McDermid and Collins first fought in October of 2009 at the USA vs UK event that took place in Downtown Minneapolis.  Collins won their first bout by KO in the second round when Adam ducked too low and ran into a well timed kick.

This will most likely be Collins’ last fight before turning pro and with spectators claiming his win over McDermid was just a “lucky shot”, Collins is looking to prove the doubters wrong (thus the show’s title “Unfinished Business”). At the same time, McDermid is more motivated than ever before, and this is guaranteed to be an incredible fight.

I apologize for the delay between updates, the internet went down at the Sports Hall and the rest of Lignano was a ghost town (closed for the season) so it was hard to get info back home.

To start off I want to describe the scoring system they used here.  If anyone watched any boxing during the 2008 olympic games in Beijing, it’s very similar (makes sense too because WAKO is trying real hard to make kickboxing an olympic sport).  Basically each judge has clicker type device (looks like a computer mouse with one red button and one blue button).  Everytime a clean, effective shot is landed, the judge clicks the color for that fighter.

Two things make this system very interesting:

1. It’s an accumulative scoring system so the judge is scoring the shots landed for the entire fight, not each individual round (you can lose the first 2 rounds, but come back in the 3rd to win the fight if you outscore your opponent)
2. It’s an open scoring system.  There are 2 giant tv screens in the corners of the rings (pointed so the fighters and the judges/ref can not see the screen, but the cornermen and the fans can).  Each screen shows the running score that each judge has at the moment.  You know exactly who is wining each fight and by how much.  This gets really exciting during close fights.  You also see which judges like us, and which dont.

Ok back to the updates:

On Friday we were expecting to have 5 fighters in the ring, but for some reason when the fight order came out, they stopped the day with Simon’s weight class meaning Adam and Mike were pushed back to fighting on Saturday.  This wasn’t a big deal for Mike as he is a heavyweight and doesn’t have a weight limit, but it sucked for Adam because he had to make weight each day of the tournament and to cut weight on Friday, but not fight really sucks.

FRIDAY FIGHTS

Jim Klauba took the ring first fighting against a tough fighter from Turkey.  Jim looked good in the ring, but his opponnent was an akward and dirty fighter (holding and hitting, catching kicks and punching, etc).  I think it took Jim a little off his game and got him looking too much for that one big shot to end the fight.  Jim bounced off the ropes in the 2nd round and ate a big kick that ended the fight.

Nathan Key’s second fight was against a phenomenal fighter from Norway (I believe he is the current European Champion).  Nathan started off the fight looking sharp and landing great kicks.  He moved well and had the lead after the first two rounds, but ran out of gas in the 3rd round and the Norweigan fighter began to outscore him.  Had they fought with a 10-9 must system, Nathan would have won the fight, but the accumulative system put him behind in the end.

Simon Buttener fought a Ukranian in his next fight.  The Ukranian fighter was obviously intimidated by Simon’s :12 second KO in his previous fight because he did not want to exchange with Simon.  Instead he fought a very smart/safe fight, moving constantly and using some very effective foot sweeps to avoid Simon’s power.  Simon caught him a few times, but the ref was quick to jump in and stop the bout because of headgear malfunctions with the Ukranian so Simon was unable to put any real combos together.

SATURDAY FIGHTS

Adam started the day off fighting against a fighter from Slovenia.  We had seen the fighter in his first bout and thought Adam had good chances against him.  Unfortunately Adam was exhausted after cutting weight on Tues, Fri, and Saturday.  He hadn’t eaten very much the entire week while trying to keep his weight low and he wasnt well hydrated either.   Adam started the fight off well landing great kicks and keeping the Slovenian flustered with his movement.  Adam won the first and second rounds on points, but he too lost gas in the 3rd round and the Slovenian came back on all cylinders to win the fight.  Another loss due to the accumulative scoring system.

Mike Dean faced off against a huge French fighter next.  Mike was the last fighter from the U.S. still alive in the tournament and our last hope for a medal.  You could see how much he wanted to win this fight for the team and for the USA.  He gave his all in this fight and didn’t stop after taking two huge shots (one to the head and one to the body) both giving him 8-counts.  Mike pushed hard, but the much taller Frenchman just controlled the distance better in the fight and kept away from Mike’s power to get the unanimous decision win.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It was a tough tournament for the U.S. team, but we did get 2 big wins in the tournament and several of the fights that we lost would have been won if using a 10-9 scoring system.  We also had much harder draws in the tournament than previously thought: Every fighter a U.S. Team member lost to ended up moving on to medal in the tournament (3 or 4 of them fought for the gold).

