Mon Lung Kung Fu Club students and members recently had the opportunity to get a closer look at sifu Charles Gaffiero’s career during a colloquium held at the school premises in Sliema.

This meeting was held on the initiative of student members keen to learn more about their chief instructor’s achievements and his introduction of Kung Fu in Malta. Gaffiero’s biography has been published in the combat martial arts magazine in England.

The colloquium was conducted by senior member of the school, sifu Noel Gatt who is the author of Gaffiero’s biography. Gatt read passages from Gaffiero’s biography, pausing to focus on highlights from his career which were explained in more detail by Gaffiero himself.

The audience also had the opportunity to read Gaffiero’s formal letter of challenge made to boxing legend Muhammad Ali, and his vast collection of photographs and newspaper cuttings reporting his activities since his early days of practice to date.

Highlights from sifu Gaffiero’s outstanding career are the introduction of Kung Fu in Malta in 1968, touring for three weeks in the UK with ‘Iron Man’ Charles Saliba, giving public demonstrations to raise funds for the purchase of a kidney machine for the general hospital of Malta and the challenge made to Muhammad Ali in 1976.