Evolution 15,Brisbane!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Pt 1

So after writing in to the New Paper....and having the article published....what good has that done for me....??....Absolutely FUCK ALL!!!! Gotta love it here in Singapore sometimes.......................

As always I've been pretty busy with work,training and travelling. Finally back in Singapore and settled down abit. Recovering from my massive weekend at Zoukout!!! God what a night!! =) Wish there more parties like Zoukout to keep life interesting in SingaBore!!!!

So yeah last fight of the year is over and Im not just enjoying my hoiday and rest til 2009 and hopefully all my injuries will have healed up by then!! Not much of 2008 left but Im definetly gonna make the most of the year off!!

Most of you prolly know I was up in Brisbane for Evolution 15 to take on my best friend Soren!!! I left Singapore on the 4th of Dec at about 9pm and arrived at like 630am in Brisbane Airport. Was a horrrrrible flight. Some kid infront of me constantly crying and the mom kept turning on the lights to attend to her child.....Ohh Goddddd!!! But yeah....what can you do.
I been to Brisbane before but maybe....3 years ago?? Brisbane was pretty cool. It's not toooooooooo busy and not too hectic and prolly one of the more quiet cities in Australia.

Before I left for Brisbane,I contacted Nikon and swapped in my old Nikon S700 for the super slick White,Nikon S60 which is a touch screen camera!! It's just sooooo cool!!! So just wanna say a thank you to Nikon quickly!! Check out the Nikon S60!!

Upon arrival we were greeted at the airport by the promoter,Nugget and his assistant,Chicko. They took us to our hotel/motel to quickly get freshened up and then went down to the famous Nuggets Gym before lunch to check our weight to see if we could eat,or if we had to starve til after the weigh in!! Soren was there waiting for us at the gym and we all had a good time catching up. We all quickly checked our weight and most of us were pretty much spot on or slightly off so we went down to,The Valley,which is sorta like the Chinatown of Brisbane for a tiny bit of Thai Food. After lunch it was about 1pm and we were all sooo tired from the flight,we decided to go back to the hotel to rest. We were told that we had to be at Nuggets Gym at 6pm for a weigh-in and press conference.

The famous Nuggets Gym in Brisbane.

We got to the weigh in slightly early so that we could do a small run just to sweat off the last kilo or so. The gym got more and more busy with fighters,managers,officials,tv crews and all sorts?!?! Was good to catch up with some of my aussie friends that I've met over the years from staying in boxing camps and also from just training/fighting at different gyms/events. Was good to meet one of Australia's most famous fighter,Nathan "Carnage" Corbett!!

Here are the pics of the weigh in at Nuggets Gyms. Pictures taken by Scottya.

Benny Ritter vs Daddy Cool, Zach vs Soren, Preacher vs Jabba

Eli Madigan,Warren "Wazza" Elson,Greg Foley & Jasonc Scerri, Sean vs JWP

Evolution 15 had a seriously AWESOME lineup!!! 6 Contender Asia Fighters...ALLL of Australia's top fighters all in one event! Crazzzzzzyyyy!!!

So on fight night Benny Ritter was p first against Daddy Cool. Daddy Cool has the coolest entrance EVER!!! Those who are familiar with the Evolution series will know what Im talking about. The fight was a real good one....as both fighters have won 1 fight each and this was the decider. Daddy Cool won with a 2nd Round KO.

After Benny's fight the 4 Man Qualifier was up...Eli Madigan beat Jason Scerri with a KO in rd 2 and Warren Elson beat Greg Foley on points to secure themselves a spot in the the final for the 4Man Contender Qualifier. So the there you go the final was between Eli Madigan and Warren Elson!

After the 1st round of Qualifiers was over...it was time for me and Soren to get it on!! As much as we both been saying,"yeah it's cool we'll be alright fighting each other and it's just business".....It really was HARD. It was gonna be a hard fight wether I was friends with him or not...dont get me wrong!! Sometimes we fight friends in this sport....but we're not CLOSE friends....with me and Soren it's totally different. We've been really good friends for a long time now and it really got the better of both of us. I remember Rd 1 being a very good round for both of us. Very technical and I landed lots of leg kicks on Soren. Round 2 Soren stepped it up and came in with some punches. I ate a couple of stupid uppercuts and it gave me a bloody nose...!! haha Didnt hurt as much but yeah...just looked bad!! Rd 3 Soren rocked me with some pretty good body shots and I went down close to the end of the Rd. It was a totaaallly awkward fight...We both barely threw any knees and elbows?!?! It just wasn't our usual selves fighting. People who think that my fight against Soren is how I usually fight and Im an easy target...they better think twice!!

