On the 18th April Martin Colton will be making his next outting for Chokdee Muay Thai. Having learnt a lot since the last fight in January Martin has grown as a fighter and made some radical changes to his diet, training routine and mental approach. This means that he has dropped down to 70kgs and is looking very strong for the weight. Martin is facing a fighter from Philip Tieu's Gym in London. Avid supporters may remember Philip Tieu from his bout with Dave Philips on Master Skens show a couple of years ago. Since then Philip has set up his own gym, and is now putting out fighters. This looks to be a closely contested bout on paper, with both guys having 1 fight each.
Unfortunately, Martin got caught cold by a very strong southpaw opponent. Liam from Tieu's Gymbox has spent that past 3 months training in Thailand, and was very effective with his knees, dropping Martin twwice, when the referee stopped the fight after 2mins of round 1.
This is going to be a dual event for Chokdee, as one of the main events is Rich Cadden, who is fighting out of the Bad Company Gym against the up-and-coming Paul Kelly, from Wossobama Gym in Scotland. With both guys having a come-forward aggressive style, this is guaranteed to be a tear-up! This is a non-title bout matched at 65kgs. The other main event is Luke Turner, who is facing Rob Doyle from Bridestone Thai, from Ireland. Rich beat Rob back in 2008 for the IKF European title so this will be a good test for Luke, who is forging his name as one of the new 'names' coming through the ranks at Bad Company.
Rich took an early lead behind a strong push kick and low kick defence, finishing the round well with a strong body kick, which dropped Paul Kelly for an 8-count. In round 2, Rich controlled the pace of the fight with ring-craft and increased the pressure in round 3. At the end of the third round Rich changed tactics and utilised his boxing to good effect, dropping Paul for a second time, and Paul didnt make the count.
