Max Bell Arena was filled with 3000 enthusiastic fight fans for the "Clash Reunion 2000" fight program promoted by Canada's Mike Miles. There were 10 blockbuster matches with 7 of these involving international athletes. To top it off, the event was filmed by Canada's top and leading sports television station - TSN for broadcast within the next month (3 times prime time Eastern Canada, 3 times prime time Western Canada with 8 additional spots in the month for non-prime time broadcast). The event was Canadian history in the making with this being Canada's first ever nationally televised Muay Thai and Kickboxing gala.
The main event of the evening featured an athlete who is considered to be Canada's top welterweight, Trevor "T.N.T." Smandych, squaring off with Thailand's Charun Sakcharoenchai for the World MuayThai Council Professional Welterweight Intercontinental Muay Thai Title. After performing the ceremonial Ram Muay both athletes headed into the ring center for last minute instructions from the referee. Both athletes held onto each other for the instructions but the Thai grabbed the Canadian and held his fist on top of the Canadian's head. Touching a person's head in Thailand is very disrespectful and this combined with a sneer was the way Charun let Smandych know, that he did not respect him at all.
In the first round the Thai opened quickly with an inside leg cut kick deciding to forgo a slow 'testing' or 'feeling out' round. The Thai was content to keep the Canadian at a distance and use his kicks to score points. Smandych seemed a little stiff in the first round having trouble finding his range. However, midway through the round Smandych fired a cut kick that the Thai went to block and Smandych changed the trajectory of the kick and teeped the Thai in the face sending Charun reeling backwards. Incensed by the move, the Thai attempted a few elbow strikes but the Canadian blocked all the attempts. Likewise Smandych answered with a few elbows that were also blocked. The first round was very close.
In the second round it was going to be more of the same. Smandych
would move and score a punch or two and then step back out. The Thai was
content to sit and wait and counter with his teep and high roundhouse
kicks. Smandych blocked all of the high roundhouse kicks except one which
glanced off the top of his head. Smandych appeared amused and smiled at the
Thai who in turn taunted the Canadian athlete. Smandych rushed in and
delivered a punch combination that was successful and sent the Thai reeling
back into defense mode. Smandych was still having problems finding his
range and as such was unable to follow up when his opponent seemed hurt.
Charun would keep his range and successfully teep the Canadian out of
range. The heat was building up between the two athletes and again the Thai
attempted several vicious elbow attacks but Smandych again handily covered
and defended against the attacks.
The round was the Thai's. In the next round, Smandych was looking frustrated at not being able to find his range. The Thai would teep successfully and throw high roundhouse kicks that would intercept the Canadian's pressure and attack. However, Smandych would land some very strong punches and then again step back out. The punches would infuriate the Thai who would deliver elbow attacks with the full intention of trying to finish the Canadian. The two athletes fell into a clinch and Smandych started landing some knees to the Thai who attempted to throw the Canadian. Smandych grabbed the rope and the referee separated the athletes. Stepping back, Charun showed his disapproval of Smandych's tactic and again launched a blistering attack that the Canadian defended against
successfully. The round was the Thai's.
In the fourth round, Smandych came out with renewed focus and purpose. He started to pressure the Thai and caught Charun with a series of punches that dazed the Thai. With the Thai stumbling back to the ropes, Smandych turned on the pressure and continued digging with his hands finally unleashing a high roundhouse kick that dropped the Thai to the canvas for a knockdown. Charun got back up but had a bleeding nose. Smandych turned on the pressure and delivered a knee attack followed by several scoring punches which again dropped the Thai to the canvas. The Thai was now very hurt and Smandych sensed an end to the bout. A series of punches followed by a high kick dropped the Thai to the canvas. There was no knockdown rule in effect but Charun's corner threw in the towel and Smandych won the title by 4th round TKO. Trevor "T.N.T." Smandych becomes the first North American athlete in history to win a World MuayThai Council Title Belt (and the second North American athlete in
history to vie for a World MuayThai Council Title - Chad Sawyer was North
America's first). Smandych won the trophy for the 'Best in Town Athlete'.
