One Big Saturday at NGMA: Kickboxing, Quiz Night & a YOKKAO Title
Some Saturdays take a bit of recovering from. Saturday 24 October 2026 was one of those, for all the right reasons.
At New Generation Martial Arts (NGMA) in Woolston, Southampton, we welcomed Olaf’s Run Club for kickboxing with Alice, hosted our first NGMA Quiz Night with a sell-out crowd and finished by watching Charlie Pearce win the YOKKAO UK Light Cruiserweight National Title.
Three very different parts of the same day, with plenty of smiling faces along the way. We’re still buzzing about it.
Olaf’s Run Club swaps running shoes for kickboxing
First up, Alice hosted a kickboxing session for Olaf’s Run Club. We love seeing another local group come through the doors and give something different a go, and it was lovely to welcome the runners onto the mats.
There were certainly some smiling faces. There may also have been a few tight hamstrings making themselves known. We’ll let the runners tell us how those feel today!
We hope everyone had a good time and enjoyed getting stuck into something outside their usual routine. Thanks for coming along, trusting Alice with your session and bringing your energy into the gym.
If you haven’t come across them before, Olaf’s Run Club is a friendly, all-abilities running group based at Olaf’s Tun in Woolston. They bring people together through running and the social side that comes with it, which feels very familiar to us.
It’s always good to make connections with the people and independent businesses around us. Having the run club in for a session was a lovely way to start the day.
Our first NGMA Quiz Night: a sell-out Southampton social
Then it was time for a very different kind of test. Our first NGMA Quiz Night brought 50 people from the NGMA community together, making it a completely sold-out social.
And honestly, it was absolutely amazing.
When you organise something for the first time, you hope people will enjoy it. Seeing the room full and watching everyone having such a good time together was better than we could have hoped for.
We spend a lot of our week seeing people work hard in classes. Getting everyone together with a quiz to tackle gave us a chance to enjoy each other’s company in a different setting. It was lovely to look around and see people laughing and spending time together.
Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and came along. You made our first quiz night feel like something really special, and we loved sharing it with you.
A big shout-out to the mixed team
We want to give a proper shout-out to the mixed team: people who booked on their own and came along without a ready-made group.
That can take a bit of courage. It’s easy to see a team event and assume you need to bring a full table of friends to join in.
We’re really glad you came. You arrived on your own, and we hope you left with a few new friends.
That was one of our favourite parts of the evening. We want people to feel comfortable getting involved, including when they don’t know many faces yet. Thank you for giving it a go and being part of the night.
Charlie Pearce wins the YOKKAO UK Light Cruiserweight National Title
The evening wasn’t quite finished when the quiz was over. Charlie Pearce’s fight had been pushed back to the main event, so a big thank you to everyone who stayed to watch and support him.
Competing at YOKKAO 53 at indigo at The O2 in London, Charlie came through a hard-fought five rounds to win the YOKKAO UK Light Cruiserweight National Title.
What a way to finish the day.
Huge congratulations to Charlie and the Chana Satru team. Five tough rounds and a title to take home is something to be very proud of. We were delighted to watch the win together back at NGMA.
Thanks for being part of it
From the runners trying kickboxing with Alice to the quiz teams and everyone who stayed for Charlie’s fight, thank you for making Saturday such a good one.
We care a lot about how it feels to be here. Watching people come together, welcome new faces and enjoy themselves is something we’ll remember from this weekend.
If you’ve been curious about NGMA, this is a little glimpse of the people behind the classes. You don’t need to know anyone already, and you don’t need previous martial arts experience to come and train.
Want to give a class a go? Follow the link to book your free trial, or get in touch and we’ll help you find a starting point. Olaf’s runners, you’re very welcome back too. Hamstrings permitting.
