By Mike LNg

Bangkok Fight Night 9
Atlanta, Georgia’s Khunpon Dechkampu has announced completion of his coming card for Bangkok Fight Night 9 which features an even blend of MMA and Muay Thai bouts. Khunpon has made his mark as a trainer by giving the former champion’s tutelage to standout fighters Chike Lindsay and Stephen Richards. Lindsay in the past has won IMTO Super Welterweight World Title and the WKA Super Welterweight North American Title but is probably best known for his competitive fight with WBC Muay Thai champion Kevin Ross. Ultimately Lindsay would lose the fight.
Richards fought and beat at the time WBC United States light heavyweight champion Shawn Yarborough despite breaking his arm in the course of the fight. The victory netted Richards a WCK win but not the WBC Muay Thai United States title.
Bangkok Fight Night 9 should be an interesting proving ground to see which emerging young talent Khunpon has to reveal to the United States. The card represents a fairly even blend of MMA rules bouts and Muay Thai rules bouts with essentially a main event bout in each style. The card known thus far along with weights of the fighters is as follows:
MMA rules bouts:
Steve McCall vs. Amir Dadovic 170lbs.
Will Kuhn vs. Sasuke Zapata 170lbs.
Derek “Bolo” Cathorn vs. Billy Joe Waters 240 lbs.
Gui Curry vs. Rafael Gorge 155 lbs.
Christian Arguello vs. TBA 155 lbs.
Mike Graves vs. Ja Lowery 175 lbs.
Stephen Upchurch vs. Josh Glover 155lbs. This bout will be the main event of the evening.
Muay Thai bouts
Anthony Nieves vs. Danny Watts 175 lbs.
Eric Castro vs. Josh Downing 160 lbs.
Moe Travis vs. Tecia Torres 115 lbs. This bout will be a title match.
Robel Kebede vs. Jade Kamchanan 150 lbs.
Colleen Luima vs. Mary Matia 118 lbs.
A preview interview clip has been released focusing on Tecia Torres. For ticket information go to the official Bangkok Fight Night site.
Posted in News
Tags: Anthony Nieves, Bangkok Fight Night, Khunpon, Muay Thai, Tecia Torres
Wakeling’s Options and Weights
•March 10, 2011 • 5 CommentsBy Mike LNg
Steven Wakeling
After a dominant win over Joachalam Chatkranokgym Steven Wakeling’s last promoter Bernard Caplin of The Champion’s Club (TCC) is apparently busily seeking out new fights for the newly crowned WBC Muay Thai super middleweight champion. Despite being gone from Muay Thai competition for almost 3 years Wakeling was in fine form against Jaochalam and won his championship via stoppage against Jaochalam coming from knee strikes.
Bernard Caplin had some statements that were fairly bold about Wakeling’s prospective opponents:
The Yodsanklai speculation is especially interesting since Yodsanklai in his last outing at the King’s Cup Tournament 2010 in Thailand and against Artem Levin in the International Federation Muay Thai Amateur final looked soft compared to his usual fighting condition. In the King’s Cup Tournament its even been reported that Yodsanklai needed additional time to cut 3 kg in excess weight. Yodsanklai could conceivably meet Wakeling in a fight as big as 75 kg. It does seem that Caplin at least seems determined to steer Steven Wakeling into the light heavyweight limits instead of remain fighting at super middleweight. Only time will tell but it would certainly be a significant notch on Wakeling’s already impressive resume with a potential 3rd championship to be earned in a 3rd weight class.
Posted in Commentary
Tags: Muay Thai, Steven Wakeling, The Champions Club, UK, Yodsanklai Fairtex