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Jamaican ‘badman-fu’ spurs MMA content creation
November 22, 2024
What if Jamaican-badman-fu was a mixed martial arts style?
This was the question running through professional mix-martial arts (MMA) athlete and film-maker Kyle Chin's head, and so the idea for the content creation was birthed.
This, Chin said, sparked from his different cultural realities.
"There are a couple channels that I watch of people making fun of martial artists and then I thought of our culture that Jamaicans don't really fist fight. We are a culture of weapons users and this whole bravado of this badman culture is really just about intimidation. I thought it would be very funny to have martial arts interpretations, like 'what if Jamaican badman was a martial arts style?'," Chin said.
And so he hopped on to the 'of course I am' trend, showcasing the 'badman fu' styles, where his video attracted nearly six million views on Tik Tok alone.
This would later rapidly increase his social media followers, and so Chin thought of doing more videos.
Since then, a number of 'badman fu' styles have been created, such as puff chest, ninja run and draw yuh hand from the dominoes edition.
As a MMA athlete who has represented Jamaica at different stages, and also the local Rough Fight League middleweight champion, Chin said these styles were not hard to come up with, and a career in film made it easier to film the content.
"As a film-maker and my involvement in martial arts it came of natural effect to give the stunt coordinator a spin," Chin said.
"I actually have a stunt team, so we do stunts in films. So I was a stunt coordinator on Bob Marley's One Love film, Get Millie Black, the new HBO series that is coming out soon, (and) for several other videos.
"I am in the plans of making a martial arts movie in Jamaica," he added.
As an advocate for the growth of MMA in Jamaica, Chin said the content he makes on 'badman-fu' has somewhat helped to peak the interest of others to get involved in the sport for different reasons.
"Not specifically because of the content, but I think it brings them to my page and, on the page, they will see that I am an actual martial artist and involved in the sport ... and guys and girls would reach out who actually want to compete and some people want to learn for self defence," Chin said.
The 'badman-fu' content does not only showcase MMA, but also different Jamaican cultures, as Chin, who is an Afro-Asian Jamaican, is also a volunteer ambassador for the island.
