The Cellar Gym had 11 competitors travel to the largest Muay Thai Touranment in North America,TBA-SA Muay Thai Classic, this last weekend. The team headed down to Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday, June 16th for weigh ins. All the fighters made weight and the competition went on over June 17-19th.

June 17th:

The first day of fights went incredibly smooth and The Cellar Gym. First time Muay Thai fighter, Bryn Ollerman started the team off with a big win and showed excellent low kicks, knees and elbows! Caleb Merth won his B-Class quarter-final fight bout. This fight was an absolute WAR and the place was going nuts for these two Nak Muay! Darrien Mackiel lost a close judge’s decision. Our team finishes the day 2-1. We are very proud of all of our fighters.

June 18:

Day two of the TBA-SA Muay Thai Classic was a busy day for The Cellar Gym with 8 fighters competing. Austin Brown started the team out as one of the first fights of the day at 9:30 am. Austin secured a big win and moved on to the Finals. Willis Schuerger picked up another win for the team. Head kicks and knees were flying! Caleb Merth and Lajly Yang also ended the day with big wins for team and moved on to the finals. Unfortunately, the day did not go as planned for Bryn Ollerman, Darcie Thomsen, Ryan Sternberg and Hooi Ling Soh and they all ended up on the wrong side of decisions. We are incredibly proud of these fighters! They all worked hard and left it all out in the ring.

June 19th:

The third and final day of the tournament was another busy day. The Cellar gym had 6 fighters make it to the finals and ended up with 3 Championships! Austin Brown lost the decision in his championship bout, he threw some great combinations but came up just a bit short. Lajly Yang took on a tough opponent from Canada and lost an incredibly close fight. Jenn Hall showed some of the most heart in the tournament this year. She fought an opponent with 10+ pounds on her, took a standing 8 count and still came back to win round 2 and 3. The fight went to fourth round where unfortunately, the decisions went the other way.

The belts came home with Devlin Borders, Caleb Merth and Willis Schuerger. Devlin knocked his opponent down in the first round and won the Men’s Open Class, Cruiserweight Title! Willis Schuerger won  the Muay Thai Classic 165lb division! He put on a fantastic display of knees and head kicks! Caleb Merth won his second Muay Thai Classic Tournament Title! Last year he won the novice division, this year he won the B class! To make things even sweeter, he stepped up a weight class because he wanted to avenge a kickboxing loss he had last year. As luck would have it, both men fought their way to the finals, but Caleb showed his Muay Thai dominance in the rematch. We are so proud of this young Nak Muay!

We are so incredibly proud of these fighters, their spirit in the ring, and the way they supported each other all weekend (and all training camp). We had a young team this year with 7 MTC “newbies” but they all proved themselves in the ring and we are proud to bring three Muay Thai Classic championship belts home to Minnesota! We are also honored to have been 1 of 5 teams nominated for “Most Respectful Team” at the tournament.

Way to go team!