Saturday night saw a dominant victory for Australian Muaythai veteran Brodie Stalder at Rebellion Muaythai 13 when he stopped highly rated Thai, Tia Sitmonchai in the third round via leg kicks.
The event was held at St Kilda Town Hall and was the final event for 2016 for the Melbourne promotion.
A traditionally slow start to a five round Muaythai fight was not adhered to during the main event with both Stalder and Tia wasting no time in opening up with constant pressure. Both fighters started strong early on exchanging leg kicks between each other while seemingly feeling out their range. Stalder started the stronger of the two in the first round landing multiple leg kicks on both the inside and outside of his opponent’s thigh.
Round two started no differently with Stalder opening up with relentless leg kicks on his opponent. Tia was not able to respond in kind and it was Stalder who produced a series of high-low boxing and kick combinations that had his opponent on the back foot. With the damage on his legs starting to take its toll, Tia moved into a southpaw stance to place his front leg outside of Stalder’s incredibly accurate range. Two flawless barrages of leg kicks late in the second round resulted in two standing eight counts on Tia as he was luckily saved by the bell.
The third round opened much like the first two and it was Stalder on the attack once again, showing no respect for his opponent’s pedigree as he worked his legs over both at distance and in the clinch. Knowing he was down on the cards and having been dealt considerably damage to his leg, Tia went head hunting looking for the knockout, but it was Stalder who was able to land two body shots and a follow up leg kick that floored his opponent and ended the fight via TKO.
In the semi-main event UK’s George Mann (now residing in WA), took out a unanimous points decision over local favourite Alexi Petroulias. It was Mann who had the considerable reach advantage in this fight with his slender frame allowing for a ranged attack that Petroulias was unable to get past for most of the fight. Only recently turning 22 years of age, Mann showed that he could easily match his more experienced opponent with constant push kicks that not only kept Petroulias at bay, but scored highly on the judge’s score cards. Petroulias pushed forward for the remainder of the fight looking for his opening, but the height and reach of Mann was just too much to overcome and the fight resulted in a unanimous points decision for the young UK fighter.
The third fight from the top of the card between twin brother of Tia Sitmonchai, Petch and newly crowned Australian WMC Lloyd Dean ended in oddly the same way as the main event did with Petch taking the win over Dean via relentless leg kicks in the second round. The international debut for Petch was a dominant performance against the Australian champion, with the constant kicks taking their toll very quickly resulting in a referee stoppage.
New Rebellion Muaythai crowd favourite, Jordan Coe (originally from the UK, now residing in Thailand), put on a show inside and outside of the ring with an entrance that will go down as one of the most entertaining of 2016. Dancing his way into the ring Coe put on a show for the crowd in attendance and managed to replicate his confident introduction with a clinical performance against local MTA Victorian Champion Chris Nguyen. While Nguyen was never outclassed in this bout, it was Coe who was able to land stronger and more effective Muaythai technique that gave him the unanimous points decision.
In what was easily the fight of the night, local favourites Richard Fanous and Abbas Ahmadi put together an instant classic for the Rebellion crowd in a five round war with Ahmadi taking the unanimous points decision. The constant back and forth action had the crowd on their feet and while Ahmadi was cut in the third round via an elbow from Fanous, it was not enough to stop the fight and Ahmadi was able to land strong knees in the later rounds to take the fight via a decision from the judges.
Earlier in the day Rebellion Muaythai’s new novice fight show Roots Muaythai took place with local fighters Elliot Glenister and Clem Taylor battling it out in the main event. In what was a back and forth battle Glenister was able to get the win via unanimous points decision. In the semi-main event Pamela Ablang defeated Tamika Rose to capture the Muaythai Australia (MTA) Victorian 57 kilogram title with a unanimous points decision also.
Results:
- Brodie Stalder def. Tia Sitmonchai via TKO, Rd 3
- George Mann def. Alexi Petroulias via Decision (Split)
- Petch Sitmonchai def. Lloyd Dean via TKO, Rd 2
- Jordan Coe def. Chris Nguyen via Decision (Unanimous)
- Abbas Ahmadi def. Richard Fanous via Decision (Unanimous)
- Lucy Payne def. Gentiane Lupi via Decision (Unanimous)
- Daria Smith def. Yolanda Schmidt via Decision (Split)
- Sebastian Holmes def. Stephan Lottering via Decision (Unanimous)
- Tyler Hardcastle def. Liam Wright via Decision (Unanimous)
- Jeremy Poircuitte def. Jayden Eynaud via KO, Rd. 2
