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!

Next up was Di Lin as he challenged Kristian Hewitt who was also from Canada. Di started the bout off brilliantly, throwing great combinations and backing Kristian to the ropes. In the second round Di played a bit to patient and made the bout even on the scorecards. The third round went back-and-forth with several changes in momentum, but in the end Kristian got the win the split decision.

As a featured bout of the evening, Caleb Merth challenged Terrance Marquardt for the vacant 145lb featherweight title. Marquardt was a Tae Kwon Do fighter using flashy kicks and explosive techniques but Caleb was able to defend nearly all of Marquardt’s attacks and land punishing punches in the process. We thought Caleb won the bout 4 rounds to 1, but the judges had a split decision going to Terrance. It was a close bout and Caleb will learn a lot from his first loss, but we saw some horrible judging throughout the night and this fight was no exception.

The Cellar Gym once again attended the largest Muay Thai tournament in North America, the TBA-SA Muay Thai Classic. This year The Cellar had 12 fighters competing at the event. All fighters made weight for their respective divisions on Thursday June 25 with the competition going from June 26-28 in Des Moines, IA.

June 26:
Great first day of action at the 2015 TBA-SA Muay Thai Classic. There were four rings running of non-stop ‪Muay Thai action! The Cellar Gym went 6-2 on the day. Ryan Sternberg and Di Lin lost decisions. Toni Weinbeck, Ian Greer, Caleb Merth, and Xin Zheng won their bouts + Matt Gangl won 2 bouts today! We also learned that Di’s opponent will be unable to continue so Di is back in the tournament, he is going to get a second chance at that belt!

June 27:
It turned into a rough day for the team. We ended up on the wrong side of some super close decisions and we faced some really skilled opponents. Six of our fighters will be settling for the bronze this year, but we have another 5 in the championship finals tomorrow. Even though today didn’t go as we had hoped, we are still incredibly proud of this team! Every fighter that lost today gave everything they had until the final bell. They showed incredible heart and resilience and we couldn’t be more proud. We will take these losses, make adjustments, and come back even stronger. Watch out, in 2016 this team will be scary good!!!

June 28:
– First fight down and Terrance picks up the big win! Men’s B Class Light Welterweight Champion!
– Caleb Merth is the 2015 men’s novice welterweight champion and is awarded his belt by Ajarn Chai
– Antonio Dvorak wins the Men’s A Class Super Heavyweight division by TKO (corner stoppage) after the very first round! This is his 3rd ‪Muay Thai Classic title!
– Pam “Bam” Sorenson wins the Ladies A Class Welterweight division!!! She fought an amazing fight with numerous dumps from the clinch and some strong elbows!
– Ian Greer wins the Men’s A Class light middleweight title in a WAR against a very tough and experienced opponent. Wow! The Cellar Gym goes 5-0 today with 5 title belts to bring home! What a day!!!

The Cellar Gym is bringing home 5 Muay Thai Classic tournament titles! 5-0 on the day! We are so proud of this amazing team!

• 14+ Regional, National, and North American Championship Titles including 5 champions at the Thai Boxing Association-Sanctioning Authority Muay Thai Classic.
• The Cellar Gym Fighters & Coaches traveled to 5 Continents with Wako Team USA Kickboxing
• Several new BJJ blue, purple, and brown belts under Marcelo Nunes and #ZenithBJJ.
• Antonio Dvorak’s debut win at Lion Fight Promotions.
• Adam “Big Gunna” Mc Donough’s amazing run through the Bellator MMA Welterweight Tournament.
• Krista Olson being promoted to Kru under Ajarn Chai.
• Being a part of Tony Martin’s UFC Journey.
• Chris Cichon being promoted to Associate Instructor by Ajarn Chai at the Thai Boxing Association’s Pacific NW Camp.
• Marcelo Nunes improving to 4-0 as a MMA professional.
• Nate Richardson winning 3 fights in 1 night at Extreme Striking Promotions 8.
• Awesome seminars with Shawn Yarborough, Takeyoshi Ikehara, Richard Abraham, Pat “HD” Barry, and Artem “The Lion” Levin.
• And so many FUN memories!

Thank you to everyone who was part of another great year! #bestof2014 #thecellargym

Ryan Sternberg defeated Chase Rueger by unanimous decision, scoring a standing 8-count in the 3rd round.
Lajly Yang defeated Tyler Williams by unanimous decision.
Pablo Castillo defeated Ryan Miles by unanimous decision.
Nate Richardson defeated Art Harris by unanimous decision, scoring a knockdown in the 3rd round.

Congratulations guys and thank you to our huge cheering section of Cellar fans that came out to support!

Come out and support these fantastic fighters! We hope to have huge section of screaming Cellar fans to cheer on our guys and the rest of the action-packed fight card.

The Cellar had 12 fighters competing in 11 different weight classes and when all the dust settled from 3 days of fights, The Cellar had captured 5 North American Championship Belts!

Luke Rudberg and Di Lin both fought and won 4 fights over the weekend to win their Men’s Light Welterweight (142lb) and Men’s Welterweight (147lb) divisions. Laura Marturano won 3 fights with 2 coming by way of TKO to win the Ladies Featherweight (127lb) division; she won her championship fight by TKO in just :37 seconds! Our smallest and biggest fighters in the tournaments were also in the smallest divisions. Jen Cichon and Antonio Dvorak only fought on Championship Sunday, but both walked away with championship titles. Jen won the Ladies Strawweight (112lb) division and Antonio won the Men’s Super Heavyweight (215+ lb) division.

With 500+ registered fighters for a single elimination tournament, not everyone could walk away with a belt, but that doesn’t mean their performance was not inspiring. All of the fights our team lost were closely contested and many of them could have gone either way on the judges scorecards.

Full Results from the Tournament:

• Jen Cichon – Ladies Novice 112lb Strawweight – CHAMPION
• Laura Marturano – Ladies Novice 127lb Featherweight – CHAMPION
• Pam Sorenson – Ladies A Class 135lb Lightweight – 2nd Place
• Lajly Yang – Men’s Novice 137lb Super Lightweight – 3rd Place
• Luke Rudberg – Men’s Novice 142lb Light Welterweight – CHAMPION
• Di Lin – Men’s Novice 147lb Welterweight – CHAMPION
• Ryan Sternberg – Men’s Novice 153lb Super Welterweight – 3rd Place
• Demian Ya Deau – Men’s Novice 153lb Super Welterweight – Quarter Finalist
• James Dipetro – Men’s Novice 165lb Middleweight – Quarter Finalist
• Pablo Castillo – Men’s Novice 215+lb Super Heavyweight – 3rd Place
• Devlin Borders – Senior Men’s Open 215lb Heavyweight – 3rd Place
• Antonio Dvorak – Men’s A Class 215+lb Super Heavyweight – CHAMPION