BANGKOK – Thai police have arrested four members of a Hells Angels biker gang accused of drug crimes, violence and posing a threat to society, the Tourist Police said on Thursday.

Three Australians and a Canadian were arrested on Wednesday in Pattaya, a major tourist resort with a reputation as a hub for foreign gangs, drug dealing and the sex industry.

Piyapong Ensarn of the Pattaya Tourist Police told Reuters that two of the accused gang members would be deported and the two others would be charged with drug offences.

“Traces of cocaine were found on them,” he said.

Reuters was unable to contact either the accused or their lawyers for comment. Pattaya is 100 km (60 miles) southeast of the Thai capital, Bangkok. Police said they were still looking for three Australians believed to be members of the gang.

A British member of the gang had fled the country before he could be arrested, Piyapong said.

The gang made headlines in 2015 when one of its members was murdered by an Australian man, who was sentenced to death in February for the killing.

Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke is desperate to propel himself back into world championship status once more.

The Thai legend (8-2) is riding a two-bout win streak, and is looking to complete a hat-trick of victories when he returns to his homeland to face Riku “The Outsider” Shibuya (13-4-2) at ONE: WARRIORS OF THE WORLD in Bangkok on 9 December.

“He is a very good opponent, but I am extremely ready for him,” Amnuaysirichoke states.

“I have been training very hard to get ready, and come event night, I am looking forward to facing him in the cage.”

The 39-year-old former Muay Thai superstar claimed three Lumpinee Muay Thai world championships, before switching to the cage and winning his first six bouts for ONE Championship.

The fifth of those contests saw him claim the ONE Strawweight World Title, as he became a two-sport world champion, and a national hero in Thailand.

After losing back to back contests to Yoshitaka Naito and Joshua Pacio, losing the world title to the former, Amnuaysirichoke has gone back to square one, as he looks to reignite his career and make another run towards the gold.

He’s rebounded well so far, with back-to-back TKO wins over Adrian Matheis and Robin Catalan kick-starting Amnuaysirichoke’s momentum once again.

“Obviously, I feel some pressure when I lose,” he said.

“It is very disappointing for me, but it helps drive me, and motivates me to do better in my next match.

“For those matches [against Naito and Pacio], I prepared the best I could, and did my best. It is one of those situations where it just was not my night. That is how it goes. As a martial artist, you win some and you lose some.”

Those two losses both came on home soil in Thailand. They were Amnuaysirichoke’s first martial arts bouts in his homeland since his days in Muay Thai, and he’s still looking for his maiden win in the cage in his own country.

“Whenever I compete in Thailand, I get amazing support,” he said.

“I really feel uplifted by the energy the crowd gives me. I am so very proud to be representing the country of Thailand, and I always do my best when I am in the cage to make the Thai people proud.

“Getting a win in Thailand is something that I am really looking forward to doing, and something that will be very special for me.

“Outside of Thailand in ONE Championship, I have won all my matches, so I am very excited to come back home, put on a great performance for the fans, and come away with a win.”

Amnuaysirichoke faces a stiff test in Shibuya, who went unbeaten for five years before losing to ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano Moraes in March 2015.

If he can defeat the 32-year-old Japanese veteran, Amnuaysirichoke will move one big step closer to his dream of recapturing the ONE Strawweight World Title.

If he earns a future title shot, there’s a chance he may have to face off against one of his own teammates, with Evolve MMA’s Alex ‘Little Rock’ Silva set to challenge for the belt next.

It may present an awkward situation further down the line, but for now, Amnuaysirichoke is more than happy to help his teammate prepare for the title bout, and says he sees Silva’s challenge as an extension of his own desire to get the belt back.

“Currently the title match is being contested by my good friend and teammate Alex Silva, so when it comes to this title match, I am fully supporting Alex,” he said.

“When he steps into the cage to compete for that title, I feel as if it is myself in there with him in the cage. I am really looking forward to that match, and have full faith and confidence that my teammate can come out victorious.

“In terms of myself, I always have the aim and the goal of getting the title back and becoming champion once again. For now, it is my teammate Alex’s turn, and I am extremely happy and rooting for him.”

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao hopes to unearth the next Chinese world champion and help grow the sport with an academy in the largely untapped country.

The 38-year-old, who controversially lost his World Boxing Organisation (WBO) welterweight title to Australian Jeff Horn in July, was in Beijing this week.

