows furrow as he contemplates my barrage of concerns.
Voice low, Goh replies: “I’m doing this for that Black belt who told a Blue Belt me that I should just quit BJJ. Because I was THAT bad at it. I’m doing this for that one person who may one day find himself or herself at a crossroad in life, and instead of giving up and giving in to bad circumstances, is reminded of how I did the seemingly impossible and became a World Champion. I’m doing this for the many doctors who told me I can never compete again. I’m doing this for the average person, just like me, who has no obvious talent or physical gifts…”
Leverage BJJ Gym, 17, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL. Details at www.leveragebjjhq.com
