Alain Ngalani is one of the most imposing figures in ONE Championship today, but he may never have embarked on his martial arts journey had it not been for his mother.
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As a 6-year-old, Ngalani came home from school upset after being bullied. And rather than simply offer a shoulder to cry on, Ngalani’s mum offered some tough, but valuable, advice.
“You have to go back and stand up for yourself,” she told him. They’re words that have stuck with the Hong Kong-based Cameroonian to this day.
“After that,” he said, “she put me in martial arts, and I never stopped.”
Listening to Ngalani recount his childhood, it’s clear that his mother was a strong woman, with strong principles she looked to instil into her children.
“She is very dedicated in what she does or what she wants, and I think she has passed that down to my brother and I,” Ngalani explained. “Life is never gonna be a given, you have to fight for what you have. She put that into us. She instilled us with that.”
Ngalani’s martial arts journey went from strength to strength, as his thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn saw him adopt a range of different martial arts disciplines.
Despite his clear aptitude for martial arts, Ngalani’s mother remained unconvinced her son could turn his passion into a career. Ngalani, perhaps fired by the determination he inherited from his mother, proved her wrong.
He captured four Muay Thai and kickboxing world titles, and set up a stable of martial arts gyms, Impakt MMA, as he achieved success in martial arts in both the sporting and business spheres.
That success allowed him to buy his mother a house and a car, as the proud son was finally able to repay the woman whose advice helped put him on this incredible journey.
“It felt like such a fulfilment to be able to prove her wrong,” he said. “She takes back what she was thinking, and she is happy that I am doing what I love, and that I am successful at it.
“I was very pleased to be able to take care of her in those ways, and to continue to take care of her in any other way that I can.”
Now, Ngalani wants to pass on the same values and advice to his own children, as he looks to raise his own family.
“I always want to be a role model to them,” Ngalani said. “And I know that they love me no matter if I am competing or not, so that is not the point. It is not that I have to compete because of them. I am driven to be an example, I am driven to be successful at what I do, or I am driven to try hard for them.”
“The Panther” also wants to take those values and help other children in his community, using the power of martial arts to educate and inspire young people in Hong Kong and beyond, while remaining an example during his competitive career.
“I want to teach the community, teach kids, and give them a bit of what I have gained from all this experience,” the 42-year-old said. “I promote being well-behaved, respecting your elders, respecting even people that are younger than you, respecting your family, and respecting your father and your mother. These are martial arts attributes.”
Ngalani returns to action in a special Open-Weight Super-Bout against ONE Middleweight World Champion Aung La N Sang in Yangon, Myanmar, on 3 November, where he’ll be hoping to write the latest inspiring chapter in a remarkable career, inside and outside the cage.