He and Chinese sports-development firm Dancing Sports held a signing ceremony that included plans to build a Manny Pacquiao International Boxing Academy in the capital, the company said.

Zhou Wenxin, chairman of Dancing Sports, said their tie-up would deepen Chinese-Philippine relations in boxing and beyond.

The academy will draft in coaches from abroad to help develop Chinese boxing, which has never had a truly world-class fighter. There is no public timeline for when it will be built.

China’s most famous boxer, Zou Shiming, lost his WBO flyweight belt when he was knocked out by Japan’s unfancied Sho Kimura in his first defence in July.

When Pacquiao’s plans for China were first announced in 2014, he said that he believed the partnership could help thaw frosty ties between the Philippines and China, who were engaged in a territorial maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

Relations have since improved considerably under current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

At the time, Pacquiao defended the decision to open a boxing academy in China instead of his own country.

“In the Philippines we don’t have a problem (producing good boxers),” said Pacquiao, a hero in his home country and also a senator.

Thai star Shannon “OneChin” Wiratchai stands just one win away from a shot at the ONE Lightweight World Championship.

Wiratchai takes on Russia’s Rasul Yakhyaev in the co-main event of ONE: WARRIORS OF THE WORLD in Bangkok, Thailand, in a bout expected to determine the next challenger for the title currently held by two-division ONE World Champion Martin Nguyen.

The 29-year-old says he’s keeping his focus on the job in hand, as he looks to get past the challenge of Yakhyaev on home soil, and to do so in eye-catching fashion.

“Competing in front of my hometown fans is always a great pleasure, and huge pressure at the same time,” he said.

“The only thing in my head is to make sure that I work hard and do my best, because when my hometown fans buy a ticket to see me, they are doing me an honor, and I will not disappoint them.”

Wiratchai is riding a six-bout win streak, with notable wins over the likes of Amir Khan, Peter Davis, and Kyal Linn Aung inside the ONE Championship cage.

His most recent outing should have seen him take on Australian Rob Lisita, but eventually pitted him against Rajinder Singh Meena after Lisita withdrew from the contest.

Wiratchai proved that the opponent change was no problem for him, as he finished Meena via knee KO after just 29 seconds, positioning him as one of the premier athletes in the ONE lightweight division.

“It was a bit disappointing, because I prepared for one tough martial artist, but had no chance to use what I had been training for,” he explained.

“But what I knew about Rajinder is that he never gets knocked out, so that is what I tried to do to challenge myself.

“It says a lot about how to deal with life,” he continued.

“Life is all about changing. In every change there is always an opportunity. I hate the change, but when it happens, I will take the opportunity inside and make the best out of that opportunity.”

Wiratchai now faces dangerous Russian grappler Yakhyaev, whose martial arts roots come from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and combat sambo.

“Rasul is dangerous everywhere,” the Thai admitted.

“But I think I can handle him on the feet. Chechen wrestlers are always some of the best in the world, but I have wrestled with many high-level wrestlers. I might not invite him into wrestling, but I can go for that if necessary.”

Wiratchai has been splitting time between Bangkok Fight Lab and Tiger Muay Thai & MMA in Phuket, training alongside his girlfriend Rika “Tinydoll” Ishige, who is also scheduled for action on the same card on 9 December.

“Bangkok training is great. Many great guys are around, I can go around the city and train with many high-level guys in many different aspects of the game. Also, my head coach, Lee Livingstone, is there, so I can get good advice from him all the time. Bangkok is a good place for technical development.

“But, Phuket life is more friendly for my intensive camp. I always spend at least one month before the bout at Tiger Muay Thai. I can train full-time with no traffic problems, and high-level athletes from around the world are here. I just stop my work in Bangkok, and stay focused in Phuket before the bout.”

Now, fully prepared and ready to put on a show in front of his home fans, Wiratchai says the time has come to round off 2017 in style and send him into the New Year in championship form.

“2017 is a year that I have been working very hard,” he said.

“I hope I win this match, and 2018 will be another year that I keep working hard. Not just for myself, but for Thai martial arts.”

The first ever collective flagging campaign was undertaken on Wednesday to alert popular video sharing service YouTube on what the Balinese have deemed an offensive interpretation of their Joged traditional dance.

The campaign, which involved more than 80 representatives from universities and youth organisations in Denpasar, was triggered by a public uproar over female Joged dancers who performed movements simulating sexual acts with male audience members, often in front of children who were also watching the show.

