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Muay Thai in UK 17 : HEARTBREAK IN HUELVA
Muay Thai in the UK visits Spain as Ron Simpson shares the grief of the Greek WKA team in Punta Umbria at the unexpected defeat of their much-loved talisman, MARIA PANTAZI.
Billionmore is justly proud of the members of the Hero Hall of Fame, none more so than the brilliant, dedicated and glamorous Maria Pantazi from Athens, known to her many fans as Iron Barbie. Maria boxed superbly to take the WKA Gold Medal in Berlin last year and, when I heard that she was defending her title in Huelva this Autumn, the decision to attend was, as they say, a no-brainer for a devoted fan of both Maria and Andalusia.
Maria Pantazi
The main purpose of my visit ended in a shattering disappointment. Maria, defending champion and overwhelming favourite, suffered a crushing points defeat to the unheralded American Lindsay Scheer. I must emphasise that Lindsay, fit, strong and determined, deserves enormous credit for dethroning an outstanding champion, but Maria’s story is a sad one, with her own professionalism leaving her unprepared. If that sounds odd, it was odd, so odd that hours later I was still stunned by the nature of her defeat. Next morning I woke with the words that signalled poor Maria’s downfall ringing in my head: ‘Next fight Maria Pantazi…’
Before Maria’s fight on Sunday there was much to enjoy and admire. Muay Thai plays a small part in the World Kickboxing and Karate Association Championships; in fact, it doesn’t operate under that name at all for women, boys and girls. The WKA Original rules didn’t help Maria: put down in Round 2, she received an 8 count for what would have been considered a slip or stumble in Muay Thai.
Lasting for a week (October 27-November 3) at the capacious Barcelo Beach Resort in Punta Umbria, Huelva province, the WKA Championships were a wonderful jamboree of a huge variety of Martial Arts, many unknown to me, with many of the competitors very youthful. Something like 900 athletes, coaches and supporters crowded the breakfast tables, many in national tracksuits, some even clutching weapons for some Martial Art which I didn’t investigate. The German team, at 250, was the biggest, but I spent some days with a team one-tenth that size – from Greece.
Reading the Hero Sporto' catalogue
As ‘Maria’s friend’, though she hardly knew me, I received a wonderful welcome from the Greek party, a highly civilised and cheerfully patriotic group whose friendliness to a stranger was most touching. Sadly this charming group had bad luck throughout. A broken shoulder diagnosed after a fight took one competitor to hospital (Maria a devoted visitor) and on the last day a group of three in the hotel foyer was made up of two strapped wrists and a black eye with stitches – all still apparently happy with life! Then Maria was not the only star to be deprived of a Gold Medal; Evita Viltanioti suffered the same fate in Pointfighting.
Though with the help of Maria and Evita’s mother I almost understood Pointfighting, I will not attempt an explanation. By the end of a long session, two of the Greek boys had picked up one Gold and one Silver, and Evita came into her fight after three great wins in the earlier rounds as firm favourite. Bizarrely, a WKA official held up the fight between rounds to warn of points deductions if supporters didn’t leave designated areas (and even started counting down in seconds!) and then inconsistency between the three judges and some odd over-rules led to a defeat for Evita by one point. To me (ignorant as I am of Pointfighting) Greek fury seemed justified, but I should point out that the organisation of this competition and the judging in other fights was immaculate.
Apart from the companionship of the Greeks, the great pleasure for me was seeing the spread of Hero as a brand and meeting enthusiasts for Hero and the Billionmore website. Scots and English full-contact squads wore stylish Hero trousers-with-shorts and the Scottish WKA Original competitors also favoured Hero. Almost the first person I met was Cassie Murdoch, a devoted Billionmore customer, then there was Sam Allan, brother of Hall of Famer Scott Allan, with his two Bronze Medals in full contact and low kick. My Billionmore catalogue also stirred great interest among Maria’s friends in the Greek squad.
