Birr k-1 Kickboxing Club enjoy great results in Kilkenny

KOMBAT Kingdom k1 kickboxing hosted a WKO sanctioned fight night in Mooncoin, County Kilkenny on Sunday October 20^th, run by Mr Anthony Brennan and John Corcoran.

18 bouts were matched including three WKO national kickboxing title fights, a cadet low kick kickboxing title, a full contact Senior middleweight kickboxing title and a super welterweight K-1 kickboxing title.

Birr k-1 kickboxing club had seven fighters matched up for this fantastic card.

First up was Ryan 'Smiler' Kennedy making his debut at full contact low kick kickboxing. Ryan gave his all over two rounds.and didn't take a backward step and the judges couldn't split them and the fight was declared a draw.

Second up was Odhran 'Nutcracker' Kennedy. Odhran is one of the brightest talents at the gym and has moved up to the teens and adults classes. Odhran met a tornado of a kid on the day and was out worked but Odhran never gave up or took a backward step and impressed his coaches with his temperament, character and discipline.

Up next was Nicola 'Happy' Jizwiak in a last minute call up on Friday night class. Nicola was brave enough to accept a demo fight. After two tough rounds the fight was declared a draw.

Filipe 'Bang Bang' Nunes entered next and this lad likes a fight. Filipe has all the skills but needs to work on his temperament, which he is, and kickboxing has helped control it and he's maturing at a young age. Filipe had three hard rounds against an older more experienced opponent in Evan Finn fighting out of the Toppro Carlow gym. He fought his heart out and won a unanimous decision. A great result considering they took the fight on seven days notice.

Cormac 'Machine' Creamer was up against a formidable opponent in John Boland who beat Cormac at the All Ireland semi finals in July.

Cormac had a few kg and age on his opponent who only fights at full contact kickboxing and has many more years experience. Cormac prefers k-1 or low kick kickboxing, so to make a fight both camps agreed these two world silver medalists could fight again. What a fight. Non stop action from round 1 to 3 and Cormac won a unanimous decision.

Jack 'Rocky' Kirwan O'Brien stepped into the ring next against William Kelly representing the renowned Toppro Carlow gym. This was going to be worth the entrance fee alone and they were right.

Jack fought smartly for the first half of the fight. He controlled the distance and hit his opponent often. Jack hurt his opponent and gave him a standing count. His opponent made the eight count and fought on. Jack unloaded everything and dropped William again just before the round ended.

William made the count again and with rest during the minute break, came back out to fight for round 2 and he didn't waste any time. He hit Jack some hard fast punches and kept on the pressure. Jack composed himself created distance and landed more cleaner powerful shots and just nicked the round, a very close round.

In round 3 William came hard again and Jack's tank was starting to run out but Jack did everything right and kept going himself even after getting caught with a low blow. The ref said fight on and Jack did that he answered back and saw out the final round in Rocky style.

The results were read out and Jack won another unanimous decision for Birr.

In the co-main event of the evening was Conor 'Curly' Champ Hynes against former champion Kacper Pacyk from Kombat Kingdom.

Kacper was fighting out of his home county and he had great support and was hungry to avenge his loss to Curly back in May of this year.

Birr had great travelling support with 70 plus people inside the building and they made their voices be heard.

In Round 1 Kacper meant business and came to fight. But they felt this would happen and were prepared and pushed the former champ back with strong fast combos and won the round.

Round 2 was similar, Kacper wanting to fight and Curly answering anything back and doubling down on everything and clearly winning round 2.

Round 3 was a smarter round from Curly with great footwork and timing more in play here and resulted in a another, albeit closer, winning round for Curly.

In Round 4 Kacper landed a few big overhands, a head kick and a few good body shots on Curly. But the sign of a champion is to take shots and be smart, Curly then would explode with lightning fast unanswered combos which Kacper had no reply to.

In Round 5 Kacper wanted a war and Curly is too experienced and composed for this. Curly picked nice clean shots and won another round close round. At the final bell his coach Raphael Creamer was convinced Curly had won and the three judges gave a unanimous decision and Conor 'Curly' Champ Hynes retained his belt in style.

A true Champ has to defend his belt at least once which Curly has done and made Raphael Creamer and the other coaches so proud.

All the Birr fighters performed to their best and showed everyone what they are about and they couldn't be any happier.

Thanks to all the supporters who travelled down and watched another fantastic night of WKO kickboxing.