The Ringsports Open British Championships Liverpool 21st May 2005

 

The Ringsports Open British Championships offered the U.S.K.A light continuous team pastures new to ply their trade, held at Kirby Leisure Centre in Liverpool the event had been widely well anticipated as being one of ground breaking proportions, truth of the matter was that despite being well sanctioned the event fell short of it's promise with an overall poor attendance. Traveling 30 plus strong the U.S.K.A. crew of fighters and spectators had envisaged a testing encounter with the best fighters from across the country, where-as the reality was, that all but a few clubs had made the journey to compete. However the old adage, of you can only beat who they put in front of you, soon came to the fore, as no less than six U.S.K.A fighters won their respective sections, an outstanding return by anybodys standard. With many good performances across the board, fighter of the day goes to Qasim Nisar, who at no point in any of his matches looked stretched beyond his considerable comfort zone. Showing his forthcoming switch from light continuous to full contact is easilly within his make-up and dealing emphatically with two semi contact fighters to win through to take his section without breaking sweat.In order of appearance the fights on the day went as follows First up for U.S.K.A was 9 year old Hakeem Farooq. Hakeem had been training hard for this competition improving in leaps and bounds in the gym since his first loss at the Goldstar event at the start of the year and his recent draw at the W.K.A event earlier in the month. Hakeem worked hard in his first bout against a force one fighter from Birmingham and managed to get the nod in a very close decision. He would need to pull out the stops in his second fight and final against a more experienced opponent. Hakeem did this and with a more superior workrate and kick count won a clear cut victory. Two wins out of two and new ring amateur British champion in his age and weight class. Next up for the U.S.K.A team was the precocious talent of 11 year old Hamza 'POCKET ROCKET' Rafiq. Hamza also took on a Force one fighter in the first round winning a very comfortable decision after scoring the cleaner and more precise work throughout the bout. His next fight however would be a far stiffer task. He would face a very experienced member of the W.K.A british team who is due to fly out to Canada for the world championships later in the year. Hamza undaunted by the job at hand started the bout confidently with good kicking and forward fighting. The feeling was that hamza was coming of second in the punching stakes and to make matters worst he was then deducted a point for an unintentional head punch which were not allowed in his age class. The second and third round saw Hamza playing catch up in a fight where he was improving as the bout went on. At the sound of the final bell the only thing to split them it seemed was the point deduction and the W.K.A fighter gained a well deserved win. To loose in this fashion was by no means disappointing and will have taught Hamza some very valuable lessons when fighting the top guys in the country. Saying that though, hamza has only been training just over 8 months and this was only his 5th bout. Lots to learn but plenty of time to learn it i think. It was time now for 14 year old Usman Ali to take to the ring. Usman taking part in only his third ever contest dominated the bout against his opponent from force one kickboxing club with the referee and corner men stepping in to stop the bout nearing the end of the first round due to the fact that their fighter was taking to many clean shots and had no way back into the contest. A clean win and conclusive ring amateur British championship victory to the rising talent of Usman Ali. Next up for U.S.K.A saw 14 year old Jake Richards in the ring in the first fight of what looked like to be an extremely experienced and difficult category. Jake in his first bout performed excellently showing excellent variety of technique and staying well out of trouble to outclass his opponent over three rounds and win an unanimous decision. It was in at the deep end time for Mr Richards in his second bout taking on a very experienced and competent circuit fighter from Liverpool. Jake although kicking well and holding his own in round one was falling victim to the good punching ability of his opponent. Jake had never competed head shots before and this was apparent in the second round as he was getting caught more frequently with them and starting to look disorganised at times. The third round saw the referee step in and issue two standing eight counts to Jake after being caught heavily to the head with a volley of straight punches. After a third count the referee had seen enough and stepped in to save Jake from taking anymore clean shots. Good call by the ref. Jake impressed me with his guts and determination against his far more experienced foe. Losing to such a quality fighter is no shame at all and will give Jake the experience to draw from if he ever finds himself under heavy fire again. It's was 'STEPPIN RAZOR' time. Fresh off his W.K.A British title win three weeks ago 13 year old Tyler 'THE STEPPIN RAZOR' Shakespeare was back in action this time against a fighter who was only one year his senior but nearly 7 KG's heavier. Tyler who is scheduled to contest the I.S.K.A British title the week after this was in no mood to hang around and risk an injury and set straight to work from the opening bell overwhelming his opponent with flurries of punch kick combinations. A flush left leg round kick to the head followed by a strong punch combination saw referee Rob Sharpley jump in to administer a standing eight count to the wounded fighter. Seeing he was no position to continue the referee called a halt to the bout declaring Tyler the winner and raised his arm in victory as the new ring amateur British champion. 