I received a call on Thursday the 14th for a fight in Canada against someone at 142 lbs. which excitingly I took but unfortunately didn’t’t go through because of the fact that his camp decided not to take the fight due to my experience.
I was then offered to fight Trevor Smandych who is a very good fighter but not exactly in my weight class of 142lbs (more like 154 lber) but was someone I always wanted to fight. Trevor has had around 55 amateur fights and a pro record of 18 wins 2 losses 1 draw and 10 KO’s. His complete profile can be found at www.mikemiles.com . Both our camps agreed to the weight not to exceed 149 lbs. with certain conditions as far as Mauy Thai rules go. This fight was for the WKL Super Welterweight World Muay Thai Title and was scheduled for July 23rd; so basically it was a 5-6 day notice considering there was always a chance of this falling through like a few events have the past couple years due to postponements and event cancellations. I had been training (even though not for a set fight but was still in the gym the last couple months so I felt my conditioning was good enough for this fight).
Last Saturday’s event at the House of Champions annual tournament was a successful one. Many good fights to watch with my main event exhibition with Danny Steele at the top of the list. We ended up doing three rounds instead of five given the fact that we both had fights coming up and didn’t’t want to get injured during the show. I would like to thank my family and friends for coming to the event to show their support. Danny Steele is set to fight Malaipet Sitpraphrom on August 20 on a WCK event which should be very interesting to watch. Just for the record I wanted to let you all know I wasn’t planning to go on with this exhibition due to the fact that I had caught the flu Tuesday of that week and was in bed for four days prior to the exhibition ‘but did it anyways since I was scheduled to do so and couldn’t not go through with it since my relatives from Syria and Lebanon were in town.
The flu was officially out of my system by Sunday where I continued my training for my fight with Trevor. The last days were critical to get good training as well as rest for my body to recuperate. Everything was on schedule.
I left for Vancouver Friday afternoon and didn’t arrive until 7:30pm due to delays at the airline and customs. I weighed in immediately when I got to the hotel because my opponent had been waiting a couple hours for me to show up. I weighed in at 149 and Trevor at 146 lbs. We both finally were able to eat after weighing in.
The next day the fights started at 8:30 with 7 bouts scheduled; a mix between boxing and kickboxing. I went on around 11:20pm. I felt really rested and pumped up for this match up; usually by taking fights last minute notice you don’t know much about the guy you are up against but in this case I was happy it was a worthwhile opponent.
The first round I stared throwing boxing combos ending in kicks, in order to win I had to stick and move and be ready to shoot in for the next opening. Trevor came in with overhand rights and left hooks to the body ending those in kicks to the le as well. I had the first round won in my head.
The second and third round I attempted a few head kicks that were blocked well my Trevor then exchanged a bit punching and kicking that ended up in the clinch. We kneed each other for a bit then were separated to the center of the ring to continue the action. The crowds were loving the fight. I was having fun in there but was feeling my conditioning wasn’t 100% where I wanted it to be. I would give Trevor the third round and call it a draw for the second.
The last two rounds were great as well, I know I lost the fourth round but came back hard in the fifth with combos that included uppercuts and more head kicks. Trevor was in better shape and was there throughout the fight. The fight ended with no real damage to any of us and no knockdowns; the audience were on their feet cheering. The fight ended up going to the score cards having Trevor winning by unanimous decision. Given the fight was in Canada I knew just like in any other case the judges were to lean toward their hometown fighter. I myself would have had Trevor winning as well but by split decision. Overall it was a great fight which of course I am willing to do again ; I would like to wish Trevor good luck on his way to K-1 Max and thank him and his camp for agreeing to the specific rules of the bout and overall his sportsmanship.
A special thank goes out to Vincent Jauncy from World Kickboxing in Surrey, B.C. and Vince Murdocco www.vincemurdocco.com for working my corner since my trainers Peter Cunningham and Rick O’Kane had delayed fights and weren’t able to make it to the fight in time. I hadn’t seen Vinnie Murdocco for 7 years; after all he was the very first instructor I had when I started the sport at the age of 15.
My camp and I are scheduling a boxing fight and will let you know when and where, fortunately I didn’t get too banged up with the fight with Trevor so I will be ready to fight within the next 2 weeks.
First Time Scuba Diving thanks to friends Travis & Jared
