Friday Night Fights

The Dojang http://www.hamiltonkarate.org/index.html had a few fighters in the latest local arena event and I was invited to come along and corner.

Free admission? I'm there. I love coaching and the a lot of fighters end up lacking when it comes to the mental aspect.We went 1 for 2.

Steve Smith won his fight in convincing fashion and now moves to 2 and 1. Both wins coming on a quit on the part of the other fighter. Steve's punching power is just not something they've experienced before. Last night he added what might now be considered his signature technique, the spinning backfist. Perfectly set up and executed the whole way. Turns out is opponent was 9 and 0 but after Steve hit him with a few good right hooks all he wanted to do was clinch. Steve waited out the submission attempts, reversed position and started to rain down hard from the guard and the other guy verbally tapped. Very good showing that got some attention. Opponent said he'd never been hit that hard.

All I've got is pics from after as I was cornering.

Here's an entertaining match in the "massive" weight class.

Ray Lopez had a rematch/grudge match with a former opponent and this in many people's minds was the fight of the night. Going the distance of all three rounds, Ray ultimately lost a judges decision. In the third round Ray landed one helluva straight left that rocked his opponent and royally broke his nose. Lotta blood just like their first fight. Against the Ring Doc's advice the guy elected to continue and held on by taking Ray down again to finish the round. Ray showed fantastic hand power and speed and good presence on the ground where his opponent constantly took the fight and tried to cause damage which Ray avoided. Ray showed good improvement in his ground defence. Now we need a little time to improve his guard and his takedown sprawl. I know the winner won't be breathing well for a long time nor walking too well for a while let alone entering the ring. Ray, on the otherhand, had really had little damage. I think ray inflicted the most damage but his opponent got in alot of ground and pound which the judges liked.

Nice left here at 0:18

The main event of the night, while brief, was also quite entertaining. The corner of the fighter in the white trunk conspicuously paraded around some championship belt he won in Vegas. Well, he was quickly submitted by nasty armbar here in seconds. He was hurting and didn't get up for a while.

All in all a very good time.