On Sunday, the last but one day of competition, the Muay Thai/K-1 fighters finally got their chance. Here WKA failed to deliver, though I’m not sure how much it was the organisers’ fault. For some reason almost no competitors signed up, in contrast to all other disciplines. I guess it may be that most Muay Thai fighters are individuals, often professionals, with no state-funded organisation to back them up. The few entrants were often of very different standards, resulting in some short fights and refusals to appear.
Cassie Murdoch
The fights in this category began at about 12 noon. The first Women’s Final was scheduled for 5.10, Maria’s for 5.30. With thorough professionalism, she planned to rest during the day and then come to the hall at about 4.00 with time enough to warm up and work on the pads.
Meanwhile Cassie Murdoch had been told that she was fifth fight on, then that her opponent refused to fight her! The last time I spoke to Mr. Murdoch, he told me that she had been promised a fight on Monday, with a German girl two years older and 5 kg heavier. (On Monday I was happily getting lost on the backroads of Andalusia and East Portugal and happening across mountain villages and historic towns, so I don’t know whether Cassie finally got a fight.) Scott Allan twice appeared at the ring and went into a warm-up routine, but no opponent appeared. Eventually a half-hour break was called – which lasted well over an hour. When an opponent was found, Scott won a totally one-sided contest in less than a round.
At 3.45 Maria appeared and almost immediately (90 minutes early) it was announced that her fight was next. That announcement was the moment when I realised, to my horror, that Maria was doomed to defeat unless she had a weak opponent (which Lindsay Scheer certainly wasn’t). Five minutes after she strolled in with her bags, she was racing for the changing rooms and less than ten minutes later she reappeared, looking beautiful, but bewildered, in her pink and white top and stylish blue satin srivichai shorts.
Watching the fight was heartbreaking, to me and her loyal fans and friends from the Greek squad. The glory of Maria’s style is her immaculate footwork, but at Punta Umbria it simply wasn’t there and we ached with sympathy for our champion as she was caught with shots she would normally have avoided. In both rounds 1 and 3 Maria managed periods when her cleaner punching looked like establishing dominance, but to her credit Lindsay came back each time. Both rounds were pretty even, but Round 2 was a disaster for Maria. After the ‘knockdown’ she was so surprised to be given a count that she forgot to put up her gloves and for a moment it looked possible that the referee would stop the bout for that reason. For a short time after that Maria was clearly flustered and Lindsay landed a series of strong punches. I feared that Maria might be really put down (even suffer the humiliation of a knockout defeat), but the crisis was mostly in my imagination. Even out of form, Maria is a tough fighter and she soon settled, but after that 2nd round the result came as no surprise, even though Maria rallied in the 3rd.
Where does all this leave us? First of all we at Billionmore are still enormously proud of Maria Pantazi – to us she is simply the best and will always be so. Oddly enough Evita Viltanioti met the German Pointfighting Gold Medallist in the Team event – and won. Maria had no such second chance. If she had, impressive as Lindsay was, I have no doubt she would have reversed the verdict.
Next Fight after Huelva
But what of WKA? Having worked wonders with a hugely complicated programme, the organisers were caught out by a category so simple it hardly existed. Maybe Muay Thai/K-1 should disappear from the programme given the poor numbers. Obviously I don’t like that idea and next year’s championships in Edinburgh should see a boost for Muay Thai with the large number of youngsters in training in the UK.
In the long term there is no obvious solution, but may I offer a serious suggestion to reduce the problem? Keep the detailed timetable, but also give an earliest starting time for each group. In Maria’s case her fight would have been scheduled for 5.30, but the programme would also have said, ‘Women’s contests begin no earlier than 4.00 – all contestants to be ready for that time’. There would be gaps, but there were at Punta Umbria anyway; there would be waiting around, changed and warmed up, but probably for shorter periods of time; there would not be the disaster that befell one brilliant boxer with the ability to be one of the stars of the tournament.
How sad that this clouded a marvellous occasion for which WKA deserves great credit and, for me, a joyous meeting with the delightful Greek squad and supporters – and, of course, their wonderful Muay Thai boxer.
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