MUAY THAI AT LEEDS TOWN HALL

Posted on | June 17, 2008 | 1 Comment

By: Dominic Lavin

Lisa and Richard Smith of Bad Company tonight lived up to their reputation as one of the premier centres for Muay Thai excellence by staging an excellently organised night of fights at Leeds Town Hall. The twelve fight card included two world title fights, two women’s fights and several A class fights.

On the undercard Davy Mac of Bad Company against Loz Reilly of Hanuman was a an evenly skilled and well matched bout with Davy emerging as winner and the Dennis v Kapowitz meeting which was given as a draw by the judges proved a good honest entertaining scrap with impressive use of the spinning elbow by both corners.

The first international fight of the evening saw James France of Leeds matched against Yatabre Kisma of France. As a fighter James shows a lot of promise and from round one took the upper hand with steady confident work and position in the ring. Yatabre wasn’t shy in attack but James absorbed his opponent’s efforts well and countered strongly with a full compliment of techniques. By round three James’s opponent was showing signs of tiredness and the Frenchman was forced to retire in round 4 when a strong roundhouse kick dislocated his shoulder.

Richard Cadden was the first fighter of the evening to put a title on the line in front of an audience of around 2200 people. Cadden has held the WPMF World, Wako Pro Euro and IKF European titles several of his 47 fights have been in Thailand and he has won 33 so far in total. His challenger was Rungankorn Kharnpan a UK resident Thai national that he has fought twice before, and with the aggeragate score at 1 each tonights match was billed as a decider with the winner to walk away with the ISKA World Title at 65 kg.

Richard is a very positive fighter and got to work early in round one, there were some good elbow exchanges that by the end of the round left Richard bleeding from the right eye. Rounds two and three again saw Richard pressurising his opponent suffering a knockdown but remaining undeterred and taking the initiative. In round four whilst helping Richard recover from a foul blow the doctor inspected his cuts and judged him unfit to continue. Despite leaving the ring without a win nobody can fault his guts and determination, luck can occasionally win fighters a single title but the several titles Cadden has held were won with the true heart and courage that make Cadden a credit to himself and his gym.

The main event of the evening was Liam Harrison’s defence at 62 kg of his WMC World Title against Sarmsamut Kiatchongkao of Chuwattana Gym in Bangkok. Prior to the fight Liam was confident and relaxed and to be fair made pretty light work of his fourth round stoppage of his opponent who is currently ranked number 7 at Lumphini Stadium. In the past Thais have been known to underperform outside their homeland and without taking anything away from Liam Sarmsamut was a little complacent in the early rounds. Harrison’s impeccable timing and accuracy gave him round s one and two with some strong low kicks and hooks, with a take down in each round. In round 3 the Thai felt the canvas four times however he did start to wake and find Liam with his right knee. In round four the Thai started to take the reins and improve his positional game however Liam retaliated with strong boxing and an elbow which cut him badly enough for the doctor to end the fight.

Andy Howson’s fight against Weera “Spicey”Mingthon of Ko Samui Thailand proved to be a value for money match at 53 kilos. Andy’s one of the top flight at Bad Company and Spicey (who hails from Hua Thanon near Lamai), is the current Chaewang Stadium Champion and Southern area Champion at his weight. Round one was a traditional Thai round with each man respectfully finding range. The second round saw some more exciting exchanges with Spicey attacking flamboyantly and Andy responding with strong hooks and noteably strong front kicks. Round three was fought out at mid range, with some well delivered elbows from both corners and in Round four Andy took a strong single shot left hook from Spicey but responded with some commendable long boxing combinations and sealed the round with front kicks that pushed Spicey back. At the end of round four Spicey nodded his approval at Andy’s efforts and despite landing a good right cross at the beginning of round five Spicey had very little to offer in reply to Andy’s handy work, when the decision came from the judges nobody was surprised to see Andy emerge the winner.

The final fight was between Mark DeLucca an American guest at Bad Company and Alex James of Studio 2000 in Derby, both are accomplished fighters who have spent time fighting and training in Thailand. Prior to the fight Alex (who fights at 64kg) said “He’ll probably slaughter me. I go into all my fights with that attitude and if I get anything else it’s a bonus.” Despite entering the ring dressed as Elvis there was unfortunately no bonus on the night for Alex. To be fair Alex was probably the stronger of the two, fighting well on his back foot and then switching to attacks that cornered Mark however the doctor judged a pretty minor cut that Alex received in round five enough to stop the fight and Mark left the ring with a winners trophy.

All in all it was a professionally run show at a first class venue with well matched fights, the highlight of which for me was Tom Bird (Bad Company 68 kg) knocking Karl Stoddart of Jai Muay Thai clean out in round five with what has to be one of the most beautifully delivered left hooks I’ve ever seen.

PHOTO GALLERY: (click on the thumbs to see full size)