Quarter Final 1: Ricardo Van Den Bos (Holland) vs. Peter Sampson (New Zealand)

Ricardo came right out from the opening bell and asserted his dominance, with cracking low kicks. After establishing his range, Ricardo went to town landing jab/cross/low kick combo’s, over and over again. Peter seemed a little off balance and unable to land anything early in the round, but felt his way back in to the fight with some counter crosses and a nice uppercut or two. Unfortunately though, those two uppercuts are where the offence ended for Peter, as Ricardo kicked the legs out from underneath Peter. Peter was damaged from the low kicks at this point & two more knockdowns lead to the referee waiving off the fight.

(Ricardo Van Den Bos doing the WaiKru)


(Ricardo with the 1st of his knock-downs)


(Sampson being helped off the canvas)

Quarter Final 2: Hiriwa Te Rangi (New Zealand) vs. Felise Leniu (New Zealand)

In typical fashion, Hiriwa came out throwing with intent & the crowd got right in to this fight. They were on their feet within about 10 seconds of the opening bell. Felise and Hiriwa pretty much took the fight to the red corner and traded hooks for about a good minute and a half. These two guys were looking for a knockout & the result was about 3 rounds worth of strikes being thrown in a little over 1 minute.

Towards the end of round 1, Felise started to tire & Hiriwa capitalized on this by clinching and working knee after knee to the ribs. After about 8 solid knees to the ribs, Felise dropped both hands down and Hiriwa switched feet and launched up a devastating knee to Felise’s forehead. The resulting damage was enough for the referee to stop the fight on the spot.

(Felise in pain after Hiriwa damaged his orbital bone / eye socket)

Quarter Final 3: Roger Izonritei (Nigeria/Australia) vs. Mitch O’Hello (Australia)

In a classic match-up of the old guard versus the new, current heavyweight IBF Pan Pacific boxing champion (and new to MuayThai) Roger Izonritei matched up against the godfather of Australian MuayThai, Mitch “Mandingo” O’Hello. Mitch may have come in heavily favored by the pundits in the crowd, but Roger caused the upset of the night here, by flooring Mitch no more than 30 seconds in to the first round. Much to his credit, Mitch was able to regain his senses and tie up Roger, landing a few nice knees in the process. But before Mitch could take over the action, Roger countered a spinning back-fist, with a huge right hook. Mitch was out of it as soon as he hit the floor, and as he barely stood up before the 10-count was reached, the ref had to call of the fight & help Mitch back to his corner.

(Mitch O'Hello barely get's back to his feet and begins to wobble, just before collapsing back to the canvas)[/SIZE][/B]

Quarter Final 4: Paul Slowinski (Australia) vs. Andrew Peck (New Zealand)

The eagerly anticipated re-match of Paul Slowinski and Andrew Peck was the last quarter final of the night. Their last encounter finished with Paul knocking out Andrew, on Andrew’s home turf (Under K-1 Rules). Now Andrew had the chance to return the favor, in Paul’s own backyard. The fight started out slowly with each fighter finding range with their jabs. Both fighters engaged each other in the middle of the ring, but Paul dominated the opening minute through landing low kicks on the way out of their flurries and grappling. Approximately 2 minutes in to the opening round, Paul countered Andrew’s right cross with a solid right hook/left straight combo and knocked Andrew out in identical fashion to their last fight. This time however, Paul left the ring with no broken nose.

(Paul Slowinski preparing for his WaiKru)

Semi Final 1: Ricardo Van Den Bos (Holland) vs. Hiriwa Te Rangi (New Zealand)

Both fighters came out very slowly here and the referee repeatedly warned the two fighters to engage. After about 2 minutes of caution from each fighter, the referee stood them in the middle of the ring and gave each an official warning, for not fighting. The result of this was great for the crowd, as the final 30-odd seconds of the round was just flashy spinning fists, jumping knees, spinning high kicks and a huge flurry of punches, that resulted in the ref having to pull the two apart from each other, after the bell sounded.

Just as the second round was about to begin, the referee halted proceedings and made Hiriwa’s trainer Jason Suttie, attend to a problem with Hiriwa’s leg. Upon closer examination by the cameras, it appeared as if Hiriwa’s right shin bone was giving birth to a couple of full size tennis balls. Oh my, that truly must have been hurting. I wasn’t sure at first if it was broken bone, or just freakishly ugly swelling on his shin bone. The doctor seemed to think it was the latter of the two, even though a clever man in the front row was screaming “Run for your life, the alien’s about to pop out”. Showing true grit and courage, Hiriwa came back out and started attacking right from the opening bell of the second round. Ricardo’s corner was screaming at him to fire in the low kick’s at Hiriwa’s injured right shin, but Hiriwa was able to use inside low kicks and snappy jab’s, to keep Ricardo at bay. Unable to get in and land on Hiriwa’s injured leg, Ricardo switched tactics and faked at Hiriwa’s injured leg, then followed through with some heavy jab/cross combo’s. The resulting damage from Ricardo’s punches was a swollen and bloodied face, but Hiriwa would not budge, let alone show the pain.