“Joged is a social dance performed during community events as entertainment. It has been recognised by UNESCO as [an Intangible Cultural Heritage]. In its original and most widely performed form, it is a dynamic dance with flirtatious elements, but never vulgar or sexually explicit gestures,” arts professor Made Bandem said.

The public uproar was further inflamed by the circulation of “Joged jaruh” (obscene) videos on YouTube, with one footage showing it had been watched 10 million times.

The performance was held at the main campus of information technology university STIMIK-STIKOM Bali. The university’s representatives were briefed on the vulgarity of the Joged that had been performed before they were directed to report the YouTube channels that featured the videos.

“We expect to file at least 5,000 reports today. This is the first step of the campaign, and we expect to involve more people in the coming days, since anyone with a smartphone can participate,” said Marlowe Makaradhwaja, who is organising the mass flagging campaign.

The campaign, he added, had two objectives: convincing YouTube to suspend the channels and educating the public on the authentic Joged dance.

The hiking trails on Mount Rinjani in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, are set to be closed to hikers for three months, from Jan. 1 until March. 31.

Mount Rinjani National Park (TNGR) head R. Agus Budi Santoso told Antara news agency on Wednesday that the trails would be closed due to extreme weather and also to restore the ecosystem in the national park.

Agus mentioned that there were four official hiking trails located in Sembalun and Timbanuh in East Lombok regency; Senaru, North Lombok regency; and Aik Berik, Central Lombok regency. Those coming from other trails are considered to be carrying out illegal hiking.

The 3,672-meter mountain is among Lombok’s tourism icons. Mt. Rinjani is recognised for its beautiful mountain top and a crater lake shaped like a crescent moon named Segara Anak.

The national park recorded that up to 13,956 people had climbed the mountain in 2010. Last year, the number increased to 93,018 people or 666.51 per cent higher.

Agus explained that other national parks, such as Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java and Mount Gede Pangrango National Park in West Java, would also close their hiking trails due to extreme weather.

However, the closing schedule varies, depending on the weather condition in each mountain.

Rika “Tinydoll” Ishige is all set to make the next step in her exciting ONE Championship career.

The Thai star has been competing under the bright lights of the ONE Championship cage in all three of her professional bouts to date, winning two and losing one as he looks to continue her martial arts journey on the global stage.

She had to overcome adversity to get there, having suffered at the hands, and words, of bullies as a youngster growing up, before transforming her life for the better by discovering martial arts.

“I do not remember the first time I got bullied, because I used to get bullied since I was young,” Ishige said.

“When I was a junior in high school, I was bullied by the seniors because I am only half Thai.

“At first they made fun of me verbally, like calling me terrible names, and after that I was physically bullied. I got pushed from behind and had my hair pulled.”

With her teachers seemingly turning a blind eye to the bullying, Ishige and her friends were subjected to ever-increasing levels of mental and physical bullying.

With her half-Thai heritage and slight stature, Ishige found herself as a consistent target, as she explained.

“If you have a weak point or are different, you can be the target of bullying.”

Ishige did her best to keep out of the way of the bullies, but that wasn’t always possible, and she eventually decided to enroll in a martial arts class in a bid to equip herself with the skills needed to defend herself, if the situation required it.

“I did not learn martial arts to hurt people, just for self-defence,” she explained.

“I decided to start practicing aikido and karate.”

It had an almost instant impact on her self-confidence, and she also found it helped her deal with the mental side of the bullying, too.

“I became stronger — not only physically, but mentally,” she explained.

“I felt calmer and better at controlling my emotions.”

Over time, the bullying started to ease off, as Ishige’s confidence started to soar. She says that change was without doubt a result of her taking up martial arts training, and said she’d recommend others in similar positions do the same to improve their situation.

“You cannot change others, only yourself. Get ready to deal with every situation,” she said.

“You should get physical strength by working out or practicing martial arts to protect yourself from physical or sexual bullying. Also, you will build mental strength for dealing with verbal bullying, including cyberbullying.”

Ishige explained that you don’t have to be physically big and strong to benefit from martial arts, citing her training in jiu-jitsu as crucial to her development.

“Jiu-jitsu helped me a lot, both in my normal life and in matches. It is good for small people like me,” she said.

