KG: The Man Behind the Classic

If you know Kerwin Go, you probably know he isn't someone who goes looking for extra attention or recognition. In fact, he would likely be perfectly fine with us keeping the focus on the athletes, the show and Team KG instead of putting it on him.

But this time, we think the man behind KG deserves his moment. Definitely.

With The Last Dance now behind us, we wanted to give Kerwin some well-deserved recognition for what he has contributed to Philippine bodybuilding. Because KG Classic didn't simply become another successful show. Under Kerwin and Team KG, it helped raise the standard of what a bodybuilding production in the Philippines could be, from the stage and athlete experience to the audience, prize money and attention to the smallest details.

The athletes earned the spotlight on stage. Team KG earned the praise behind it. But there was also a man with a vision behind the entire thing, and this article is our way of giving him the recognition and respect we believe he's earned.

For years, the letters KG have been synonymous with one of the most respected bodybuilding productions in the Philippines. And depending on how you choose to read them, those two letters tell you quite a bit about the story behind the show.

KG can give due credit to its founder, Kerwin Go, the chef, restaurateur, bodybuilder and driving force behind KG Classic. Or perhaps they simply represent the mentality behind everything he and Team KG built:

Keep Grinding.

Either interpretation fits. Maybe that's exactly the point.

From the Kitchen to the Gym

Long before there was a KG Classic, Kerwin was building a name in an entirely different industry. His professional culinary career began almost accidentally in 2003, when Scottish chef and restaurateur Colin MacKay broke both arms and asked Kerwin to help in his kitchens. What began as lending an extra set of hands quickly became a career.

By 2005, Kerwin had become MacKay's right-hand man and business partner, taking a major role at People's Palace in Greenbelt. In 2014, the pair opened Blackbird at The Nielson Tower, with Kerwin overseeing the kitchen and helping create the contemporary Asian dishes for which the restaurant became known.

But while Kerwin was building restaurants, he was also building himself. Fitness had been part of his life for years. He spent 13 years teaching group exercise classes at Fitness First, transitioned into CrossFit and eventually found his way into bodybuilding.

Over time, his involvement in the sport expanded beyond training. Kerwin became a bodybuilding judge, eventually serving as a Head Judge and scouting athletes for invitations to KG Classic.

Chef. Restaurateur. Bodybuilder. Judge. Eventually, all of those worlds would come together.

KG Begins

In 2019, Kerwin and Team KG took their first shot at producing a bodybuilding competition. There was no Filinvest Tent, no massive production crew and no audience approaching a thousand people.

The first KG Classic was held August 4, 2019 at TIU Theater in Makati, inside a theatre with just 250 seats. After a three-year absence, KG returned in 2023 at Palacio de Maynila, returned there again in 2024, then moved to Filinvest Tent in 2025 before returning to Filinvest one final time for The Last Dance in 2026.

What started with 250 seats had evolved into one of the most anticipated productions on the Philippine bodybuilding calendar.

Slowly But Surely

The phrase “Slowly But Surely” became closely associated with KG, and looking back, it fits. Kerwin didn't start by trying to create the biggest bodybuilding show in the country. KG grew into it.

By 2024, the competition was expanding its divisions, incorporating Classic Physique and Natural Men's Physique alongside the Men's Physique categories for which KG had become particularly well known. Prize money increased, sponsors grew, athlete fields became stronger and the production continued to evolve.

Then came 2025.

KG Classic moved into the much larger Filinvest Tent in Alabang, accommodating roughly 900 spectators while deliberately maintaining wide aisles and comfortable spacing rather than simply packing the venue with as many seats as possible. VIP tickets sold out before the event, while general admission sold out on show day.

Behind it all was an estimated 100-person production operation, including approximately 30 members of Team KG. The Men's Physique Overall Champion walked away with ₱250,000.

The little 250-seat bodybuilding show wasn't little anymore.

The Chef Behind the Show

Perhaps the most interesting part of KG's success is how much Kerwin's two professional worlds have in common. A great restaurant isn't simply about good food. It's timing, presentation, staffing, service, atmosphere, logistics, quality control and hundreds of details customers should never have to think about.

A great bodybuilding show is the same. Different product, but the same operating discipline.

KG became known not only for what happened under the stage lights, but for the details surrounding them: comfortable seating for the audience, organized backstage areas for the athletes, large support crews, carefully considered production and an emphasis on creating an experience worthy of everyone involved.

Even the food became part of that experience. At the 2025 KG Classic, competitors came backstage after months of dieting to find treats including halo-halo, Dairy Queen and chicken skewers waiting for them.

Of course they did.

A chef built the show.

It Was Always About the Athletes

For all of KG's increasingly impressive production values, Kerwin repeatedly returned to one message: it's about the athletes.

KG invested in the stage because that was where athletes finally displayed months, often years, of work. Presentation mattered. Prize money mattered. Backstage experience mattered. The audience experience mattered too, because the people watching helped create an atmosphere worthy of the competitors standing under those lights.

Several principles ultimately came to define the KG approach: put athletes first, make presentation matter, reward competitors meaningfully, create an experience for the audience, choose quality over simply maximizing capacity, and recognize that the people behind the production are every bit as important as the production itself.

Perhaps that last principle shouldn't be surprising. Kerwin has spent more than two decades in restaurants, an industry where the person standing at the front is only as good as the team working behind them.

Team KG operated much the same way.

More Than Muscle

Kerwin's relationship with fitness has also never appeared to stop at building a physique. A 2019 Inquirer profile highlighted his willingness to publicly discuss inclusivity, representation, inequality, toxic masculinity and homophobia within fitness culture.

