Muaythai Against Drugs

When: 7/5/2003 - 7/5/2003
Where: Bankok, , Thailand

Two canadian's from calgary competed on this international prestige event. calgary's erin linley battled against one of thailand's top female muay thai athlete's, siriporn sornpod for the wmc world title. the two had met last year in the ring where sornpod had won a controversial decision for the gold medal over the canadian at the 2002 ifma world muaythai championships. the rematch had both athletes in great shape and ready to rumble. linley was to win this encounter and become the first athlete from north america to win a wmc world title. the second athlete from calgary, trevor smandych squared off against an athlete from spain. at stake was the welterweight wmc intercontinental title. smandych had won this title in early 2000. however, in late 2002 he abandoned the title and fought australia's kurt finlayson for the wmc intercontinental lightwelterweight title. smandych won this title (what a great fight that was). for this event, smandych again moved up in weight for a chance to reclaim his first wmc title. in a very exciting match, smandych was to win the bout and the title. congratulations to both athletes. This event was attended by the canadian ambassador to thailand, dr andrew mcalister. Below is a story from the wmc on the event. World muaythai council, muaythai against drugs.

Dhurakijpundit University, Bangkok, July 25th 2003

Friday, the 25th saw a gathering of fighters from 15 countries around the world to compete for wmc world and intercontinental titles. the show was the opening event in the muaythai against drugs series, and also held to coincide with hrh, the crown princes birthday. A full crowd was gathered at 10 am to welcome the fighters, vips and mark hrh’s birthday. he, general pichitr kullavanaijaya presided over the opening ceremonies. fights were televised live on channel 5 in thailand and will be shown at a later date around the world.

The wmc bantamweight world title was a close fight between nungubon sit u ubon and gabdankaen narupai of thailand. this was an exciting start to the day with both showing great skill in the grapple. nungubon was unlucky to be thrown in the 5th which gave gabdankaen enough of an edge to take the title and also later be awarded the prince’s cup for best boxer of the day.

Next up was an unfortunately short-lived contest between clifton brown, canada and frederic rosenberg, sweden for the wmc intercontinental at 82 kgs. this could have been a great fight, but rosenberg has his arm broken in the first round from powerful body-kick. he bravely attempted to fight on but the referee stopped the fight as he was clearly in agony and unable to fight. This was followed by a very exciting bout between jioi orak of the czech republic and leonard sitpholek from thailand. this was a great fight, with the result uncertain right until the 5th round. both gave a great display of muaythai, with leonard taking the fight on points. After this, was the first of the 3 female fights. erin linley, canada took on siriporn sornpod, thailand. this was a rematch of the ifma final last september and both fighters had certainly trained very hard for this one. fast and furious action, with some ferocious knees and great grappling from both fighters. the crowd certainly enjoyed this one, and the world title went to Erin.

An equally exciting fight followed between chau ying kit from china and kunshibayayev tokhtasyn of kazakhstan. two contrasting styles here with the kazak boy throwing some great punch combinations and kit working away with knees and kicks. the 4th round saw some great action which brought the crowd to their feet. an exciting fight which went to the kazakhstani fighter.

The second female world title fight was also a rematch: amy birch, australia and daoprasuk petchopas, thailand. both fighters are very strong in the grapple and worked on the inside for most of the fight. this was a close fight, with a split decesion going in daoprasuk’s favour. The 67 kgs intercontinental title was a fantastic fight between trevor smandych, canada and jaime lungeo, spain. the first 2 rounds went to jaime but then trevor came out a new fighter in the 3 round and took the fight to him in spectacular fashion. a fight to remember, with trevor a deserving champion. Alex dally took the european title at 72 kgs in a display of skill from alexo ricci, italy. both fighters showed a great level of muaythai skill but alex was clearly the more skillful. well ahead on points, he took the fight on a tko in the dying seconds of the 5 round with a well-placed leg-kick.

The last title fight was for a female intercontinental between niamh griffin, ireland and noppian petchopas, thailand. with both girls displaying excellent all round muaythai techniques. the first two rounds where very even but later on in the fight niamh griffin started to dominate the thai and went on to win a unanimous decision.

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