She also had a message to those who bullied her as a teenager, saying it’s important they teach their own children the value of kindness and steering clear of bullying.

“Now we have become adults, and I think some have children,” she said.

“Please teach them to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. No one wants to be bullied.”

Ishige may have used martial arts to beat the bullies, but now she’s using her talent to win inside the highly-competitive environment of the ONE Championship cage.

Her next adventure sees her return to action on home soil in Bangkok, Thailand when she takes on Rome “The Rebel” Trinidad at ONE: WARRIORS OF THE WORLD on 9 December.

Singapore’s Christian “The Warrior” Lee has his sights set on the ONE Featherweight World Title, and plans on making a significant step towards championship contention when he steps back into the ONE Championship cage on 9 December.

Lee (7-1) takes on former ONE Lightweight World Champion Kotetsu “No Face” Boku (26-11-2) in a featherweight bout at ONE: WARRIORS OF THE WORLD, which takes place at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

The young star says he’s ready to make an impact with victory over the former world champion.

“Boku is not a man to be taken lightly,” he said.

“He is a former world champion in the lightweight division, he dropped down to featherweight, and since then he has been on a tear,” Lee acknowledges.

“He has knocked out four of his last five opponents. In his last two matches, he finished Timofey [Nastyukhin] and Eric Kelly, and those were two top contenders in the division, so to think that his age is slowing him down would be a big mistake.

“He is older, he is aging, and he is slowing down, but he still has his power, his timing, and still is a dangerous martial artist. So I am going to be careful with my game plan, and just show him, and the rest of the world, that I am the future of this division.”

Aged just 19, Lee is learning his trade in the unforgiving surrounds of the ONE Championship cage, and received his first taste of defeat when he was submitted in the first round by two-weight ONE World Champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen.

After that loss, Lee went back to the drawing board, and spent eight months away from the cage to mentally and physically hit the reset button on his career.

He returned to training with renewed enthusiasm, as he worked on his game at Singapore’s Evolve MMA and his family’s United MMA gym in Hawaii, where he learned to exercise more patience during his contests.

His new approach has been successful so far. He picked up victory over “The Werewolf” Wan Jian Ping in April this year, then followed up with a third-round submission victory over Malaysia’s Keanu Subba, in a thrilling contest that saw Lee tested by a strong opponent. 

It was the first time Lee had gone past the first round in his young martial arts career.

“It was a great opportunity sharing the cage with him (Subba), because he is a fellow rising star in the division,” Lee said.

“I definitely felt like we were at a crossroads, where one person was going to jump to the front of title contention, and the other person was going to take the back road, so it was a very important match for me. I laid it all out on the line.

“The biggest thing I learned coming out of my match with Subba was just to remain composed, and to not let emotions come into play. That is something every young martial artist needs to learn as they transition into the upper level of the division.”

Lee’s preparations took an emotional hit when his sister, ONE Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee, was involved in a car crash in Hawaii. The accident forced her out of her scheduled title defence against Mei Yamaguchi in November.

The family rallied around Angela, making sure she was suitably recovered from the incident. Thankfully she sustained no significant injuries and was even able to attend the event in Singapore to make an emotional walk to the cage.

“Angela is doing much better,” the Singaporean featherweight said.

“It was a very traumatic incident and we were all shaken up, but we are just so grateful she is here with us today, and that she is healthy and recovering.”

Now, with Angela back at his side helping him prepare once again, Christan’s focus has returned to his bout with Boku as he looks to push himself towards title contention, and a possible rematch with the only man to defeat him, Nguyen.

“I feel my road to the title depends 100 per cent on this upcoming match with Boku,” he explained.

“Nothing happens till I get past him, and not just getting past him, but the fashion I do so.

“If I go out there and it is a three round war that goes to a decision, I might need to prove myself more. But if i go out there and do what I do best, which is take him out in devastating fashion, then who is next?

“There is Marat [Gafurov], Boku, [Narantungalag] Jadambaa, and me. Between those key players, I feel this is the determining match to see who is next in line for the featherweight world title shot.”

Lee is still early in his career, and he’s not rushing his progress. Instead, he’s simply enjoying every step and looking to improve as he continues on his quest for martial arts excellence.

“I am in a very good place in my life. I am very blessed and extremely grateful to be living out my dream,” he says. “I have a great family, a great girlfriend, and great gyms to train out of in Singapore and Hawaii. I feel like everything is coming together.”