The Fighting Arts Fitness Centre has the mission of leading the industry in improving the lives and health of its members through education, exercise and the Martial Arts. We will add value to our member’s lives through inspiration and encouragement assisting them in achieving set goals. All FAFC facilities are clean, safe and modern with innovative, realistic and diverse instruction in a friendly, family environment. Membership is affordable for all and staff are professional, knowledgeable and caring.

INSTRUCTORS PROFILE

MARIA RICH (GIBILISCO) is a World champion for Kyokushin Full Contact Karate.

The first World Champion Australia was to produce. She has been training in Karate since she was eight years old and by the age of twelve was training five nights per week while other children were playing. Even as a child she took her karate seriously, traveling regularly on weeknights as far as Geelong to train from Moonee Ponds where she grew up. As a teenager she often defeated the boys in semi-contact championships and won numerous non-contact divisions until reaching the legal age for full contact fighting.

At fifteen years of age she became one of the youngest people to gain a Kyokushin Black Belt completing all of the forty fights at the end of a grueling five-hour grading. Maria debuted into full contact placing second in the South Australian State Championships and followed that with a second place in the National championships.

She then went on to win the interstate championships in ’92 and fought undefeated through’93 with wins in the Victorian, South Australian and New South Wales championships and finished the year by defeating the National Champion to win the Australian Kyokushin Full Contact Championships.

She remains undefeated in Australia having won five National Championships since then plus the New Zealand International Tournament of 1996. In 1996 Maria traveled to New York to compete in the First Women’s World Tournament where she was penalized for an alleged face punch and finished in 6th place.

The following year she fought in the World weight Category tournament in Tokyo Japan and was crowned World Champion.

Maria is currently a 4th Dan teaching both children and adults at the FAFC

PETER RICH first walked into a Kyokushin Dojo in 1991. Classes were held in the Eltham Leisure centre Fridays and the Community hall on Mondays. It was a Friday night and Peter had given in to pressure by his older brother Andrew to just try it.

With no previous Martial Arts experience besides teenage backyard brawling he really had no idea of what was involved. Sempai Elica Georgevski (now Sensei Elica Thompson) normally instructed classes but on Peters first night Sensei George Kolovos took the class and instantly captured Peters imagination.

The hard physical training and strong regimentation struck a nerve in Peter and he was surprised at how enjoyable all the hard work actually was. So Peter continued training under Sempai Elica but was an unreliable student and certainly not naturally gifted and after only six months training had a lay off while he traveled around Australia for several months. Shortly after his return he traveled with the group to watch the 1993 South Australian Championships and was so inspired that his training suddenly changed and he started training constantly in classes and at home.

Peter started to enter every tournament and was without a loss in full contact for his first twenty fights. Peter also became a valuable member in the Eltham Ippon team which managed to win four consecutive Teams Championships and the AKKA Ippon Shobu Teams Tournament

In 1996 he entered the New Zealand International tournament and was pushed up into the Heavyweight division by changed cut off weights and had his eyes opened to the hard hits of the Heavyweights in the final by Richard Hood . He took second place but also won the Tamashiwari Division by breaking 21 boards in four strikes.

1996 also saw him win the Full Contact Karate Cup , place 3rd in the Ultimate Challenge and grade to Shodan (Black Belt). He narrowly missed selection for the World Weight Category Tournament but traveled as assistant coach for Maria Gibilisco who won the Womens Heavyweight division.

1999 saw him open his own club with the Gibilisco sisters and this was the birth of the FAFC.

Peter traveled to Sydney to win the Australian Championships and graded to Nidan later that year.

Peter has put the skills learnt in Kyokushin , Kickboxing, BJJ and all the other skills picked up from various instructors along the way to form Nexgen MMA teaching both children and adults.

Peter now a 4th Dan in Kyokushin continues to learn from whoever he can is sure this is only the beginning, the foundation, of a long and eventful life in the Martial Arts

ANTOINETTE GIBILISCO started training in Kyokushin Karate 1984 under Sensei George Kolovos at the old Essendon Dojo in Bradshaw street Scout Hall. She gained her Black Belt in 1993 after sitting for years on a worn out Brown Belt.

Before her time as a contact fighter she placed in the top three in various non-contact divisions including wins at the NAS , Victorian Teams and in Kata . She competed in her first Full contact tournament run by Shihan Jim Phillips in 1996 in Sydney . With only one fight and one win under her belt she entered the Nationals that year to place second to her older sister Maria .

In 1997 Antoinette turned to focus strongly on her grading work and obtained her 2nd Dan . In that same year she won the Gippsland Championships , The South Australian Championships, The Victorian Championships, The Canberra Championships and also placed third in the 97 Australian Championships.

In 1998 She again took out the Gippsland tournament and then travelled to Brisbane to compete in the Nationals and once again met her sister in the final. Again she took second place. In 1999 Maria dropped the weight to fight in the Middle weight division and Antoinette jumped at the chance to this time secure the place as National Heavy weight Champion.

Antoinette then again won the heavy weight division of the National Championships in 2000 as well as travelling to Japan to compete in an International Tournament. She took up Kickboxing at the founding of the Panthers in 1999.

She is currently a 3rd Dan in Kyokushin and holds a Panthers Kickboxing Black Singlet.