Reading the axkickboxing website after a major Muay Thai tournament is always fascinating. Posts come in of congratulations, often from rival gyms and even defeated opponents, evidence of the healthy sportsmanship of Muay Thai. But where there are disputes they soon become surprisingly bitter and abusive – there must be history between the guys in question, you feel.

So it was after the Griphouse tournament at Oran Mor on March 14th, with one poster suggesting that local fighter Jordan Calder’s superb 2nd round knockout of France’s Jimmy Choquart (Team Deroy) was a mismatch and Jordan’s father, Brian, immediately responding with a series of personal insults. I can’t think that Brian is doing Jordan any favours by this sort of response, but it’s certainly true that the hint of a mismatch was totally unfounded except in so far as Jordan won the fight comfortably and dramatically – a good thing, I would have thought. Remarkably Jordan is still only 16 – it’s 4 years since I first saw him fight and 2 years since I wrote of him here as the Rising Star of Scotland – and this was his first fight in this country under full Muay Thai rules. Clearly this was not an occasion for matching him with the most lethal fighter Europe could provide and a guy in his early 20s with some 20 fights behind him offered a considerable challenge.

In fact I would like to put a word in for Jimmy Choquart. Suggestions of a mismatch are an insult to him no less than to Jordan or the matchmaker. Taking on a local favourite in another country is never easy and it was striking that, after a difficult 1st round, he stood in his corner being fanned by a solitary cornerman while Jordan had the massed ranks of Caledonian Muay Thai and Bad Company doing everything but cut his toenails! And it wasn’t Jimmy’s fault that he faced an opponent whose aggression brought a flurry of elbows in the opening seconds and who was terrifyingly quick to seize every opening. The Frenchman’s calmness under fire in the 1st round showed him to be an experienced campaigner and, after his first knockdown in the 2nd round, he tried to take the fight to Jordan which exposed him to a lightning attack which bounced him across the ring and down for the full count in a neutral corner. No, give credit to an honest and decently talented opponent and, particularly, to the 16-year-old who shredded his defences and demolished him in less than two rounds. As for where Jordan goes from here, it’s impossible not to predict years at the top, probably with plenty more unfounded accusations of mismatch!

Brian and Jordan’s kind invitation took me to a Muay Thai tournament north of the border for the first time. It proved excellent in every way. The venue, a converted church in Glasgow’s West End, is remarkable, with the fighters looked down on by heads of reformers and philosophical slogans, and the crowd, most of them standing, combined enthusiasm with patience. Pre-show entertainment was spectacular, if no help to conversation, with the War Pipes and Drums of Clanadonia – somewhat wilder than the Band of the Black Watch!

After an early hitch – a lengthy gap between fights 1 and 2 - promoter Guy Ramsey’s organisation was immaculate. From a punctual start at 1.00 – and with an announced interval of 5 (!!!) minutes that really was only 7 or 8 – a programme of 13 fights finished at 5.00. Too many first-class Muay Thai shows overstay their welcome, but not this one! Unfortunately the early finish was helped slightly by the late cancellation of Jo Jo Calderwood’s fight which I had been very much looking forward to – visa problems for her Irish/South African opponent.

I also especially enjoyed the arrangement of the programme. Of course it started with juniors and novices and finished with Jordan’s top of the bill fight, but it was far from the loads-of-Class C-long-interval-before-the-big-boys format. After two dramatic Scottish title fights two thirds of the way through the programme, the tension dropped with a Class C fight (all enthusiasm and flying fists) and then, after another Class B, was ratcheted up again for the final two fights. Good planning!

Jordan’s display may have been the most impressive, but his was not the most dramatic fight. That was probably the last but one: Mark De Luca (Team Scandal in the USA and Bad Company, Leeds) against Stevie Brown (Wossabama). This ended up as a narrow points win for Mark over the dangerous and highly unorthodox Stevie Brown, but throughout any result seemed possible. At one stage both fighters’ cuts were being examined by doctors: fortunately both were passed fit to carry on – can you have a double stoppage?

Both Scottish title fights were given credibility by the fact that existing champions brought their belts to the party! Muay Thai is not helped by the arrangements (or lack of them) for titles: too often somebody wins a title, never defends it and then two quite different fighters compete for it, the first guy by this time having chosen another set of initials to fight for. In these cases the defending champion was a Griphouse fighter and, reading between the lines, the feeling was that Gordon Smith’s title was in most danger against John Douglas (Douglas MT). In fact it was Tommy Young who, in a previously close fight, ran into a mighty left from Keith McLachlan (Phoenix) that brought an early finish. The Smith-Douglas clash was a candidate for the closest, most intense fight of the afternoon (until De Luca and Brown stepped up), with John Douglas’ athletically aggressive opening fading somewhat with a foot injury and the determined Gordon Smith keeping his title on a points decision.

In many ways, though, the most pleasing fight on a programme which featured the full MTR debut of a fighter who had dominated the junior ranks was the Scottish Junior Title fight between Brad Newlands, also trained by Brian Calder at Griphouse, and J.P. Gallagher (Douglas MT). I had seen Brad before and been impressed, so I rather expected him to win. The fact that he didn’t was no fault of his: both youngsters were skilful, well-coached, alert and determined and J.P. won clearly, if not by a large margin. And, to return to the opening paragraph, both posted sporting and generous messages on axkickboxing!

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