City Kickboxing takes anti-violence, coward punch programme nationwide

City Kickboxing, the Central Auckland gym that has produced numerous UFC fighters and world champions, is taking its anti-violence and anti-coward-punching programme nationwide.

The likes of Israel Adesanya and Carlos Ulberg have trained at the Morningside gym, helping it become internationally renowned.

Since rising MMA fighter Fau Vake was killed by an unprovoked punch outside an Auckland pub five years ago, the gym had been at the forefront of anti-coward punch lobbying and charity work.

The gym currently worked with high school students in Auckland but had now linked up with the Blue Light charity and police to run programmes for at-risk young people around the country.

Eugene Bareman, head trainer at City Kickboxing, told 1News: “We want to make kids aware of the dangers of violence, including the pitfalls of seeing violent acts on social media."

"It’s the bullying, the school yard fights, the filming of those fights, it’s almost being normalised.”

Through the programme, students learn about defence and self-discipline, but also about consequences, which Bareman believed were being lost in a digital, quick-fix age.

Bareman said it was great to have the Government’s ear, but said the changes all need to start early, at the grassroots level, with teens – a group he called the social media generation.

“They need to know there are pretty grave consequences if things go wrong.”

CKB is in high demand as schools learn what the programme was helping with.

The Government changed laws around coward punches last year, toughening sentences and introducing the "culpable homicide" offence for a one-punch attack that caused death.

Tony Tumai, a senior police officer in the youth field in South Auckland, is a key member of the Blue Light charity set-up.

“The violence, it is a real issue, it's rampant, it's on a daily basis," Tumai said. "During school, after school, weekends. Social media is a big catalyst in kids getting together and doing the harm.”

Bareman said there was a major difference between what he coaches and what his fighters use in the UFC octagon.

“What we do as a sport, there's a big difference, we're trained to do it... in a controlled environment, trainers, doctors, physios, MRI scans, blood tests, it's very different to the violence they are seeing and perhaps partaking in.”

Mike Angove, a former fighter turned coach at CKB, hoped the program could change someone's life.

“If one person makes one decision that changes a life, saves a life of another person, that's enough for us.

"We’re giving the kids an ethos, an understanding which they can then take back to their schools.”