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| Author: |
MrHyde |
| Date: |
Friday, June 03 2005 @ 08:30 PM EST |
| Viewed: |
796 times |
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 Brute Force 3 was a Muay Thai (kickboxing) event held at the Coburg Town Hall. It was billed as consisting of fights at the highest level and the biggest show of Muay Thai seen in Melbourne. There were 10 fights on the cards with the last five being between Australian fighters and Thai/Cambodian fighters.
We had standing room tickets and they were not that bad. Other than the fact that we had to stand the whole time, they were very close to the action. The seated area was only 4 seats deep, so the standing area wasn't that far back.
The first six fights were local contestants from around Australia. Many of them hadn't even fought more than 10 fights. Each fight began with the fighter performing the Wai Kru (wai khru ram muay) which is a sort of dance/prayer to show respect to the teachers and trainers. We noticed that not all the fighters performed the Wai Kru. In the initial fights, only one of the two fighters performed it and that fighter ended up winning. This was turning out to be a pattern, In the 4th fight, both fighters performed it and guess what? the fight ended in a draw!!! The pattern was still working!!!
Another interesting thing were the card girls. It was a very cold night and the town hall did not have much heating. At the beginning of every round, a tall sexy girl wearing an evening dress and high heels would enter the ring carrying a card with the round number on it. It just looked so out of place and funny. They also had four podium dancers at two corners of the hall. In between fights, they'd put on a bit of RnB and those dancers would be dancing away. The podiums were too far in the corner and I reckon very few people actually looked at them... everyone was too busy trying to get food from the stalls or talking to friends about the fight that just took place and who was about to fight next.
In the second half of the night, the international matches were finally about to happen. These were at a different level altogether. The Thai and Cambodian boxers were so much more brutal and they made it look so easy as well. The first fighter completely pummeled the Australian fighter and it was clear who won. One thing I noticed was that people were offering money to the Thai fighter and he was accepting them in his mouth. It must be some sort of custom to offer money to the winning fighter. The next fight was a bit more equal and ended in a draw. Before the results were announced, the ref took the mike and said that the Thai fighter was ranking in the top ten in the world and the Aussie guy had done a really good job matching him blow for blow. The next fight was a bit controversial. From the stands, it looked to us that the Thai fighter was the better one. The Australian fighter kept hitting him in the gonads and had to be warned numerous times. In the end, it looked as if the Thai fighter had pummelled him and would win easily. However, the judges awarded the fight to the Australian and the crowd boooed. No one could believe the result. Even the Australian fighter went and raised the hands of the Thai fighter.
The final fight of the night was the Australian champsion versus a Cambodian fighter. Both fighters had won over 70 fights. However, the Australian had won nearly 60% by knock-out. The usual flow of events is that the first round is used by both fighters to feel out the opponent. That didn't happen this time. The bell rang... one punch and then two and the Cambodian was knocked out. Doctors were into the ring within seconds. I'm still not sure exactly how it happened as a blink meant you missed it. Till this point Priyanka was enjoying the night and wanting to take up kick boxing herself. That fight brought the true brutality of the sport into the forefront and Priyanka just couldn't believe it. She still did go to one class of kickboxing though.
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