Nine titles decided at kick-boxing fest

Richard Morais, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:

With some of the best in the craft on show and nine world titles up for grabs, the greatest Muay Thai Kick-boxing Championship card outside Thailand was held at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium, Falmouth on Friday.

In the main event, world super welterweight champion Yodsan-klai Fairtex retained his title with a TKO win over Malaipet Team Diamond. While the loser didn't hit the canvas, a cut near his eyes stopped the bout in the fourth of a scheduled five-round contest.

And though he lost, Malaipet was giving as much as he was getting and, had not the cut opened there, could've been a changing of the guard.

Roughhouse technique

In a feature bout, Lamsongkram Chuwattana retained the world middleweight championship over Farid Villaume. His roughhouse technique paid off over a swifter Villaume.

The Jamaican Clifton Brown, fighting for Canada, went down to Kaoklai Kannorasingh in the world cruiserweight title. The large Jamaican contingent showed opposition to the decision.

Coming out to a Jamaican rhythm, the crowd support started from then. For the first part of the fight, he seemed to thrive off the roars and connected with some vicious punches.

Two of the colloquially termed 'bicycle' kicks and a somersault kick in which his full body weight jerked the smaller man, brought the stadium to its feet.

However, the obviously less-conditioned Brown started wilting and suffered some serious close-up blows. Kannorasingh's elbow blows were deadly on Brown, which opened a cut over his eyes which may have eventually caused the split decision to be given against Brown.

Another crowd favourite was the world super heavyweight title fight between Frenchman Patrice Quattron, who defeated American Rick Cheek. The Frenchman endeared himself by parading with a Jamaican flag and could do nothing wrong. He seemed to thrive off the vociferous support and made light work of his opponent.

Parading of females

The lone female fight, the women's world lightweight title showdown, was watched with apprehension by the Jamaican crowd as the expectation was, more or less, the parading of the female form as a sales pitch.

However, those who were expecting a 'hen-fight' must have been disappointed as the women dished out similar ruggedness as the male counterpart.

When the dust settled, Germaine de Randamie of Holland defeated Julie Kitchen of England.

The world super cruiserweight title went to the Australian Steve McKinnon over Aswin Balrak of Canada. The world middleweight title holder is Deisellek Rumgru-angyon of Thailand. He defeated Marco Pigue of Holland to take his belt, while Baxter Humby (USA-Canada) defeated Jiangtao Dong (China) for the world super welterweight.

Celebrity audience

The world light heavyweight title went to Manu N'toh of the US who defeated Vicente Vielvoye of England.

The fights were witnessed by many top celebrities - both locally and abroad - and included Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange.

Some who attended expressed satisfaction at the stadium being utilised.

Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett had earlier told The Gleaner that a full sports tourism thrust was soon to be launched.