The semi-main event featured Canada's Vanessa "La Belle" Bellegarde against Thailand's Lampoon Sikiew. Even though this was a professional fight, female athletes fighting under Muay Thai do not use elbow attacks or knee attacks to the head. The length of a round is 2 minutes instead of the customary 3 minutes. Originally, Bellegarde had put in a challenge for the Women's WMC Intercontinental Title which is held by Thailand's Soi Down. Bellegarde had stopped Down last year during a highly publicized bout in Singapore. Down was defending her title elsewhere during this date so the Muay Thai Institute sent the highly rated Lampoon instead. At stake was the vacant WKA Women's Professional Intercontinental Bantamweight Muay Thai Title. In the first round, Bellegarde looked wired and turned the pressure on the Thai immediately but with effective looping punches. Towards the end of the round, Bellegarde had earned the respect of the Thai and finally started to settle down.
In the second and fourth round, Bellegarde continued with the pressure of forcing the Thai backwards. The Thai would teep and Bellegarde was consistent at taking the strike over and countering. The Thai would also round kick to the body and Bellegarde would catch the kick and counter punch with successful punches to the body and the head which would send Lampoon stumbling back into the ropes. In these round Lampoon grabbed onto Bellegarde's head and delivered a few strong and successful knees. But Lampoon did the clinch and knee very sporatically, as she could not get into the clinch at will. Thse rounds went to the Thai.
Rounds 3 and 5 were all Bellegarde in terms of scoring defense and pressure. Bellegarde would catch the Thai girl with successful punches and counter cut kicks while the Thai would teep and roundhouse kick. The Canadian would take over the teeps and catch the roundhouse kick attacks. Bellegarde would keep the pressure on forcing Lampoon backwards and into the corner with nowhere to go. When the Thai would attempt to clinch a strong counterpunch onslaught from the Canadian would send Lampoon stumbling back into the ropes. Bellegarde's work ethic was almost twice of the Thai's. At the end of the bout, the judges had scored a split decision in favor of the Canadian girl. Vanessa Bellegarde had won the match and the vacant WKA Women's Professional Intercontinental Bantamweight Muay Thai Title. At the end of the evening, Lampoon was awarded the trophy for 'Best Out of Town Athlete.'
Other international bouts and their results:
Canada's Jason "Raptor" Jillain took on Swizerland's highly rated Andreas Marchetti for the vacant WKA Pro-Am Intercontinental Welterweight Muay Thai Title. This was a very entertaining bout. In the first round Marchetti came out
providing a lot of movement trying to score on Jillain who would evade the
Swiss fighters attack without effort. However Jillain was having problems
getting his attacks to score as well. Midway through the first round
Marchetti delivered an ax kick (shades of fellow Swiss athlete Andy Hug)
which scored and caught the Canadian on the top of the forehead. Jillain
was unfazed by this blow but the follow up cross sat the Canadian down onto
the canvas obviously very shook. After the standing 8 count, Marchetti was
keen on finishing Jillain who counterpunched and counterkicked buying time
to recover. The first round as well as the second were the Swiss athletes.
In the third round thing's were to change until the end of the bout.
Jillain rushed in an delivered a knee which caught Marchetti right in the
solar plexus. For the remainder of the bout Marchetti would try and avoid
the effective knee attacks and clinch of Jillain. Bruises were welting up
on the Swiss fighters rib cage. Marchetti would provide very dangerous
opposition but Jillain kept very tight and focused. By the fifth round,
Jillain was hammering in up to 6 strong effective knees without the Swiss
fighter being able to counter. At the end of the bout, Jillain was unanimously scored the winner of the vacant WKA Pro-Am Intercontinental Welterweight Muay Thai Title, his first title belt in three years since defeating Canada's tough and talented Dave Zuniga for a Canadian Muay Thai Title belt.
Contesting for the WKA Pro-Am World Superlightweight Kickboxing
Title was Canada's Ashley Odd battling against Mexico's Oscar Contreras.
