MuayThai fans in Sydney were once again treated to an exciting night of action and thrills by JNI Promtions working with the Oceania MuayThai Federation and the WMC.

The main event was the WMC Intercontinental title bout between Wendy ‘ The Rocket “ Miranda and Noriko Tsunda , Japan at 53.2 kgs. The undercard was made up with Australian fighters from round the country as well as one Finland-Australia bout at Super MiddleWeight.

There were 2 other female bouts on the card – Carly Ringe defeated Ali Gray on points fighting a technical fight ; Chico Loyini-Jorgenson dominated the fight with Christine Kodrun taking a TKO win in the 2nd round. 4 names to watch for the future.

The main event was eagerly anticipated – Wendy has a strong following in her home town and with the WMC Oceania Fly Weight and the Jr Bantam Weight Australia titles behind her she is certainly deserving of that support. Noriko holds the WMC All-Asia title as well as numerous Thai stadium titles and Japanese national titles.

It was a very close fight with 2 different styles of MuayThai on display from the fighters – and as close a fight as all fights at this high international level should be. Wendy worked well with push-kicks to the body and face as well as leg-kicks to Noriko’s front leg, mixing it up with accurate punching; Noriko responding with a great rate of punches to the head and body as well as skilful grappling and counter-kneeing on the ropes. The crowd was surprised to hear after the fight that Noriko had broken her nose 3 days before during a training session but she managed to defend it for 5 rounds of boxing. Wendy used the full range of weapons available to her but had problems in the grapple though the fight, trying to use her slight height advantage but unable to land clear knees. It was a tough call for the judges with feelings running high in the crowd as always with international bouts at this standard. Noriko took the fight on a close points decision – the new WMC Intercontinental Champion at 53.2 kgs.

Some of the other fights generated a huge amount of excitement in the packed Civic Centre - the much-hyped battle between Dylan Resnekov and Jeff Llanes certainly lived up to the billing. From the bell both fighters came out strongly with Dylan however showing more control and timing his counter-attacks very well. Jeff fought back well , tightening up his defence and landing some slicing elbows - the cut not seeming to slow Dylan down and he continued to land some clever kick combinations , showing a great control of the MuayThai weapons and taking the fight on a clear decision.

The Finland , Niklas Winberg v.s Australia Nathan Grant was a slow-starter with the Finn not seeming to get into the fight until the final rounds , Nathan putting up a good show to take a points decision.

Altogether there were 11 gyms taking part which is a great sign of how strong MuayThai is growing in Australia under the Oceania MuayThai Federation. Well done to the promoter John Ioannou for putting in all the hard work to bring the international fight to the ring and all the undercard fights as well.