Alain Ngalani Reveals How His Martial Arts Career Started By Chance

Kickboxing and Muay Thai World Champion Alain “The Panther” Ngalani

Despite being known as one of the most dangerous knockout artists in ONE Championship today, Alain “The Panther” Ngalani admits he stumbled into competitive martial arts when he was younger.

In his in-depth interview with ONE commentator Michael Schiavello, the Cameroonian explains that he started in judo, before his desire to take on a discipline with more contact brought him to Kyokushin karate.

Once he started training in the Japanese art, he was thrust into a competitive environment in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Alain Ngalani One Bangkok March 2018 Fights 149.jpg

He explains: “A lot of people were looking at me doing the splits, saying ‘It’s not going to help you in judo, so you might want to come to a striking martial art.’

“Once, I had to replace someone in a karate competition. I was just there to watch, but someone wasn’t available. I had to replace him, and I won the competition. That’s how I got into karate.”

This fascinating episode of One On One With “The Voice” also features Ngalani’s stories of his brush with competitive bodybuilding, what it was like to compete against 40 Kyokushin karate black belts in a row as part of a kumite, and much more.

More in News

Japanese kickboxing superstar Kana
Yodlekpet Or Atchariya Puengluang Baanramba ONE Friday Fights 85 15
Yodlekpet ONE Friday Fights 85
Submission grappling stars Cole Abate and Dante Leon
Oumar Kane Marcus Almeida ONE Fight Night 13 104
Reinier de Ridder Anatoly Malykhin ONE 166 39
Mayssa Bastos Danielle Kelly ONE Fight Night 24 39
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong Masaaki Noiri ONE 167 85
Danny Kingad Yuya Wakamatsu ONE 165 8
ONE Championship MMA fighters Christian Lee and Alibeg Rasulov
Rodtang Jitmuangnon Denis Puric ONE 167 101
Yodlekpet Or Atchariya Komawut FA Group ONE Friday Fights 68 46