There was always a larger conversation about community. Years later, the final KG Classic would be built around three words:

Community. Honor. Legacy.

Perhaps those weren't simply words created for The Last Dance. They reflected something that had been there all along.

Walking Away at the Top

Then Kerwin did something few expected.

After arguably KG Classic's biggest production in 2025, he announced that 2026 would be the last one. Not because KG couldn't attract athletes, because people stopped buying tickets or because the production had stopped growing.

Quite the opposite. KG was walking away while people still wanted more.

But knowing what Kerwin and Team KG had already built, we couldn't help but wonder whether walking away from KG Classic really meant walking away at all. Maybe the end of the show wasn't the end of what Kerwin and his team were capable of building. Maybe they were already looking toward something else, perhaps something even bigger.

First, however, there was one final show.

Kerwin announced that there would be one final competition to honor the athletes, the sport and the people who believed in what Team KG had tried to build. And so, on August 8, 2026, KG Classic returned to Filinvest Tent one final time.

The Last Dance.

One last walk. One last lineup. History on the stage.

The community responded. Even Team KG later admitted they hadn't anticipated just how strongly people would show up for the finale. Afterward, Kerwin spoke about what he would miss. It wasn't the lights, the massive stage or the title of promoter. It was the athletes, the volunteers, the coaches and the community.

Kerwin Go. Keep Grinding.

In 2019, Kerwin Go helped put on a bodybuilding competition inside a 250-seat theater. Seven years later, KG Classic left the stage as one of the productions that helped redefine what athletes and audiences could expect from a Philippine bodybuilding show.

That journey mirrors the man behind it. A guy who unexpectedly stepped into a restaurant kitchen and built a career. Who spent 13 years teaching fitness classes before moving from CrossFit into bodybuilding. Who took a small bodybuilding show and kept grinding, slowly but surely, until it became something much bigger than where it started, and perhaps something bigger than he or anyone else ever expected it to become.

And now we're supposed to believe that's simply where the story ends?

We don't.

Maybe that's what makes those two letters so fitting. KG can give due credit to the man who started it, Kerwin Go, or they can describe the mentality that helped build it: Keep Grinding.

KG Classic may have taken its final bow, but we suspect Kerwin and Team KG haven't. In fact, knowing the way they have operated from the beginning, we have a feeling they're already grinding away at whatever comes next.

And we wouldn't be surprised if it's even bigger.

The Last Dance may have been the end of KG Classic. But something tells us it isn't the end of Kerwin Go or Team KG.

KG: Kerwin Go. Keep Grinding.

Either way you read it, we have a feeling we haven't seen the last of those two letters.

And without much ado, here is the Winner's List...

KG CLASSIC 2026

Saturday, August 8, 2026

Filinvest Tent, Alabang

Presented by Team KG, Supplement Hub, JFit and Basic Wins

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — TEENS

1. Mark Daniel Pajanel

2. Harvey Yzrah Garcia

3. Jeynald Mercado

4. Daniel Dawud Magallanes

5. Sean Marley

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — JUNIORS

1. Albert Ortinez

2. Kristian John Pervado

3. Justin Ibao

4. Jade Donio

5. Jhan Gabriel Aquino

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — MASTERS 35–39

1. Zandrix Franz Rebolos

2. Earl Navarro

3. Ralph Justin Cid

4. Don Vincent Perez

5. Ronald Allan Castro

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — MASTERS 40+

1. Rene Lingganay*

2. Christopher Adrian Anglo

3. Arlando Domingo

4. Kevin Bros Labanon

5. Judyrick Urdaneta

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — TRUE NOVICE A

1. Raymond Shu

2. Norman Albert Santiago III

3. Jovito Magdayo Jr.

4. Rhon Miranda

5. Nathan Gabriel Biscocho

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — NOVICE A

1. Norman Albert Santiago III

2. David James

3. Aaron Tumang

4. Rodolfo Palapar

5. Charles Uyan

   
   

BIKINI — CLASS A

1. Genily Malinao

2. Lourdes Marie Mallari

3. Pauline Manila

4. Gabriella Hilde Diano

5. Dyan Amelie Famini

   
   

BIKINI — CLASS B

1. Gillette Montano

2. Yssa Mendoza

3. Marisol Santos

4. Cindy Janice Avila

5. Mycel Binaday

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — NATURAL A

1. Jean Gabriel Aquino

2. Alfonso Que

3. Edenver Maputol

4. Mark Joseph Purificacion

5. John De Castro

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — OPEN A

1. Francesco Jose Anicete

2. Jayson Evangelista

3. Rene Lingganay

4. John Era

5. Albert Ortinez

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — OPEN B

1. Raymond Shu

2. Fil John Fontanilla

3. Zandrix Franz Rebolos

4. Rod Cereno

5. Sir John Philip Vargas

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — OPEN C

1. Jay Jay Ngitngit

2. John Christopher Arañes

3. Earl Navarro

4. Jose Paolo Zafra

5. Don Vincent Perez

   
   

MEN’S PHYSIQUE — OPEN D

1. Jayson Gonzaga

2. Vittorio Nicolo Abines

3. Odunuga Tolorunlase

4. Muhirwa Godson

5. Arlando Domingo

   
   

MEN’S CLASSIC PHYSIQUE — CLASS A

1. James Vincent Mariano

2. Eljun Camunay

3. Jones Brail Sanchi

4. Richard Diacosta

5. Reymond Alvarez

   
   

MEN’S CLASSIC PHYSIQUE — CLASS B

1. Antonio Galaminda III

2. Jeffrey Palaganas

3. Zandrix Franz Rebolos

4. Robi Miano

5. Jock Uy