The crowd loved this fight. In the first round both chiseled athletes showed no respect for each other and both were delivering and landing heavy punches. At one point during the bout, Contreras grabbed Odd's head and delivered a knee to the canadian's body. The crowd was displeased as was Odd. Contreras apologized but this was to add fuel to both fighters desire to win. Toward's the end of the first round, both athletes stood toe to toe delivering bombs that had they connected would have put the other athlete to sleep for a month. Both avoided the shots while in what seemed to be a blur exchanged their blows. In the second round, Odd came out more focused and after avoiding stiff opposition from the Mexican landed a right that put Contreras on queer street. Given a standing eight count, Contrearas did not fully recover before Odd was on him with solid body shots which forced the referee to give Contrearas a second standing eight count. Unable to recover from the onslaught, Odd came in and tore into Contreras at will landing some devastating head shots which finally forced a third standing eight count and by 1 minute and 46 seconds of the second round, Odd had won the WKA Pro-Am World Superwelterweight Kickboxing Title.
In an International Welterweight Prestige Muay Thai Match, Canada's Sokhim Or took on Switzerland's Jose Fernandez. Or had been slated to fight Manase
Majurae, a Thai who had busted his foot 10 days leading into the event.
Fernandez, an undefeated athlete took the bout on short notice. As the bout
opened, Fernandez delivered some crisp probing shots which the Canadian
effortlessly shelled up from. Or looked totally relaxed. At 39 seconds into
the first round, Fernandez decided to become more aggressive and while
marching in he took a left roundhouse to the face that put him down and out
for an ecstatic audience. This was amazing because Or is 5 foot 4 inches
while Fernandez is 5 foot 10 inches in height. "I could not believe I could
kick him in the head", said an ecstatic Or. Canada's Gord Anderson took on
Mexico's Daniel Zapata in an International Prestige Middleweight Muay Thai
rules bout. Zapata had a move and crowd style (with a very broken rythmn)
that caused some grief for the Canadian fighter. Appearing somewhat
frustrated, Anderson finally found his game and from the third round on,
Zapata was tired from the consistent onslaught of knees delivered by the
Canadian athlete. Anderson won the 5 round round bout by unanimous
decision.
Canada's Yuki "Little Samurai" Tatsuno took on Mexico's Bernardo
Gonzalez in an International Prestige Welterweight Muay Thai bout. The
styles of both athletes made this bout turn into a fight in the clinch with
Tatsuno throwing but not effectively kneeing his opponent while Gonzalez
would become frustrated and throw punches to try and shake his foe off of
him. The lack of effective kneeing and consistent clinching made this fight
difficult to score though most felt the Mexican athlete had the upper hand.
Into the fifth and final round, Tatsuno was suddenly cut above his left eye
and the doctor stopped the fight with Gonzalez winning the bout by 5th
round TKO. Calgary's Kerry Dell came out of retirement to battle for the
WKA Pro-Am Cruiserweight Kickboxing Title against Winnipeg's Brian "Dragon" Kelly.
This bout was tossed around for a few years but never materialized
until now. Dell looked nervous knowing he had his hands full with the hard
punching Kelly. In the first round Kelly landed a beautiful right uppercut
which had Dell stagger very noticably. At the end of the stagger Dell
punched himself in the head (as if to wake himself up) and this might have
served to confuse Kelly into believing that Dell was joking around because
the Dragon did not follow up. "I thought Brain was going to finish him but
he never jumped onto the opportunity", said Mike Miles. However in rounds 2
and 3 Dell was to return the favor and he shook Kelly badly several times,
but Dell seemed too tentative to finish it up. The 5 round decision went to
Dell. "These 2 athletes can hit and as a result of mutual respect, the
times where they could have seemingly finished each other, neither
capitalized on it. These guys moved very well", said Mike Miles.
The undercard featured two 3 round bouts. In the first, Hamilton's Adam Higson
took on David Herceg in a supermiddleweight Kickboxing bout. Both athletes
possess awkward styles which served to benefit both athletes. Both athletes
took the bout on very short notice (10 days) and gave the delighted audience a good war. There were impressive exchanges of beautiful kicks and some excellent boxing attacks and defense. Higson won the bout by unanimous
decision but Herceg looked like the tough and talented journeyman athlete he is.
In what was a very entertaining bout, Red Deer's Luke Spicer took on
Calgary's Scott Clark in a lightheavyweight Muay Thai bout contested over 3
rounds. Good technique and desire filled this bout to the brim. Exchanges
were very even and powerful shots were cleanly exchanged. Spicer had Clark
moving backwards but Clark would effectively counter on the retreat. At the
end of the bout, Spicer was given the win by split decision. These guys are
the talent of the future to watch out for.