'THE DREAM' was about to be somebody's nightmare! 16 year old Qasim 'THE DREAM' Nisar took to the ring against his old adversary Richard Sidwell. The lads had met twice before previously with Qasim winning the decisions on both occasions. Would it be third time lucky for Sidwell or would THE DREAM capture his hatrick of victory's? Richard started confidently in round one and Qasim was struggling with his timing to land cleanly. Qasim has been in training for his first full contact fight the week after and the change of pace was throwing his timing out somewhat. On returning to his corner after round one he was told to walk his man down and close down the distance in the second. After settling in Qasim found his feet and scored cleanly enough in the second and third round to win a clear but competitive decision. On to the final round now where Qasim faced one of Alfie Lewis's W.K.A world championship team. This looked in prospect to be a hard fight for Qasim and his coach Neil Kelly expressed his concerns to him that he had to get his tactics right if he wanted to remain an unbeaten fighter. A pumped up Qasim started strong and took the centre of the ring to impose himself on the bout. Qasim's no nonsense approach was serving him well landing fast and furious straight punch combinations followed by effective body kick and hook punches. Qasim backing his man up and trapping him on the ropes unleashed a continuous punch combination overwhelming his man and dropping him to the canvas. Cracks were starting to show big time in the Liverpool fighters composure The round ended with Qasim again piling on the pressure and having his opponent in some serious trouble. After breaking his confidence it was more of the same in rounds two and three with Qasim making no mistakes to let his defeated opponent back in the bout. No arguments about this decision. THE DREAM by emphatic points and new ring amateur British champion. TOMMY GUN TIME! 15 year old Tommy 'GUN' Collett also fresh off a W.K.A British championship win three weeks ago stepped in to face an opponent from Manchester who had had over 100 amateur thai boxing bouts. Under kickboxing rules though that experience didn't necessarily mean that he was the one with the advantage. Tommy is unstoppable at the moment and the variety in his technique means it is very hard to read him. You just don't know what is coming next. His opponent found this out from the first bell with Tommy hitting and moving staying out of trouble from the strong thai boxers technique. The kickboxing pace seemed to be the thai boxing lads trouble and he was struggling to get his shots of first against the hit and run tactics of Tommy. Tommy from half way through the second round decided to show he could mix it and go toe to toe and prove he could really fight if need be spending spells exchanging fast combinations with his opponent. Early into the third round a late punch from Manchester lad after the referee had called stop saw Tommy loose his cool and retaliate with his own after hours punch. This infringement of the rules saw the referee give Tommy a strong warning and he was told that if he did it again he would be instantly disqualified. With the tension high technique went out the window for the rest of the bout with no more real clean shots landing. The good work in rounds one and two were more than enough to seal the decision to Tommy as he was crowned the new ring amateur British champion. Last but by no means least now U.S.K.A's last competitor Reiss Larvin climbed through the ropes to tackle another Thai boxing stylist again under kickboxing rules. Reiss is another fighter who can do no wrong at the moment. He is very strong for his age and weight and seems to overwhelm fighters the same age weight and size simply with his presence. This was the case here with Reissy having it all his own way scoring at will and landing good varied combinations. Two standing eight counts later and at the end of the second round his opponents corner pulled their lad out of the contest to avoid him taking any more punishment. Reiss is making a habit of not letting his opponents hear that final bell. Another ring amateur British championship for U.S.K.A and a good end to a successful day for the U.S.K.A crew. A mention must go out to 9 year old Haroon Gulfraz and 11 year old Emily Aston who due to no suitable opponents being in attendance never got a fight.Congratulations to all of the U.S.K.A. fighters on the day again proving that we aim to meet any challenge where-ever the source.