Fight Night 2 Write up, By my good friend Kari Reinikainen..
If you missed the show! This is the action you have lost out on
HKA’s Fight Night 2 event on Saturday became a triumph for the club as all its fighters that entered the ring – Gee. Josh and Nick – won their fights, while HKA’s three Moroccan guests staged awesome performances agains tough opponents and received fierce backing from the audience of a full house at the Hastings Centre.
In the first fight of the night, Colin Hayes of Titan took on Stuart Dugan of The Fitness Loft. From the opening bell, both fighters staged fierce efforts in what became the hallmark of the whole night: the audience got good value for its money in the form of tough action by all fighters.
Colin started strongly and managed to get Stuart in the ropes three times for a short while in the first round and he continued to dominate the start of the second round by fierce attacks. Stuart managed to escape most of them and towards the end of the second round, he started to gain the upper hand. Towards the end of the third round, Colin took heave body shots from Stuart and in the end, he emerged as the winner by unanimous decision.
The second fight pitted Rachael Saxby of Tiger Freestyle against Sarah Ballesteros of FCA against each other. Again, both fighters staged a fierce start with exchange of long range fire with shots and kicks, but gradually Rachael emerged as the more aggressive of the two fighters. She landed a few spinning kicks during the second and third round and as the third and final round turned towards the end, both fighters were exhausted from high rate fire they had exchanged in the end. The judges awarded victory to Rachael by unanimous decision, which she had deserved thanks to her higher rate of attacks.
The third fight saw Elton Koleci of XX to take on Reece Cooper of Assassins. The two 14 year olds staged a fast moving fight with formidable effort from both sides. Reece used his legs well in the first round and gradually also emerged as the more aggressive of the two fighters. In the second round, Elton landed a few good roundhouses and managed to escape Reece’s counter-attacks quite well. Reece lost his footing in the third round amid fierce exchange of fire as Elton went for an attack with punches, but Reece quickly regained the ground and responded with series of kicks. Reece won the fight with an unanimous decision, well deserved thanks to his good legwork, but Elton was by no means a soft target.
Fight number four of the night was a 5 x 2 minute round Southern Area Title Fight between Sarah Worsfold and Sammi Perkins. The first round started with strong performance by Sarah, who used her legs well and attacked more and gradually set the pace for the fight. She briefly sent Sammi to the ropes twice in the second round, but Sammi managed to staged strong resistance as she started to use her legs more. In the third round, it was Sarah that dominated the action, helped by strong kicks, to which Sammi replied by a series of long range punches. In the fourth round, Sammi sent Sarah to the ropes for a brief while and the fight became increasingly a close range battle as both fighters were becoming exhausted. The final round started with good performance by Sammi that again roped Sarah, but she responded by close range bodyshots that denied Sammi the upper hand. In the end, Sarah won the fight with unanimous decision.
The next fight was for the Southern Area Bantamweight Title and pitted Farid Ach of Ehsan Shaolin against Marley Mason of GForce. This was to become one of the fiercest fights of the high octane action night, with Marley going into strong attack, while both fighters kept moving well to escape serious damage. In the second round, Farid found himself in the ropes for a short while and as the fierce active round progressed, Marley gradually became the more dominant of the two fighters. However, Farid managed to get Marley to the canvas in the third round and he took the count to five, but he soon regained his pace and landed a strong headshot that downed Farid and the fight was over.
Fight number six was between Alex Lupascu of Mantis and Jay Rowlands of Assassins. Alex landed strong roundhouses to start the first round and he would maintain the momentum with good legwork in the second round to stop Jay’s counter-attacks. In the final round, Jay started strongly and attacked, but again Alex resorted to his strong legwork to balance the books and tilt the score in his favour. The victory was his, again with an unanimous decision.
In the seventh fight of the night, Dheyan Khan of Ehsan Shaolin took on Gee Denne of HKA in one of the most anticipated fights of the night. If the audience had great expectations about the skills of the fighters, they were certainly not left disappointed. The first round started with fierce action and Gee staged well arranged spinning kicks to keep his opponent at a bay. Both fighters showed great skill throughout the fight and in the second round, Gee served some of the highest kicks of the night. The momentum was maintained throughout the third round. The judges awarded Gee the victory by unanimous decision, a victory well deserved as Gee had put his awesome skills to a better use than in most of his previous fights by attacking more.