Next up another fight that was talked about by everyone!! Preacher vs Jabba!! After both of their recent fights it was hard to say who was gonna win....Preacher knocking out Daniel Dawson.....and Jabba having some good fights in Sweden and HongKong. I rushed out from the changing room after my fight to help Jabba remove his Arab headdress. It started off well with Preacher coming in and landing a couple of good leg kicks and punches and moving around the ring. Jabba however stood his ground in the centre of the ring and came back strong with some good leg kicks followed up by some BIG hooks. A couple of his hooks landed and you could kinda see Preacher's reaction changed. And before you know it....Jabba landed the same over hand right that took out Soren!!!! Preacher tried to get up but his body just wasn't responding!!...The ref could have counted to 30 and he'd still be there.... Jabba once again shows his awesome power in his hands with a Rd 1 KO!! Damn that crazy ruski!!!!

Carnage was up next against I think his names Tony....He's from New Zealand. Sorry my memory is CRAPPP!!! Carnage as always does what he does best....comes in a fight and smashes everyone. Carnage won with a 2nd Round KO. Landed a hook on the guys nose and I think he broke it!? Think fight fans are all wondering who is gonna step up to take on Carnage...??!?

2nd Last fight of the night was the 4 Man Qualifier between Eli and Wazza. Two very different styles!!! Eli who is a in and out sorta fighter...hitting and moving around the ring....and Wazza who is a grappler and like staying in close. And just as most people expected.....Wazza spent the fight chasing Eli around the ring trying to get his hold on him. To be fair he was strong in the grapple and Eli did really well push kicking....and then countering with hard punches and kicks. But Wazza just pressed on!!!!! The fight goes the distance and the winner was declared Eli Madigan! Congratulations to Eli and all the best in the Contender Asia Season 2.

Last fight of the night....JWP vs Sean Wright..what was meant to be a war....was over in the 2nd or 3rd. Not due to a KO....but due to illness. Sean Wright who had spent 3 days trying to get to Brisbane.....coz of all the airport trouble...flying from Chiang Mai to Samui....Samui to Singapore...and then Singapore to Brisbane. Sean Wright stepped into fight not to dissapoint all his fans. JWP landed some good bodyshots on Sean and everytime we saw it on the screen we were like...."Ohhhhhh....Ahhhh...Owww" Jabba said to me he's never been punched harder by anyone in all his years of fighting!! A pity the fight of the night didn't go the way we all wanted....but Ive heard there's a talk of a rematch. Hopefully Sean will be ready for war then!

So what a night of fights. Sucks that it all ended so FAST!! I really enjoyed the Evolution experience. I never ever thought I'd be invited to fight on Evolution. Evolution has got to be one of the best series INTERNATIONALLY! Sucks that I had to fight my best friend and couldn't put on a good performance!!....But Im still happy and I know I'll do better for my next fight.

To be honest,I never ever thought that I'd ever fight Soren!!!! (Or be on Contender Asia!!) I remember meeting Soren in 2004 when I lived in Thailand and it was at the start of my career.... we hung out and trained together.....and I remember thinking,"Damn,when will I ever get this good!?!!?" The fights over and we're still best of friends!! We hung out heaps after the fight as I stayed a couple of days in Brisbane hanging out with Soren,met some of his crazy friends and even got to meet his lovely mom and sister!

Me and Soren goofing around at the after fight party!

Brisbane was great fun....Met soo many cool people there and had some awesome parties and some crazy nights out!!! Thanks to everyone who took such awesome care of me while I was there!! Dane,Ray,Nugget,Chicko,Daniel and Jules and whoever I've left out!! Right guys,I hope to be back soon! If not for a fight....for a night out!!

Next blog entry will be about my time in Goldcoast with Mr.JWP and family!!!

Until next time everyone!

LaterZ