Mixed results for Lincoln KBA in title fights at Repeat or Revenge

What a night at the Lincolnshire Showground on 10th November 2012, as Shawn and Aaron promoted their biggest ever show.  THe fights were great,t he venue superb and the room was packed with kickboxing fans.  It was a mixed bag of results for the home gym however, Shawn and Aaron lost in the European title bids.

Lincoln KBA fans were left gutted for Shawn and Aaron, but they were fighting the current European champions, both were world class fighters and they far from embarrassed themselves, just when your fighting at world level it only takes on punch or one mistake and the fight is turned on its head.

Shawn was stopped in the 5^th round, was a great fight whilst it was one.  He comfortably took the first round, slipping Bertrand Fleuret’s shots and replying with his own to head and body.  Fleuret was trying to force the pace which we knew he would and in the 2^nd round he really stepped it up.  In the 2^nd round we had a very heavy clash of heads, this instantly gave Shawn a shooting pain down his left hand (his best hand for throwing shots) and made him feel uneasy on my feet.

John Blackledge the referee stepped in and immediately called the doctor over who checked Shawn’s eyes with his torch.  He was told that if he wanted the fight would be stopped and declared a no contest, but no way was Shawn having that, he wanted to carry on and give the fans what they had paid to see, so the fight was allowed to carry on.

Shawn was dropped in the 3^rd and 4^th round, to be honest he just hadn’t recovered from the clash of heads.  They clashed again in the 3^rd round to, this time the top of Fleuret’s head was smashed into Shawn’s nose and  eye causing a cut, he was warned again.

I think that if they were at other shows he may have been disqualified to protect the home fighter, but it did not warrant that, a warning was right.  He was caught again in the 5^th round and that proved to be the end of the fight, Shawn was gutted but he know he was beaten by a true world class fighter and he has  no shame in admitting that.

Aaron was stopped in the 3^rd round again ISKA European Champion Sukhy Saroya from Stevenage.

Aaron took the first round and was moving very, very well.  Slipping and countering the work from Saroya, at times making it look pretty easy as he danced around his opponent.  But on the bells at the end of the 2^nd round he was caught with a sickening left hook to the floating rib, cracking it instantly.  When he came back to the corner he was in clear pain.  Coach Shawn Burton asked Aaron how he felt and if he wanted to carry on, without a 2^nd thought he said yes, sadly with restricted movement it was inevitable what was going to happen and he was caught again in the 3^rd round, causing Shawn to throw the towel in and put an end to the contest.

There was title success for Lincoln KBA on the night however.  Unbeaten Tom Scutt took his record to 7 straight wins on the way to capturing the amateur ISKA English title against Stevenage’s Hasib Khan, who took the fight at only 1 weeks notice.  This proved to be a very tough fight for Tom and he was made to work for the whole 5 rounds and rocked for the first time of his career with a kick to the head.

However, he stuck to his game plan and instructions from coaches Shawn Burton and Adam Butler and as the contest went on started to pull away with the lead taking the fight on a unanimous decision.

The final title fight of the evening was the rematch between Lincoln KBA’s Callum Thompson and Ireland’s Sean O’Neil.  Sean beating Callum in Ireland in June, but on Saturday there was only ever going to be one winner.  Callum appeared the stronger, slicker, more confident fighter in the ring, not allowing O’Neil to force him onto the ropes and unload with his heavy hands like he did in their previous contest.  Every time Callum was forced into the ropes he used great footwork to just slide away, leaving O’Neil swinging for air before counting with his own right hands and left body kicks.

Every round was close, as should be in a title fight and to be honest an amateur World title would have been fighting for this toe to toe classic but at the end of 5 round Callum was announced at the new ISKA 5 Nations champion.  This leaves them at 1 win a piece so a rubber stamp match would be nice.

The next show is penciled in for the 13^th April 2013, once again at the Lincolnshire Showground and we are planning thing to be bigger and better.

Anybody wanted to start training at the Lincoln Fight Factory please call Shawn on 07900932690.