January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Fight Fest lives up to its name
Fight Fest lives up to its name
A near capacity crowd of more than 1,000 fight fans filled the gritty number one shed to see Bermuda's best Sanshou competitors (which translates as Chinese freestyle fighting) take on international opponents.
And they were brought to their feet time and again as the competitors gave it their all with flying fists, punishing kicks and gravity-defying takedowns.
In the end the Bermudian record was won three, lost three, drawn one. Here's how it went.
Nathan Dill (Ber)
v Prince Lee Isadore (Tri)
Fight declared a draw
You know you are in for a brutal night of fighting when one of the competitors is stretchered out of the ring less than a minute into the first fight.
After some initial hard-hitting attacks from Dill, the pair fell awkwardly resulting in the Prince suffering a serious elbow injury. The fight was declared a draw, but once concern for Isadore's health had been alleviated, it was the Bermudian competitor who was taking the plaudits of the packed crowd.
David Saxby (Can) beat
Jaymz McKind (USA)
No local involvement in this bout, and it was a bit of a mismatch with Saxby showing superior skills to win in round one.
Reuben Bean (Ber)
beat Greg Cohen (USA)
The pace picked up with this bout as Bean, one of Bermuda's top martial arts competitors, took on respected American competitor Cohen.
It was Cohen, who trains under world renown Sanshou and Kung Fu Sifu Jeff Naayers in China and will be heading to the Olympics, who came out strong, flooring Bean with a kick to the chest. But the Bermudian soon established his dominance pounding him with a series of crushing blows.
By the third round, Cohen's energy was spent and the bruises were already beginning to show as Bean meted out the punishment.
He even had enough in the tank for a celebratory somersault before the split points decision was announced.
Sentwali Woolridge (Ber) beat James Ramoutar (Tri)
Possibly the fight of the night with two real competitors giving their all.
Both men soaked up their fair share of blows but it was Woolridge who was always on top, with his spirited opponent refusing to go down easy.
In the third round Woolridge slammed him to the canvas on two separate occasions with a move that would have broken the will of a lesser competitor.
But Ramoutar kept coming back for more and it wasn't till Woolridge put him on his back for a third time, bringing the crowd to their feet, that the Trinidadian could take no more.
Otero Smith (Ber) beat
Mervyn Smith (Tri)
A superb comeback from Otero Smith after taking a shot where it hurts early in round one.
Otero had to take a breather after that one and struggled to get into the fight as his opponent took advantage.
But he showed plenty of testicular fortitude to come back into it in the later rounds with a ballsy display, landing some heavy blows of his own, to edge an extremely tight bout on points.
Donald Snaggs (Tri) beat
Garon Wilkinson (Ber)
The first Bermudian defeat of the night as Snaggs put the squeeze on Wilkinson using some wrestling maneuvers to neutralize the threat posed by Wilkinson's kicks and strikes.
The tactic worked and Snaggs won a points victory with Wilkinson having to call on all his mental strength to stay in the fight and land some kicks of his own.
David Saxby (Can) beat
Khalid Pitcher (Ber)
This was Pitcher's first ever SanShou bout. His opponent fought two in one night.
The experienced Canadian, who was at the PanAm games earlier this year, dominated the bout which was stopped in round two.
But Pitcher will have gained from the experience and deserves credit for getting in the ring with such an opponent.
Fair play to Saxby, also, who shut out calls from the crowd to remove his chest guard and 'take your blows like a man' to record his second comprehensive victory of the evening.
Kenneth 'Steel' Bishop (Tri) beat Leroy Maxwell (Ber)
Bishop, who apparently got the nickname 'steel' because his shins and hands are supposedly as hard as steel, has a reputation in Trinidad for knocking out every fighter he has faced.
And he pounded Maxwell for three rounds. But the Bermudian fighter hung on doggedly, determined not to go down.
At the end of the bout Bishop lifted him off the canvas in a sporting acknowledgement of the effort he had put in.
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