Heart and aggression
THERE will be some sore heads and a few achy limbs today.
Mixed martial arts fighters and kickboxers put their chins on the line last night when the Xtreme Fighting Championship (XFC) was held at the Edgar Centre.
The ninebout fight card was full of hardhitting entertainment, with seven amateur MMA fights and a revised two professional kickboxing.
Lightweights Flynn Booth (Hammerhead) and Christchurch’s James McBride (Universal Vale Tudo) put on a display worthy of a main event, as they went at it with plenty of heart and relentless aggression.
Booth was strong on his feet with some clean striking, but McBride showed what a tough guy he is by taking Booth to the deck a few times, while displaying a strong allround game and eventually submitting Booth late in round three with a highly skilled Kimura submission.
McBride took his record to seven wins and one loss while Booth fell to 22.
Female 85kg MMA fighters Sandra Mata’afa (Hammerhead Dunedin) and Mel Webster (Hammerhead Queenstown) started the night in impressive striking fashion. Webster won via TKO after referee Apii Taia stopped the fight 1min 51sec into round 2.
Webster (10) dropped Mata’afa with a clean right hand in round one and she sealed the win with some big and impressive straight punching, as both women traded on their feet.
Kickboxers David Boyd (Hammerhead Queenstown) and Invercargill’s Levi Beatie (Toa Fighting systems) did not hold back in their 63kg fight.
The shorter Boyd was relentless with his aggressive comeforward punching while Beatie (two wins, three losses) displayed some impressive leg kicks and straight jabbing, winning via a somewhat surprising unanimous decision.
Dunedin’s Anne Wilson (Hammerhead) continued her phenomenal run of form with a gallant win over Maria Churcher (Academy of Combat) via unanimous decision in their MMA bout.
Wilson (31) was like a woman possessed as she hunted the much younger Churcher for most of the fight, with some impressive punching and in particular body shots, to win her fourth combat sports fight in five weeks.
Greg StevensonWright (Ham merhead) put on a brutal display of striking when he won his 86kg catchweight fight against Dunedin’s Jason Marsh.
All MMA fights were three threeminute rounds and kickboxing was three twominute rounds.