Since the event that headlined me for a title fight in the Caribbean Islands was cancelled, I felt that I had to use that opportunity to expand my knowledge and improve my skills so I flew to Amsterdam for two weeks to train at a couple gyms out there. It was a great experience for me to see how european fighters train. I would like to thank Anoesh S. for her hospitality and showing me around the city.

During my stay I got a chance to go to a fight venue that featured Irmo Main of the Fight Factory gym who won his match against a guy from Cuba . He will be fighting May 28 against Jongsanan Fairtex which should be a great fight to watch. John Mcphail had helped me with training arrangements with Fight Factory Gym but since I wasn’t familiar enough to get around to other places except for the central part of the city I never made it there.

The gym I planned on going to that was at the top of my list was the Mejiro Gym ( www.mejirogym.com ) run by Andre Maanart who trains one of K-1’s best fighters Remy Bonjasky ( http://www.remybonjasky.com/main.html ) . I trained there most of the time of my stay and had no problem with the european style since one of my past trainers was Shuki Ron who had come from this gym to the US in the 1980’s and also was one of Peter Cunningham’s trainers.

I made it up to Ramon Dekkers gym for a day which was a very interesting for me since he is a legend in the sport. His gym in Breda, Holland was a two hour drive from my stay. The training was similar to my style so I adapted in no time at all. There were about 40 people in the class with a handful of fighters who were getting ready for fights in a couple weeks. Sparring with them was fun and very different from the way fighters spar in Thailand. I ended up working Counters with Ramon himself then watched his fight he took on a few days notice against Genki Sudo in K-1.

The Amsterdam trip was a blast !!!! Life is so different, not to mention the expensive cost of living compared to the US.

As for me, there is still no scheduled kickboxing fights so I will probably end up taking a boxing fight to keep busy.

As for some good news, one of the guys I was sparring with, Diego Corrales won his fight against Jose Luis Castillio which was said to be the fight of the decade. I will be sure to get some more work from Diego as soon as a contract is signed for the rematch of that fight.

Shawn Yacoubian