Knowing that he had the fight in the bag if he hit and ran, Ricardo simply picked apart Hiriwa from range and Hiriwa was forced to have to resort to throwing haymakers. Ricardo managed to avoid the strikes though, landing low kick after low kick, eventually rendering Hiriwa virtually unable to walk. The final bell sounded off and it was a clear unanimous decision victory for the young gun from Holland.

(Hiriwa's softball sized swellings on his right shin, beginning to flare up)


("The Boss" laying down some heavy leather on Hiriwa's head)


(K-1 regular Jason Suttie calming Hiriwa down & pleading for him to work Ricardo's body more)

Semi Final 2: Paul Slowinski (Australia) vs. Roger Izonritei (Nigeria/Australia)

Much to the crowd’s enjoyment, Paul and Roger came out swinging, each landing some vicious cross/hook combinations. About 45 seconds in to the first round Roger landed a huge uppercut, but Paul clinched and landed a big knee to Roger’s body. Both hit’s seemed to really take the wind out of each other. After being separated Roger came in for a jab and Paul’s counter knee resulted in an accidental low blow. After the 5-minute break both fighters came out strong, exchanging jab for low kick. After about 60 seconds of this, it became increasingly apparent that Roger could not take a low kick, for each jab that Paul could absorb. Roger tried in vein to close the distance, but the result was Paul obtaining superiority in the clinch, landing a knee, then pushing off and landing a big low kick. The low kicks that Paul was landing, were able to be heard about 15 rows back, they were that vicious. Roger was really just getting his legs picked apart.
Roger once again tried to rush, to get on the inside of Paul, but he just got tied up and clinched straight away. With the very next clinch, Paul dropped Roger, with a thunderous knee to the floating ribs. To give you an idea of the damage the knee did, Roger crawled back halfway across the ring to his corner, on all fours. As Roger got back to the corner and was lifted off the floor, his trainer threw in the towel, ending the punishment.

(The MC reving up the crowd prior to Roger and Paul's stare-down)


(Roger collapsed to the floor, after being cut down by repeated low kicks)


(Roger back on the canvas, after a heavy knee to the floating ribs, from Slowinski)

South Australian State Title: Kym Johnson (Flinders Uni MuayThai) vs. Scott Chiswell (Fight Club)

In what would prove to be the longest fight of the night, well known South Aussie young guns, Scott Chiswell and Kym Johnson, clashed fiercely for the state title. In a glimpse of what’s on offer from Australia’s premier youth fighters, Kym Johnson put on a dominating 5-round performance, dropping Scott twice along the way. In true warrior spirit, Scott may have been well and truly outclassed, but the gritty young fighter stood strong against a level of punishment, that many of our more experienced fighters could not take. Questioned repeatedly on weather or not he wanted to continue, Scott came out swinging every time he was hurt or dropped. Hall Of Fame MuayThai coach, Alan Wong, can continue to be proud of his stable of fighters, Kym coming out and shining as one of his new best. No doubt it won’t be too long now, until young Kym is seen in some much higher profile fights.

(Kym and Scott doing the WaiKru)


(Scott eating a vicious knee, after falling from a knee to the body)


(Kym landing a low kick, that brought out the feet, from under Scott)

Grand Final: Paul Slowinski (Australia) vs. Ricardo Van Den Bos (Holland)

In what can only be described fairly, as a disappointing end to the evening, Ricardo answered the opening bell of the first round, only for his trainer to throw in the towel about five-eighth’s of a second later. The crowd started muttering at first, confused as to what just happened, then they angrily erupted in to loud boo’s as the ref waived off the fight and awarded Paul the winner and champion. In a desperate scramble to restore some peace, Paul Slowinski grabbed the mic from one of the commentators and yelled at the crowd to be quiet and let them explain what just happened. He proceeded to demand that the crowd leave Ricardo alone, as he was a true warrior and was suffering from an injured knee and shin bone. He pleaded for them to understand that no-one in the crowd could do what they did tonight & should respect the fighters for providing a great night of entertainment. Ricardo’s trainer, from Ray Matsamura’s “5-Rings Gym”, explained that Ricardo wanted to go on, but he was not willing to allow the new sensation to risk serious injury against Paul. At this point, event promoter Ethan Shepp and Fox Sports commentator Mark “Hammer” Castagnini took over the mic and apologized & explained in detail to the crowd, what had happened.

Inevitably a drunken jack-ass in the front row made a moron of himself by trying to heckle Ethan, but the majority of the crowd applauded both fighters soon afterwards & gave a standing ovation as all 8-fighters entered the ring to accept their prizes and have photo’s taken. Although it was unfortunate to watch a crowd turn so quickly on the fighters, it was also good to see that the majority changed their minds once things had been properly explained to them by the referee and promoters/coaches/fighters.

(Paul, the ring girls & Paul's coach Alan Wong, in the ring with the winners trophy and cheque)


(Paul with his WMC world champion belt, tournament trophy & ring girls. The ring girl on the right, is Miss World 2003 & 2004 - South Australia's own, Morgan Summers)


(Paul with his trophy, Mitch in the yellow jumper, Roger in the black and red jacket)


(5 of the tournament fighters, with the men either side of Paul, being his sponsor and boxing coach)


(Paul Slowinski & his WMC world champion belt)