Results from Luton

Sadly it was a bad night in the office on 8th March for the Lincoln Fight Factory team, 3 fights, 3 losses and 2 coming by way of stoppage.

On paper this sounds horrendous for any gym, especially one with the reputation that we have, but this is far from the truth and we can not express how proud we are of our 3 warriors, Kraig Green, Grant Gooding and Graham Rainey.

The show was in Luton, promoted by Nick Morrish and sanctioned by the IKF.

Kraig fought Lucas Watson from the renowned Marty Cox Gym, famous for producing one of Britain’s best ever fighters, Marty Cox Jr.  The fight was set at 42kg, with Kraig coming in at 38.8kg after eating on the coach on route to the show.  The fight was a frantic pace for the whole of the 3 rounds, with neither fighter able to produce the skills their gyms are known to display.

Kraig struggled to take control of the fighter like he did in his previous victory, in what was a very messy affair, with both fighters warned throughout the fight for holding.  Lucas caught the eye with click flurries, whilst Kraig tried to land the big shots.  Unfortunately it was the busier work rate of  the Heathrow based fighter that took the victory.

Second up for the club was Grant Gooding, facing Bradley Morgan, also from the Marty Cox Gym.  Grant was making his debut for the gym and brought with him a very vocal support.  The fight was matched at 60kg, with Grant hitting the scales at 59.8kg.  Bradley was much taller and used his height to great affect, landing some nice head kicks to a game Grant.  Grant landed a nice over-hand right in the 3rd round, which rocked Morgan, but a nasty cut above Grant’s eye, believed to be from a clash of heads saw the fight stopped and Grant needing several stitches.

This left all the hopes with Graham Rainey to avoid the gym going home without victory.  Graham took the fight at 4 days notice as a late replacement for his brother Craig who was forced to withdraw with a groin injury.  Graham faced Harley Coldman from Bedfont Sports in Slough.  The fight was matched at 62kg with Graham coming in at 60kg and giving away 3 fights experience.

Far from technical but with the heart of a lion, Graham took the fight straight to his Southern opponent, pushing him on the back foot from the off.  Graham landed some solid shots and Coldman fought well on the defence.  This was the pattern for the first 2 rounds, until Graham was caught with a solid right hand that sent his legs wobbling, forcing referee Colin Payne to give a standing 8 count.

After the count Graham went straight on the attacked again, bought after another powerful exchange between the 2 fighters Graham sustained a heavy nose bleed and the fight was called off.

This is a shame as Graham was still in the fight, but the fighters safety is the priority and Graham will move on to fight another day.

So not the results what we were hoping for, but once again the gym conducted themselves greatly and were very gracious in defeat.  They picked up a few fans on the way, made plenty of friends and did the gym proud.

Shawn and Aaron would like to thank the travelling support for making the journey and we can’t wait to see these 3 in action again.