The following fight put Mat Breuilly of Mantis against Ian Holloway of The Fitness Loft. Mat started strongly in the first round and kept attacking more. However, Ian gradually gained the upper hand and increased his rate of attacks, although in the second round, Mat managed to send him to ropes for a brief while. The same happened again at the start of the third round, but Ian again managed to gain the upper hand and as the round came close to end, he was attacking with a fierce rate of fire. Ian won the fight with unanimous decision.
In the ninth fight of the night, Khaled Khan of Ehsan Shaolin took on Mustapha Souban of Assouar, the first of the three Moroccans to enter the ring. Khaled started very strongly the first round and kept Mustapha on the defensive side for most of of it, but in the second round, he found his fighting spirit and responded to Khaled’s attacks by a series of spinning kicks.The rest of the fight soon settled to a pattern whereby Khaled perhaps attacked more, but Mustapha showed superior skill by a wider range of moves that included many well executed spinning kicks. He was awarded victory by unanimous decision and clearly moved, he knelt on the canvas to kiss it, wrapped in the Moroccan flag to the tunes of roaring applause of the audience.
Elvis Cooper of Freestyle took on Josh Taberer-Simmonds of HKA in the tenth night of the fight. Elvis started well, with a series of spinning kicks in his arsenal, but Josh escaped serious damage and as the fight moved to the second round, Josh started to attack more.He sent Elvis to the ropes both in the second and the third round, and staged a number of impressive spinning kicks and axe kicks in the third round. The judges awarded victory to Josh by unanimous verdict, a well deserved victory as it was Josh that in the end attacked more and used a wider range of moves to gain control of the fight.
In the eleventh fight, Amir Khan of Ehsan Shaolin faced Sean Baxter of CMA. This was to become a fierce battle right from the start as both fighters staged a number of hard kicks and shots. The second round started with the fighters exchanging kicks and after a while, Amir was forced to the ropes. He worked his way out so that the round ended with high rate of fire from both sides. In the third round, Sean staged a few spinning kicks and with more convincing action in store for the rest of the round, he won the fight with unanimous decision.
Nick Lelliott of HKA met Lee Troubridge of TKO in the twelfth fight of the night. Lee started with strong legwork, while Nick responded by good spinning kicks and roundhouses. Lee managed to send Nick to the ropes towards the end of the first round, but in the second round, Nick resorted to well executed spinning kicks and roundhouses that started to tilt the fight in his favour. The third round produced more fierce action, in which Nick retained control of the fight despite Lee’s strong attempts to gain the upper hand. Nick won the fight with unanimous decision, well justified thanks to his skill and high rate of attacks.
Fight number thirteen put Liam Walsh of Falcon against Outmane Samih of Assouar, the second Moroccan fighter in the ring that night. This was to be a fierce fight from the outset, with both fighters showing great skills and willingness to attack. However, it emerged that Liam would be the stronger of the two as he gradually dominated the fight. The Moroccan put up stiff resistance and fought well. However, Liam won the fight with unanimous decision that he did deserve.
The fourteenth fight of the night was between Ylbjer Petri of Mantis met Tom West of Assassins for a Southern Area title contest of 5×2 minute rounds. The first round was fairly equal with the fighters exchanging mainly long range fire with strong shots. The second round roughly maintained the pace of the first one, but in the third round Ylbjer gained the upper hand and Tom had to take count to five after being downed by his opponent. Tom staged good kicks as the round progressed. The fourth round became Ylbjer’s show as he controlled the fight with long range strikes. Tom did not give up and in the beginning of the final round, he staged a few good axekicks and roundhouses. However, these did not inflict serious damage on Ylbjer, who won the fight on split decision.
The final fight of the night brought Steve Keane of Namxang to the ring to face Azddine Dachiche of Assouar. Steve started the fight on a strong note and kept Azzdine on the defensive for most of the time. The Moroccan did not allow Steve to have an easy fight as he showed great fighting spirit, but it was Steve that attacked more and who won the fight by unanimous decision.
