Medal hopes ended by strangle choke
Windsor’s Shaw reflects on IMMAF World Champs
Submission by strangle choke ended the medal hopes of Windsor’s Harry Shaw at the IMMAF World Championships in Abu Dhabi last month.
Shaw was one of 10 athletes, varying in weight from strawweights to light heavyweight, selected by England’s Mixed Martial Arts Association for the world championships on January 24.
Fundraising took place to enable the athletes to travel to the Middle East to compete and Harry formed part of a strong English team that flew out with genuine medal hopes.
Fighting in the men’s lightweight 70.3 (155lbs) class, Harry who’d impressed the judging panel in the English trials wasn’t quite able to replicate that form against the world’s best amateurs.
Having progressed past an opponent from Iraq in his first bout, he was beaten in bout 19 by Neimat Assadov of Kazakhstan, submitting to a triangle choke after 2.06 minutes of round three.
Reflecting on his experience in Abu Dhabi, Harry said: “It’s a huge honour to go and represent your country in your sport.
“I absolutely love martial arts so to go and represent it on an international level for England was wicked.
“The English MMA Association hold trials every year for athletes to try out and then they select a team based on that, and I was one of the ones selected to represent England at lightweight.
“This was my first international competition. I was supposed to compete back in 2019 but three weeks before it I ended up blowing my ACL, so I had to pull out and have full ACL reconstruction.
“I spent two-and-a-bit years out because of the ACL and then COVID hit. I actually hadn’t had many bouts leading up to the World Championships, but previously I had five fights with a record of four and one.
“When I was out at the worlds, I had two fights there and won one and lost one.
“It’s a five-day tournament and it’s knock-out stages straight away, there were 26 guys in my bracket. I won my first fight against an opponent from Iraq. I managed to stop him in the second round through an accumulation of strikes.
“I’m more of a kick-boxer and in the second fight I came up against a really good wrestler. I gave him a good fight, but he caught me in the last minute of the last round with a slippery choke.
“I was gutted. I went out there wanting gold but just came up against a really good, solid, wrestler.
“The weather in Abu Dhabi was pretty sweet, but it was bittersweet because I still wanted to be in the competition.”
Having spent more than two
years out of the cage, Harry simply wants to compete as much as possible and build towards becoming a professional fighter.
“When I blew my ACL, I spent so much time out that I’m just really looking to compete as much as possible now,” he said.
“I have got a kickboxing fight at the end of this month (February), then I’m looking to do the IMMAF European Champs in May.
“I will hopefully get a bit of redemption over the Kazakhstani wrestlers and after then, I will be looking to make my professional debut.”