The Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium, on Friday, was the scene of the greatest Muay Thai Kick-boxing Championship cards in the world.  Some of the most celebrated fighters were on hand to display their skills and compete for the nine world titles up for grabs.

In the main event, world super welterweight champion, Yodsan-klai Fairtex, retained his title with a TKO win over Malaipet Team Diamond.  Fairtex struck his opponent with a blow that opened a cut near his eyes and reuslted in the referee stopping the bout in the fourth of a scheduled five-round contest. 

The Jamaican Clifton Brown, fighting for Canada, went down to Kaoklai Kannorasingh in the world cruiserweight title. The large Jamaican contingent showed opposition to the decision.  Coming out to a Jamaican rhythm, the crowd support started from then. For the first part of the fight, he seemed to thrive off the roars and connected with some vicious punches.  Two of the colloquially termed 'bicycle' kicks and a somersault kick in which his full body weight jerked the smaller man, brought the stadium to its feet.  However, the obviously less-conditioned Brown started wilting and suffered some serious close-up blows. Kannorasingh's elbow blows were deadly on Brown, which opened a cut over his eyes which may have eventually caused the split decision to be given against Brown.

Another crowd favourite was the world super heavyweight title fight between Frenchman Patrice Quattron, who defeated American Rick Cheek. The Frenchman endeared himself by parading with a Jamaican flag and could do nothing wrong. He seemed to thrive off the vociferous support and made light work of his opponent.

The lone female fight, the women's world lightweight title showdown, was watched with apprehension by the Jamaican crowd as the expectation was, more or less, the parading of the female form as a sales pitch.  However, those who were expecting a 'hen-fight' must have been disappointed as the women dished out similar ruggedness as the male counterpart.  When the dust settled, Germaine de Randamie of Holland defeated Julie Kitchen of England.

Australian Steve McKinnon, won the world super cruiserweight title after he defeated Aswin Balrak of Canada.  The world middleweight title went to Deisellek Rumgru-angyon of Thailand. He defeated Marco Pigue of Holland to take his belt, while Baxter Humby (USA-Canada) defeated Jiangtao Dong of China for the world super welterweight.

Organizer of the event, Dennis Warner, is now inspired to establish MuayThai training seminars in local martial arts schools across Jamaica.

"I think that Muay has a tremendous future here in the island of Jamaica. We are looking at trying to convene some seminars now with Clifton (Brown) to come to Jamaica to start some specialised seminar at martial art schools that are already established so that Jamaican youths can start understanding MuayThai more," he said. We want to start developing local fighters because the Jamaican athletes honestly have tremendous potential but proper training and technique are essential to build a champion.

The MuayThai fights formed a part of the fourth Caribbean Classic Golf Invitational (CCGI).  Proceeds from the CCGI's activities will be used to provide computers and establish technology learning centres in primary schools across Jamaica through the CCGI Foundation whose mission is to equip all the primary schools in Jamaica with computers. 

Source:  The Jamaica Gleaner