Three Fights, Three fine displays is all a coach can really ask for but the fact we came away with two well deserved wins and an unfortunate No Contest due to an accidental but illegal groin strike is something to again be proud of.
The day didn’t start too well with neither Alex or Terry making weight for their bouts after falling into the trap of a dodgey set of scales at a local gym (not ours) however they both donned a sweat suit and hit the treadmill to make the weight. Terry in particular with needing to lose 1.5 kilos showed incredible determination getting from 66.5 to 64.7 in over an hour of gruelling hell.
Alex Vasey vs Jackson Mckenzie (CCA – Hartlepool)
Alex “Crazier horse” Vasey was first up for his debut MMA fight and opened well in the first round driving back his oponnent with strikes and dominating round 1 although giving us a scare with a late kimura attempt by his opponent.
Rnd 2 saw him land a fairly obvious illegal shot for the third time and was doc’d a point (rightly) by the ref. Alex was gassed but determined.
Round 3 Alex took the fight to his opponent Mackenzie Jackson dominating both standing and on the ground. He shrugged off a couple of submission attempts and reigned down the shots.
The descision was a unamnimous win for our young fighter which means he must have been substantially ahead in round two as he was docked a point.
Terry Tait vs Reece Johnson (Spartans MMA)
Terry I thought on paper had the toughest match up of our three lads, I know the team Reece comes from and they are for real with good coaches and a good pedigree. Reece weighed in quite light so Terry was set to have a weight advantage however the fact he spent 2 hours making weight on the day more than likely took any advantage he might have had away. To boot Reece was obviously pretty slick on the ground.
Our gameplan was to take the fight to Reece get the takedowns and dominate with superior striking and clinch. Terry pretty much executed this perfectly and his aggression was something to watch. Reece made one excellent take down in round two a couple of very good submission attempts which a lot of guys would have tapped out to but not Terry Tait. For me Terry put in the performance of the night and had definately entered the fight a bit of an underdog. He dominated position both standing and on the floor for long periods of the fight and deservedly won all three rounds and took the win by judges decision.
Bobby Bolam Vs Luke Mansfield (Team Yasumazu)
To say Bobby had no luck in this fight was an understatement but I’ll concentrate on the actual details first. This was a really interesting battle of Muay Thai versus Chinese Boxing. Luke unquestionably was a better kicker but struggled to live with Bobby’s lightning speed counter punches in bunches. Round one saw Bobby score a flash knock down whilst Luke landed some solid leg kicks and a good sweep.
During Round two Bobby seemed to be succumbing to some of Lukes long range kicking but still responded to a blocked head kick with a right hand that left his opponent again on the canvas with an eight count. Then the fatal flying knee to the groin ended proceedings with an unfortunate no contest result.
After the fight however the true story emerged Bobby having lost his contact lenses on the way into the cage, I knocked one out whislt putting vasoline on his cheek bones and the Trevor the Ref claimed the other checking said vasoline. Everyone who knows Bobby knows he’s blind without them. Then we found he’d managed to break his hand possibly in the line of duty at work in the week leading uptyo the fight. An appauling turn of luck in what was looking like a really good fight in round one. We all agreed a DQ would have been very unfair on Luke who put in a great performance so the No Contest result seemed fair in the circumstances.
Another good night for our figh team though who seem to be really gelling now. Danny “Crazy Horse” Walker Fights on July 4th at NFL and we have Griff & Terry matched 2 weeks later in Alnwick. Roll on the Cyclone Fight Team.
