Knockout, Meet Ropes. Ropes, Meet Knockout

REPORT BY BREANNA ARMSTRONG AND JOSE LOPEZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY KASPROWICZ

PRIMM, Nev. (April 17, 2010)- Fighters from around the world met at Primm Valley Casino & Resort to compete in the World Championship Kickboxing Muay Thai event. Buffalo Bill’s Casino Resort hosted the 13 amateur and professional fights that included four title bouts.

In the first fight of the night, Joey Pagliuso from United States Karate Organization in Riverside, Calif., took on Martin Hench from Los Angeles, Cailf., in the welterweight division. Pagliuso was originally matched to fight Sean Diznay, but just three days before the fight Diznay took himself off the card due to an injury. Hench came on as a last minute replacement, taking the fight on two days notice.

“He was a lot taller than the fighter I was originally set to fight,” said Pagliuso after the fight. “It took me a day in training to adjust to fighting a taller fighter.”

Pagliuso has a background in Karate, and dominated the fight from the beginning with his kicks. While Hench had a few knockdowns to his opponent in round two, Pagliuso dazed his opponent with several back fists keeping control and looking to knock out Hench. Pagliuso took the match after four rounds with a unanimous decision.

“I think that Joey used really good tactics against my style,” said Hench, after the fight. “This was a great match up stylistically for me.

“I hit him with a lot of stuff,” continued Pagliuso, “but he kept coming. I kicked him in the eye at one point and thought he would not want to come out again, but he came out. He’s a tough guy. I’m happy to get the win, but was really looking for a knock out.”

The second fight had an attractive entrance by Menno Dijkstra (32-5), from Chakuriki Pankration gym in Holland, who entered the ring with a green skull mask and paced the ring as he waited for his opponent. The Dutchman fought Chaz Mulkey (3-2) in the middleweight division. Despite the intimidation tactics by Dijkstra, Mulkey dominated the match. He took control with the clinch on several occasions, and delivering powerful knees to the delight of his fans. Mulkey, took the five round fight with a unanimous decision.

There were three championship matches on the professional card. In the first, Scott Leffler (4-0), the Las Vegas native, won the IKKC Muay Thai USA Welterweight Championship via TKO at 1:25 in the second round over James Martinez, who took a protective count after being taken down with a leg sweep.

Shawn Yarborough (7-1-1), who trains out of Warrior’s training center and X-treme Couture in Las Vegas, successfully defended his WBC Muay Thai Light Heavyweight Championship title Tom “Scorpion” Munro (6-2), from Atlanta, Georgia. It was a quick fight for the Las Vegas native as he got a TKO by a kick to Munro’s knee at 1:31 in round 1.

The best fight of the night hands down and by far was the fight between Jemyma Betrain (17-2) of Holland and the crowd’s favorite, Christine Toledo (13-3) of Las Vegas. Betrain was another last minute replacement as Toldedo was originally matched up against Petra Janssen van Dorn.

At 19, Betrian has already established a concrete name for herself in women’s Muay Thai. And when Toledo was matched against this unstoppable force to be reckoned with, Toledo could have been just the woman to stop her. The battle for the WBC belt was on.

The girls made the arena come alive as the bell rang in the first round. Betrian immediately starts striking her opponent with sharp and quick movements. Toledo got rarely got caught and blocked many punches and kicks to the legs. In the rounds to come, Toledo executed the knees like the professional that she is, putting up quite the fight for Betrian. These girls were quick and were at top performance for the entire five rounds.

After five grueling rounds, Betrian defeated Toledo and received the WBC International Women’s Super Flyweight Championship title.

The most anticipated fight of the night had Craig “the bullet” Buchanan (17-3) facing a last minute replacement, Jack “Rhino” Thames from Las Vegas, for the WBC Muaythai USA Middleweight Championship title. The fight was close, with both fighters taking hard shots at each other throughout the fight. After four rounds the judges awarded Buchanan the fight with a split decision.

“He was a lot tougher than I expected,” said Buchanan, who ended the fight delivering a knee that sent Thames into the ropes seconds before the bell rang. “The whole fight I thought was pretty even. The decision could have gone the other way too. But it was a good fight.”

The second half of the card had seven amateur fights. Artem Sharoshkin, the “Russian Experiment” who trains out of San Diego, Calif., went up against Nick Chasteen from Arizona, in the IAMTF Welterweight Bout. Sharishkin, a crowd favorite, delivered two kicks to the prideful Chasteen’s head to get the knockout at 1:28 in round three.

The knockout sent Chasteen into the ropes and the crowd came alive again. This was the amateur fight to see. This fight was the talk of the night. Sharoshkin delivered a great performance and will be fighting again for the WCK on May 29, at the Hollywood Pak Casino in Calif.

The final fight of the evening was a re-match for the IAMTF Women’s Super Flyweight Championship title. Genesis Bravo faced Melanie Edwards. Jenna Castillo TKO’d Melanie for a USMF title at the Fairtex show on March 6, so Edwards wanted to make up for the loss by taking it out in a different ring.

There was a height difference between the two that favored Edwards. Using that advantage Edwards continuously struck Bravo with her jab. However, Bravo constantly moved forward using power shots to wear her opponent down.

“She’s strong, and a lot taller,” said Bravo about her opponent. “But I trained for that this time. I trained with girls that were a lot taller. I trained for the height and reach advantage. I didn’t want to get caught off guard.”

After five rounds Bravo was crowned the new Women’s Super Flyweight Champion to the delight of the audience.

RESULTS

Professional Fight Results from WCK Muay Thai April 17 at Buffalo Bills Casino

Bout 1

Joey Pagliuso defeats Martin Hench via Unanimous decision

Bout 2

Chaz Mulkey defeats Menno Dijkstra via Unanimous decision

Bout 3

Scott Leffler defeated James Martinez via TKO (leg sweep) in round 2 at 1:25.

Bout 4

Shawn Yarborough defeated Tom Munro via TKO in Round 1 at 1:31

Bout 5

Jemyma Betrian defeated Christine Toledo via unanimous decision

Bout 6

Craig Buchanan defeated Jack Thames via split decision

Amateur

Bout 1

Damian Early defeated Carlos Quintano via TKO in Round 2 at :26

Bout 2

Melinda Tyler defeated Jamie Scolastico via unanimous decision

Bout 3

Artem Sharoshkin defeated Nick Chasteen via KO in Round 3 at 1:28

Bout 4

Andrew Miller defeated Sergio Valenzuela via split decision

Bout 5

Vadim Goberman defeated Matt Church via split decision

Bout 6

Anthony Castejone defeated Mike Madrid via unanimous decision

Bout 7

Genesis Bravo defeated Melanie Edwards via unanimous decision

***Check out our video coverage from the Fight of the night between Christine Toledo and Jemyma Betrian