| Loose |
Man have I missed fighting. I haven’t fought in the ring since 1996. Well, that changed this weekend as I fought in "ALBERTA CONTINUOUS MUAY THAI & KICKBOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS".
I was really apprehensive going into this tournament. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as the men’s middleweight class was a 35 pound range, and the level you fought in was self selected (novice, advanced, open). I was a little worried of a really good experienced fighter competing in my class, the novice class, where they don’t belong.
As with all tournaments I’ve fought in, the wait before the match was unbearable. I was really nervous stepping into the ring for the first fight, because I didn’t know what to expect. This turned out to be a very scary fight. It didn’t help when one of my gym’s top fighters told me, “watch out, he looks like a heavy puncher”. The guy was about 34 years old, and very muscular. I when the bell rang, I leisurely threw a jab, and was countered with maybe 4 heavy hooks at my head. Good thing I was shelled up. The same thing happened again, I got pounded, waiting in the shell, and when he stopped punching I unleashed a right roundhouse kick at his head. I don’t think he even saw it, cause he didn’t even flinch, but when he got hit, he got knocked out. It was really weird. I expected a pounding, and this scary looking guy went down after 20 seconds. When I kicked him, I saw his eyes go crossed, then roll back into his head as he took maybe 3 steps trying to stay on his feet. Then he just crashed to the ground, and was out for a couple seconds. I felt really bad, but there was nothing I could do. Despite the head and foot/leg padding, I still KO’ed him, and I thought I had pulled my kick. I guess I just hit him in the right spot, or maybe cause he didn’t see it coming, it was that much worse.
It was really strange walking around the gym after that, everyone was looking at me, but not talking. I was like, “sh*t, I hope the other fighters aren’t scared, cause I can’t back that up!”
The next guy I fought was an older guy (‘bout 55!<!--emo&;)--><img src="http://asianet.ca/images/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->, who trains at my gym. Every time we spar, he beats me, but I got him this time. I was the aggressor, and I think he was scared. That was another victory, relatively easy.
Then the called us “Final – Brian Hartwick and Chris Yip”. Damn! I didn’t know it was the final! I was pumped up for about ½ a second, and then went back down to reality as I remembered how this guy had destroyed his 2 last opponents. Being 5’8”, and him being 6’2” put me at a reach disadvantage. I knew I wouldn’t win this fight, but gave it my best. It was going ok (I was getting beaten, but not killed) until my contact got moved off my eye (left) and pulled out of my eye (right) with about 30 seconds left. I couldn’t see anything anymore (eyes are like –6.00), and I started to get rocked. All I could do was shell and chop at the legs with my kicks. Needless to say I got stomped.
What a great experience though. I got back into the ring, did way better than I expected, and earned the respect of many fighters. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Next time I will try to bring back the trophy.
<a href="http://mikemiles.com/pastevents1.html" target="_blank">http://mikemiles.com/pastevents1.html</a> (men’s middleweight, novice) |
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| wong |
Kick ass dude.
I checked out the site, but the pics are way too small. |
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| VR666 |
| Who is this guy? <!--emo&???--><img src="http://asianet.ca/images/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo--> Sure don't wanna mess with him. |
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