Emergence 2
Emergence 2
My third fight show. Thank Fuck that is over. From International A class Muay Thai to demonstration from local kids all from the same gym I grew up in. It was awesome to put a home show on for my gym.
The show preparation began as soon as my show in April was over or just about the same time. Not many people see what goes on behind the scenes and making sure everything is covered legally and shit, but councils can be a pain. Most of the people I had booked to work I had already booked for my show in April so when making the first booking I also made the second e.g. DJ, Ring Hire, Officials Refs and Judges, Medics and Doctors, Security the list is endless but I had booked them all for April so I just booked them all for Oct at the same time. I thought I was smart as fuck doing this taking loads of that stress away.
The Kirkintilloch Town Hall… This is a venue that I have always wanted to fight in. Every day I used to walk by it at school going for lunch and always thought how amazing it would be to fight in Kirkintilloch, but I never thought I would be the one who promoted the show to get the show in Kirky and gave that opportunity to local fighters so that was cool.
It started like any other venue it held 350 people upstairs and downstairs etc. However, as the time got closer the venue told us it had went from 350 to 200 due to an incident at a boxing event earlier in the year. That’s the moment I knew I was fucked. I booked this venue towards the start of the year and when It came round to selling tickets etc. in June/July I had got told the venue change but the price never. Not much I could do now I had a main event and co main event booked as well as a bunch of fighters expecting to fight. I looked for a replacement venue in the same area but to no luck it would have to be the smaller venue which in turn means less ticket revenue, less bar money which is what shows rely on. I just had to pray. Then they decided they wanted insurances and parking plans etc. drew up to make sure it was safe to have my event. That’s where I need to say a massive thankyou to WKA and Caroline for dealing with all the licencing and council paperwork that no other venue ive worked with have asked for.
The matching of the card. I have never found it so hard to find fights for some of the fighters, not because they’re out of this world good or anything was just so many shows around this time of year that so many people had commitments or were injured etc. I had to pull two fights from the card because I couldn’t get them matched a week or two out which was also not good as meant less fights on the card. However, I managed to get two junior demos on the show to help ease the pain of not getting fights matched. Then we had a pull out on the night of the show also one of the fighters came down ill and wasn’t able to compete even after the medical he was still struggling so we had to call it and I can’t say a big enough Thankyou to Gavin Hedges from Fearless who not only stepped in to do another demo against his own fighter whose opponent had just pulled out. He went out there and battered his own fighter for 5 rounds in an amazing display of controlled aggression and making sure never to actually hurt his fighter but made sure he knew he was in the ring for the first time haha, 17 years out the ring and never looked a second out of step.
The fights in general were really well received everyone saying they were well matched and exciting fights which is what I always want as a promoter. As Mescho always said no point in easy fights. Everyone especially from my gym will always get hard fights to test their ability.
The first and second fight were demos from kids from our gym which I missed as I was backstage getting fighters ready and sorting out the next few fights. From what I heard though they were excellent demonstrations of skills so happy the kids got to show off their skills. Next up was young Harry who was having his first fight. The kid made it difficult for himself as his family had booked a holiday for a week all-inclusive 2 weeks out from the fight, so he came back the week of the fight. After a hard fought 5 rounds from both kids Harry came away victorious. Next up from the gym was my wee brother again in a really hard fight. I knew how good his opponent was before as he had fought one of my fighters earlier in the year and stopped him, so I knew Jamie had a big task at hand. The fight started out even but as the rounds went on and fatique set in Derek started to take over and was able to stop Jamie in the 5th round. Im still super proud of Jamie and this is the type of fight that will teach him so much more than going out and battering someone. Next up from the Gym was the Highest person in the room always Santino, even on fight night he managed to consume enough drugs to make a normal person paranoid and still went out and put on a five round masterclass in Muay Thai scoring picking his opponent off with Body kicks and winning with ease in what was to be his Retirement fight. I could write loads more on how amazing he was and how good his technique and career was but then that’s another blog. The young terminator was up next Christian Finnegan. Remember that name as hes going to be a superstar in years to come. Only just starting out his Thai career in his third fight put on a masterclass kicking performance forcing the referee to stop the contest in the 5thround with his opponent unable to continue. Super proud of this young lad. Finally, the Main Event of the evening we had MMAG and Kirkintilloch World Champion Rhona fighting Melissa Mendes from Portugal. I only seen clips of this fight as I was running around trying to make sure everyone had been paid and everything was sorted for after Rhona’s fight we could start the clear up process. Both Girls gave as good as they got in a 5-round war with Rhona coming out the victor with the cleaner work in the clinch and kicking.
The show was a massive success if you look at it from a point of the event only however without the sponsors and finding the correct venue I’m not sure it’s worth the financial losses every tine to keep the shows going. The stress beforehand wondering if I’m going to be able to cover everything is far to much, I ended up ill for 2 weeks before the show which isn’t ideal when I’m meant to be coaching. So, with that being said big thanks to everyone who did come to the shows and support them, The few sponsors we did receive making it possible I can’t thankyou enough. Dec and Crypto Glasgow for everything he has done in making these possible my fiancé the list is endless, and I can’t thank you all enough. Peace Liam
