Rakyat Rumble: Here’s Our Top 5 Malaysian Amateur Fights
Malaysians taking out their frustrations with a good old fist fight and becoming famous for it.
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When people in Malaysia talk about fights, they usually mean two things: professional fights that happen in a ring (octagon if you’re a UFC fan) or the kind of fights that go viral on social media.
There’s no shortage of talented combat sports athletes in the country. We have Muay Thai sensation Johan “Jojo” Ghazali, decorated mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Jihin Radzuan, and rising Muay Thai talent Damia Husna, just to name a few.
We even have our very own female professional wrestler Nor “Phoenix” Diana who made her US debut not too long ago.
Fighting is (unfortunately) in our blood
While the pros duke it out properly in controlled environment and strict rules (e.g. no punching below the belt), regular Malaysians sometimes get into closed-fist situations right on the streets, usually due to misunderstandings, fender benders in traffic, and all sorts of other reasons that could be resolved with calm discussion.
We’ve compiled some of the best “fights” that have happened in the past year or so, because these brawls gained so much attention on social media, they deserve to be recorded in Malaysian amateur fight history.
1. Bukit Tambun Toll Plaza Fight
In late May 2025, on an otherwise normal afternoon at the Bukit Tambun toll plaza, Penang, a minor rear-end collision between two vehicles escalated into a heated argument.
What followed was a bizarre battle when a man wearing a sarong and cap exited his vehicle and allegedly attempted to attack the other driver using silat moves.
A road user recorded the entire incident and it quickly became viral. After receiving reports, Seberang Perai Selatan police launched an investigation and began searching for the suspects involved.
Authorities eventually identified one of the men (the one wearing the sarong) and launched a manhunt for him, appealing to the public for help.
@thesundaily 02 June 2025: Watch as a sarung-clad warrior meets a kung fu master in front of a toll plaza, creating an unexpected martial arts showdown. Just as tensions rise, a calm hero in grey mediates, embodying Malaysia's spirit of harmony. #theSun #theSunMY #MalaysiaMartialArts #HighwayKungFu ♬ original sound – The Sun Malaysia
READ MORE: [Watch] Highway Kung Fu: When Mat Kilau Met Wong Fei Hung
READ MORE: The Man In The Sarong: From Viral Sensation To Most Wanted
2. MMA fighter knocks out security guard
Tony Lim Zhe Hong, an amateur MMA fighter from Kuala Lumpur with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss, found himself tangled up in a street-side brawl in July this year with a security guard who works at his apartment building.
It all started two weeks before their fight, when Lim heard about an altercation at the ground floor of his apartment. The security guard in question had allegedly physically attacked an elderly resident who was simply trying to go about his day.
Lim recorded the incident, though his footage only caught the aftermath rather than the attack on the senior citizen. The guard knew that Lim had a recording of him in the act, and he decided to intimidate Lim into deleting the footage.
However, a video of the assault did get leaked online, only it wasn’t Lim’s recording. Someone else had recorded the incident and posted it on social media.
The guard, thinking it was Lim’s doing, confronted him one night after the MMA fighter returned home. After provoking Lim with offensive words and a few pushes, a fight broke out.
Not knowing Lim was a trained fighter, the guard’s attacks were all in vain as Lim showcased his skills. The fight ended with a finishing punch that caused the guard to fall over and hit his head on a metal pole with a painful “k’ting!” sound.
Since then, the guard has been the subject countless memes which later led him to issuing a public apology. A painful lesson for him both physically and socially.
3. Drunk Man vs Shopkeeper
This one was not really a fair fight, but after watching the match, we can’t say that the defeated fighter did not deserve it.
Two men walked into a convenience store in Seberang Jaya, Penang, one night in June 2024. One of them appeared drunk and engaged in a verbal fight with the owner of the store.
In a viral video of their altercation, the owner could be heard telling one of the men that a one-on-one fight was considered being gentlemanly.
And so they fought, if it could be called a fight. The drunk man was so inebriated he had the fighting skills of a newborn koala. The shop owner had the upper hand, what with being sober and all, and by the end of the video, the drunk man was lying face down on the floor with a premature hangover.
Type-C 1 – 0 Type-I pic.twitter.com/e7XP36S1OU
— Naratif Rakyat 🇲🇾 (@NaratifRakyat) June 5, 2024
READ MORE: Man Gets Punched At Penang Grocery Shop, But Busy Body Cat Steals Limelight
READ MORE: “I Have Black Belt In Karate” – Man In Viral Fight Says Would’ve Won If Not Drunk
4. Neighbourhood Makciks Royal Rumble
A fight broke out between a group of neighbourhood makciks in Bukit Gambir, Johor last October.
CCTV footage of the rumble showed several women in tudung attacking each other after a supposed disagreement between neighbours.
At first, it was just one of the women splashing water on another, but the situation later escalated to a fight involving a leaf blower, a dust pan, and a bucket, resulting in one of the most hilarious viral amateur fights in 2025.
5. (Special mention) Yusuf “Semboyan” Azmi loses in fight he organised
Although this was not a raw “street fight” and more of a proper tournamet, it’s still one that’s worth mentioning because it serves as a lesson that a few months of training is not enough to defeat a fighter who has made a career out of combat sports.
Yusuf Azmi, the founder of a consumer and human rights non-governmental organisation, took part in the World Warzone Championship (WWC) combat sports event that took place on 6 and 7 December this year.
He was matched up with Indonesian boxer Yunus Martin as the main event on the tournament’s last day.
After several controversies surrounding the event’s lack of approval from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, as well as a viral video of Yusuf getting into a physical altercation with Yunus during a promotional event which Muay Thai athlete Johan “Jojo” Ghazali described as a “trashy gimmick”, Yusuf could not catch a break after he was defeated by Yunus in the ring.
The match, according to many who saw it, was difficult to watch as Yusuf did everything a trained boxer wouldn’t: go into full gear in the early rounds of the match and run out of steam by the last round.
He later admitted during a post-match interview that he is not a fighter, and that he only participated in the event to attract investors.
READ MORE: All Gimmick, No Technique: Yusuf Azmi Loses Against Indonesian Opponent At WWC
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