Staring down the bullies

Growing up in the northeast of England was tough for Hong Kong-born Eddie Ng Gar-wei. Because of his Asian heritage while living in Chester-le-Street, a small town near Newcastle, Ng was bullied almost daily.

In an almost exclusively all-white town, he detested the fact he was Asian at the time. "Almost every day something would happen. There was always bullying. There were other things, like I would be the last one to be picked on a team or no one would come sit next to me during lunch. There were many unpleasant incidents. I even had people spit at me and then they would have a laugh about it," recalled 26-year-old Ng, who moved to England when he was two but now lives in Singapore.

"I wasn't severely beaten or anything like that. But it affected my confidence and I didn't feel I had anybody I could talk to. I was embarrassed with what was going on. I just bottled it up. I didn't know how to react."

Those bullies would think twice about picking on Ng now. He is one of the rising stars on Asia's mixed martial arts circuit and will be fighting in front of an estimated crowd of 12,000 at the One Fighting Championship at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on April 5. It will be his seventh professional fight and so far he has won all but one of them - some in devastating fashion.

Those bad old days in Chester-le-Street actually made Ng the person he is today - he got into martial arts to try to break free from the bullying cycle. He discovered wing chun, the art Bruce Lee first showed the world in the 1970s, but was drawn to Brazilian jiu-jitsu after watching a video of Ken Shamrock, one of the early superstars of MMA, win a tournament with ease.

"Shamrock was the smallest guy in the tournament but he won without ever throwing a single punch. He won by choke holds and arm locks. I watched the video and I was instantly drawn to the sport," said Ng, who fights as a lightweight (155 pounds or 70kgs).