SANDY & THE BATTLE OF BOLTON

Initially I was interested in the Battle of Bolton IKON VI on Sunday December 5th for three reasons, apart from enjoying 15 Muay Thai bouts. I was selling Hero Sporto kit there and it gave me an opportunity to see at close quarters the most flamboyant figure in British Muay Thai (and one of the most controversial), Sandy Holt. The third reason was that I was hoping to match Maria Pantazi on the bill, but this didn’t come off (through no fault of Sandy’s). As I negotiated the snowy and foggy Pennines and shivered at my stall in the foyer, I decided this was a good thing: life in Athens has not prepared Maria for Bolton in the bleak mid-winter! So what of Sandy Holt? The owner of the most bizarre and colourful haircut in Muay Thai and the originator of some of the oddest threads on axkickboxing.com is certainly much more than an eccentric and a self-publicist. He became involved in Muay Thai in 1977 when he was fortunate enough to be living in the area of Britain where it first took off, the Lancashire/Greater Manchester area. Like so many others, he came under the influence of Master Sken. Sandy’s fight career took in seven years, three championship titles, two British light-weight titles and the European super-featherweight title, and by the end of it he had founded his own Bolton Thai Boxing Club. As a successful trainer his charges have included the Women’s World Flyweight Champion, Jussy Lowe Senturk, who is now his right-hand person on promotions like IKON VI. But Sandy is far more than a trainer; as I found when trying to make contact about this article, he is a busy boy, constantly whisked off to solve a problem or pursue a pleasure. As well as promoting with some frequency, he seizes every chance to act as MC or television commentator. And among his more out-of-the-way achievements is a bit part in a Jackie Chan movie! Sandy is a very good self-publicist, but puts it to good use. For instance, in 2007,he set out to beat the record for most push-ups in an hour to get into the Guinness World Records. He failed honourably, his total of 2952 nearly 500 short, but still pretty amazing! Good press for Sandy, but also for the anti-drugs and anti-bullying initiatives which he was supporting.	His Bolton promotion showed those same characteristics, with part of the proceeds going to the Bolton Hospice. The Battle of Bolton billing is a bit over the top for a mainly C Class promotion, but Sandy certainly knows how to put on a show. The Ikon Night Club is a suitably grand setting, with big screen action, excellent light shows and PA, and open curving staircases for fighter’s entrances. But, more important, the show started on time, there were few gaps between fights and the interval hardly exceeded the scheduled 15 minutes – and an army of volunteers kept everything moving. Anyone interested in Sandy Holt can find out a lot by consulting axkickboxing.com where Sandy seems to live his life in the public eye. He is the one who starts a thread in tribute to Steve Adams, the Leeds trainer who died suddenly (also the subject of a very sincere tribute and minute’s silence at the Ikon show), and demands to know the results of any show he has failed to attend. He also raises a whole miscellany of topics: the silly (dog in Muay Thai gear), the nostalgic (33 years to the day since he began in the sport), the controversial (Should fighters change their gyms? What price loyalty?). And it was on ax that he received an unexpected attack (from a very small number of people) just before the Bolton show. The gist of it was that Sandy was making money hand over fist by charging Class A prices for a Class C show and exploiting fighters for profit. After one or two wild exchanges, Jussy stepped in with a moderate comment that the accusations bore no relation to the figures. I can see the point (the admission prices were similar to the star-studded Rumble at the Reebok), but one of the oddities of British Muay Thai is that the base admission price is pretty much the same for all shows: you’ll pay at least £20 for 10 or 12 fights involving juniors and novices and no more than £30 for a six-hour extravaganza with four title fights and a couple of Thais on the bill. Perhaps it’s because I’m only a novice as an audience member, but I very often find shows featuring inexperienced fighters of real promise more enjoyable than the major events. At the Ikon there were only 4 Class B fights compared with 11 Class C, but, despite the fact that most rounds were only 1 ½ minutes, we enjoyed a slickly-run five-hour show. As for the quality, the purist would no doubt wince at the wildness of attack and dominance of fists in some of the fights, a fact pointed up by the jump in quality in the first of the Class B fights where the redoubtable Tommy Turbine (Salford Muay Thai), who recently dropped a close decision to Billionmore Hall of Famer Matt Smith in an English title fight, this time benefited from an even narrower victory against Tom McDonough (Waterloo Street Gym). However, close competitive fights were the order of the day, with probably the best being Bolton Thai Boxing’s Jake Waterworth’s win over Paul McNevin (Widnes Thai and Kick Boxing), a clear-cut victory in a fight that was accurately described by one of the security men as ‘a proper scrap’.Incidentally Jake was the only fighter from the home club on show, an oddity explained by one of the members manning the door who told me all the others are injured! Time and again, not for the first time, I was amazed at the resilience of these comparatively inexperienced fighters: unless most punches and kicks are much less powerful than they look (which I’m not prepared to check!) levels of fitness are remarkable even with fighters who are just developing their technical skills.	My apologies to anyone who turned in a particularly good performance and doesn’t get a mention, but my comments are confined to those fights where I caught a fair chunk of the action in between selling shorts and armbands. Fortunately I caught two terrific performances from losing fighters in the first and last bouts of the first half. Jake Jenks got the show off to a great start with his dynamic ring entrance, elaborate and provocative Ram Muay and confident aggression. Jake has won his two senior contests by 1st round knockouts and it showed as he set out to demolish his opponent in the opening seconds. Unfortunately Manuel Bloome (Bradford Muay Thai) was far too strong for the young Salford star. So far as I could see from the back, peering between heads, both were scoring equally in clinches, but it was Jake who ended up gasping for breath. He looked a beaten fighter at the end of the 1st round, but like so many on the Ikon bill kept going bravely with little hope of success. Even in defeat Jake had the air of a future champion and I am confident this will not be the last time he features in these pages. The achievement of Dave Armstrong (Super Gym, Knutsford) was slightly different. Finally stopped in Round 5, he had no business lasting that long against Tom Flanagan (Waterloo Street). He took something like four counts from Round 3 onwards and on at least two occasions I reckoned the fight was over, but he came astonishingly close to lasting the distance. Once again I was impressed by Darren Phillips’ timing of his interventions, a skill not shared by all Muay Thai referees. The second half finished with two title fights and a victory and a narrow defeat for two Hero Sporto customers. Amanda McWilliams of Mersey Thai won the North West Area title with a comprehensive beating of Jade Sandland who was twisted every way in the clinches by her shorter opponent whose head punches clearly hurt Jade. Like her fellow Salfordian Jake Jenks, Jade made an instant impact – and not only because of her pink hair (maybe a tribute to Sandy, but certainly a whole lot prettier!). Tall and elegant and technically accomplished, she had no answer to Amanda’s power at close quarters, but to her credit still had her moments as late as Round 5. Finally, David Gumbley (Johnny T’s Gym) missed an English title by a whisker, dropping a majority decision to Danny Crompton (Waterloo Street), though in truth I couldn’t understand his trainer’s obvious disgust at the verdict. Given that a draw is not an option in a title fight, I would have given the same verdict, though it was so close it could have gone either way. And finally Sandy’s powers of organisation and taste for a good time took everyone off to Lush Bar for an after-show party, everyone, that is, except for those of us who had to set off in the hope that Windy Hill would be clear of ice and fog – it was!

'Fight photographs by muaythaiphotos.com'