We definitely have things to work on, but we’re confident we belong here and you can expect an even better showing two years from now at the next World Championships.

Adam lost by a close decision. Mike got knocked down with an overhand right in the first 20 seconds of the first round but got up and finished the fight losing by decision. Team USA ended up 2 and 7 with one knock out in the tournament. Much better than last time when everyone went out in the first fight. Simon got the fastest knock out of the tournament. Thank you Ronnie Copeland for the results.

Chris, Adam, Justin, and the rest of Team USA have all arrived safely in Italy. We hope to have more photos up soon, but we currently have poor internet access. Everyone from USA made weight. It has been amazing to see all the different countries here, each in a unique warmup suit :Russia Brazil Ireland Poland Kazakhstan Bulgaria new Zealand and many many more.Full brackets should be posted tonight. Simon is in a huge division so their first round will start tonight but Simon got a bye and will fight tonight’s winner of Canada and Czechoslovakia tomorrow sometime. Will know more after all brackets are up.

THE 2009 U.S. NATIONAL KICKBOXING TEAM

• 54kg – Jim Klauba
• 67kg – John Greubel
• 71kg – Nathan Key
• 75kg – Chris Cichon
• 81kg – Simon Buttener
• 86kg – Adam McDermid
• 91+kg – Mike Dean

Head Coach: Rob Zbilski
Assistant Coach: Justin Whiley

The event kicked off with an amateur International Rules kickboxing bout between The Cellar’s Elijah Thibodeaux and Glen Homac from Ontario, Canada.  The first round started off casually with both fighters feeling eachother out, but things came to an end quickly in the second round as Elijah landed a thunderous round kick to the head, stopping the fight by KO.

Later in the fight card The Cellar’s Jon Cichon squared off with Texas’ Mario Martinez.  The first round started off very close with both fighters landing some great punches on the inside, but Martinez’s leg kicks began to wear down Cichon and his constant pressure gave him the judges decision.  It was a great tough fight for both these young combatants.

As the USA vs UK matchups began, The Cellar’s Chris Cichon took to the ring to kick things off for the Amerian team.  Cichon was defending his IKF Light Middleweight World Title against Scotland’s Ryan Lyall.  This fight was a rematch from a fight that took place last May in Rochester, England; in the previous battle the judges were unable to choose a winner and the fight was scored a draw.  Cichon came out in the opening round looking to establish ring control and keep Lyall towards the ropes.  The two traded blows for all 5 scheduled rounds, and in the end Cichon reigned supreme.  The judges scored the bout unanimously for Cichon 50-44, 49-45, and 49-45 (Lyall was penalized 1 point in the second for a foul).

In the Second main event of the evening, Caleb Plant took on England’s Rob Burbridge for the vacant IKF Super Middleweight World Title.  Plant came out at an incredible pace from the very first bell, slipping punches and landing swift combos, but he began to tire in the late part of the third round and the fight got very close.  In the end the judges ruled the fight in favor of Plant by split decision to capture the New World Title; a very impressive feat for a 17-year old stepping up into the adult division.’

With the USA ahead 2-0, The Cellar’s Adam McDermid (Current IKF Cruiserweight World Champion) faced off with England’s Ashley Collins (Current IKF Light Heavyweight World Champion).  The two chose to meet in the middle weight class to battle for the vacant IKF Light Cruiserweight World Title.  McDermid started the fight off landing great kicks and fluid punch combinations in the first round, but it took just one mistake for Collins to change things up.  In the second round McDermid ducked his head two low while avoiding strikes and Collins capitalized by landing a swift kick to the lowered head of McDermid.  The kick was timed perfectly and it put McDermid down for the first time in his career.  Referee Dan “Bam” Stell quickly called an end to the fight and Collins was awarded the vacant World Title.  Our hat goes off to Collins for stepping up in weight to face someone two divisions heavier and hopefully we will have the chance to see these two share the ring again in the future.

It was a great night for The Cellar and Team USA.  We want to give a huge Thank You to Warriors Fight Promotions and Justin Whiley for helping to make this event possible.  We also want to thank Team UK for joining us.  They traveled a great distance to fight in front of a very pro-U.S.A. crowd, and they gave it their all.  We also had a blast hanging out with them all weekend.  It was an honor to share the ring with you all!!!