Sydney MuayThai fans were treated to an exciting night of MuayThai recently, put on by JNI Promotions in conjunction with the Oceania MuayThai Federation. The packed Civic Centre was certainly not disappointed with a solid undercard of Australian fighters led up to 3 exciting main bouts including the headliner between Shannon F-16 Forrester, Australia and Yoddecha SitYodTong, Thailand.

The card included 2 female bouts, the first a KO victory for Leonie Macks over Christine Kodrun and the second a 3-round battle between Sandy Furner and Chico Lovini-Jorgenson which Sandy took on points.

The initial bouts were under modified Thai rules, giving the novice fighters a chance to learn their craft and gain ring experience on their way to become fully-fledged fighters. The final 2 fights on the undercard were under full rules – Tome Lello against Cameron Nell. This was an exciting fight with Tom showing good control of the MuayThai weapons landing some great head-kicks, using solid footwork to turn Cameron in the grapple and Cameron using his punches to stay out of trouble and taking the fight.

Next up was Adam Taylor taking on Francis McDonald from F-16 Gym. A very technical fight with both fighters staying controlled and focused for the duration, Francis showing great footwork and agility moving about the ring landing some strong punches but Adam working more and scoring with accurate kicking – taking the fight on points.

This was followed by an international fight with George Neromoliotis from Greece taking on Wayne Martin, K-6 Gym who stepped in as a replacement for an injured fighter. A fast-paced start from both boxers with the Greek fighter looking to take the fight to the Australian from the off with strong punch combinations. Wayne responded well on the inside, trying to close him down and use a slight height advantage but not quite finding the power with his knees. George worked away in the 3 with a good rate of right leg-kicks followed with clean hooks and right hands. Wayne pulled back some points in grapple but the in the end the points went cleanly to George.

The next bout between Charlie Betchwaty and Time Drury was shaping up to a royal battle but Tim seemed to slow after taking some hard and well-placed kicks into his left leg. He fought back with flurries of action but Charlie was placing kicks, moving in and out at will and remained at a consistent level throughout the fight. He landed a good elbow in the 3rd which opened a cut for Tim who continued to fight on without a need for doctor. In the 4th Tim called out his boxing skills and tried to get back into the fight but couldn’t seem to ruffle his opponent. The fight was cut short with Charlie landed a great head-kick in the 5th to take the victory.

The final bout of the night was the much-anticipated fight between the 5-times Lumpini Champion and the Commonwealth champion representing Australia. It is always difficult to find a match for the strong Thai fighters abroad and this was no different for JNI   - Forrester being the only boxer who agreed to fight Yoddecha during his stay in Australia.

With 2 experienced campaigners ( 115 fights to 45 ) the first round was steady with the Thai sending in probing head-kicks and Shannon moving around the ring , working on punch combinations, testing to see where the weaknesses could be. In the 2nd round, both fighters opened up and stepped up the pace. Yoddecha moving comfortably about the ring and pulled out of nowhere with a back elbow to the face which staggered Shannon. He fought back after the count though still looking shaky and walked in with strong punches. But Yoddecha could see the effects of the elbow and turned around the ring to land a massive kick flush to the Australian’s head, stopping the fight.

A good victory for the Thai boy, and kudos to Shannon for stepping in there – always the mark of a true fighter to take on the biggest challenges and not just the fights you are sure to win. We can look forward to seeing him in action again soon.

So a good night for the fans with some exciting skills on display , thanks to JNI and his team with the OMF for all the work they did to put the show together and bring in the international fighters as well as the local talent.