Unlike our other fight events, we all started the day very comfortably! Of course our Ako was going to win and Yusuf had been training very hard consistently so we all had a lot of confidence in him.
Unfortunately, Yusuf’s opponent, Arsh Pathan from The One Muay Thai was stuck behind an accident on 401 for close to 7 hours. I think next time Arsh should just walk from wherever he is. We actually offered to pack it up and bring the fight to the Highway of Heros where Arsh was but he wouldn’t share his location. So we let it go. No judgement! I asked Yusuf if he was disappointed. He said “ nah… it wasn’t meant to be!”.
Ako lost his fight to Aghosa Igbinenikaro from Siam No. 1. Ako took a punch to his jaw half way through the first round and dropped. The ref stopped the fight. Before the fight I asked Ako what he knew about Aghosa. Ako said “ I’ve heard he has heavy hands so I’m going to hold my guards tighter”. I went to meet Aghosa. What a nice guy! I asked him how he felt about fighting Ako and he said “ I’m worried. Nervous! I’ve heard he is very strong. I’ve been working hard on my biceps ever since we were matched. I’ve also seen some of his fights and training videos on IG. I’m going to try my best tonight. Please tell Ako I’m honored to be fighting with him”. Ako had had 5 prior fights with 4 wins and Aghosa had had 2 prior fights with 1 win. I should note that Ako has been suffering from a shoulder injury for some time now and Kru Arash had actually advised Ako to cancel this fight. But Ako is not the one to back out of fight and the fight game is no place for a weak heart so Ako did some physiotherapy and went on with the fight. I also think Ako underestimated his opponent! After the fight, Ako said Aghosa was stronger than Firas. If you don’t know who Firas is and want to know more about Ako, you should read two of our previous blogs There Will be Blood and Vince’s Fight. Ako said Aghosa also had great technique. “It wasn’t a heavy punch! It just hit me exactly where it should in the jaw to make me drop”. I think we were all in agreement that Aghosa is a great fighter and I think he makes up for his lack of fight experience with fight intelligence! I look forward to watching more of Aghosa’s fights in the future.
The night had another unpleasant surprise which was Martin Rejman from Etobicoke Martial Arts losing to Ahad Abdi from Old School Muay Thai. Martin walked to the ring to Smooth Operator by Sade but the fight was anything but smooth due to a few accidental groin hits. I was looking forward to Martin’s fight as I had talked with Martin a few times and he had shared some trade secrets so I couldn’t wait to watch him in action…Next fight, Martin!
The best part of the event was watching Bolton boys fight. All under 16! I’m sure the belly pads had never felt so out of place or protected against such advanced techniques. Daniel Sabino’s fight from Bolton House of Muay Thai was the best fight of the event! When Daniel threw his third spinning back fist I looked over at his young Kru for signs of heart attack. And right before the last bell Daniel threw a jumping roundhouse kick just for the fun of it.
Despite our Ako losing his fight we all, including Ako and Yusuf, ended the night in high spirit. Mikey Ward said “ when you win, you win with everyone but when you lose, you lose alone”. I think Mikey couldn’t be more wrong because at Kingdom Muay Thai we all feel and share the losses too and we hold on a little tighter. The Kingdom had two losses in November. Stay tuned as we have wins coming up in December! Andy, Oscar, no pressure!
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