THE POWER OF TELEVISION: K1 IN GREECE

By Ron Simpson

          Anyone who has read these columns will be aware of the very warm relationship between Billionmore and the wonderful Greek fighter and delightful friend Maria Pantazi. My reason for visiting Athens was to see the brilliant Iron Barbie in action, but I think I’ve written rather a lot about my favourite kickboxer, so let’s take a different angle.

          It always strikes me as strange that, given the number of well-attended, good-quality promotions, Muay Thai and kickboxing is so little covered by the mainstream media in the UK. So a K1 promotion that plays to a 10,000 crowd with major television coverage has to be a good thing. However, Iron Challenge 2 at the quaintly named Peace and Friendship Arena in Piraeus had its odd features.

          It was a tribute in many ways to the power of television: once you get to a certain level of popularity, you become a television personality – and then there are no limits! Iron Mike Zambides is without doubt the best-known and most successful Greek kickboxer, but a major step for him was appearing on what I take to be the Greek version of Strictly Come Dancing. My informant told me that Mike didn’t get all that far, but he came over as a really nice guy – and suddenly all Greece knew and loved him! So the show for his first promotion on March 12^th could be built around his popularity.

          I had mixed feelings about the show. The main programme was of six bouts, but there were five lesser ones before that, presented with brisk efficiency in an almost empty arena – it’s worth noting that an ‘almost empty’ Peace and Friendship Arena means much the same number of people as Leeds Town Hall full! I had the pleasure of watching with Maria’s manager Stelios Politis and Vassilios Taipliadis from     TOP TEN, her sponsors in Greece. The evening livened up at about the time Stelios turned to me and said, ‘The guy in the white shorts had a good knockout in his last fight’ – at which point Thanasis Karagos produced a stunning finish. Stelios and Vassilios were less accurate in their next prediction, though the result was controversial. Both were praising Florian Markou as an 18-year-old with real talent and sure enough he won the first round against Alex Gerekos in fine style. In the second round, for some holding offence I didn’t recognise, he received a yellow card which Stelios assured me means the fighter loses the round (even if he puts the other guy down twice, I thought, but didn’t say). All fights except Iron Mike’s were 3 x 3 minutes and, when Florian Markou, discouraged and running out of ideas, lost the last round, there was only one possible result, though Vassilios understandably seemed less than convinced.

          As we approached the top of the bill the presentation style changed. All contestants had been entering down a long walkway. Now singers and pop music acts performed in between the fights, mysteriously at the far end of the walkway by the entrance to the arena, giving the fight audience (by now much bigger) a distant view. The mystery was solved when I saw the television version later – it worked perfectly there, it was all part of the television show. The gap between the last but one fight and Iron Mike’s top of the bill 5-rounder was maybe 45 minutes, also filled with filmed interviews, notably with Iron Mike, but also with his opponent Ali Gunyar.

           The choice of a Turk, though living in the Netherlands, seemed planned to appeal to national patriotism and prejudice. I didn’t really mind the booing of Ali Gunyar – it seemed more like the response to a pantomime villain! –, but the booing of the National Anthem was not pleasant and I really objected to the audience’s failure to give Gunyar credit at the end. He fought the perfect fight in the circumstances. Make no mistake, Iron Mike is good, compact and powerful, and, if not quite at his most dynamic, he clearly won every round. His opponent took his punishment, waited his opportunities and managed a few telling counter-attacks: the perfect opponent, courageous, fit and experienced, but no real danger to Iron Mike for whom defeat was unthinkable.

          There were other features of the organisation that worried me, particularly the fact that Maria at 60 kg was matched with Dimitra Dimitrakopoulos at 67 kg. I need not have worried. Maria was simply magnificent and dominated from the start. As early as the first round the much heavier Dimitra was already bruised and battered about the face whilst after the fight Maria, holding court happily with her many friends, was completely unmarked.

          And after that everything was perfect! For me personally it was a great pleasure to return to my hotel at the very moment that Maria’s fight started on the television in the bar – there was a full three-hour programme, but a delayed screening – and it was a delight to spend so much time in Athens in the company of our golden girl.

          But, much more important, because of the television appearance, Maria is suddenly in demand from the media: newspaper interviews, items on national television news. As I suggested at the start, television breeds television. Where it will lead for Maria we can’t say, but already the response is so much greater than when she won the European K1 crown in Athens last year – that’s television! And it’s well timed at an exciting time for her, with a return to the UK in May (a very difficult fight against Sarah McCarthy in Leeds*) and her professional boxing debut in Germany in June.

           So the message is – don’t knock television! The adulation for Iron Mike Zambides was absolutely remarkable. I like to think much was due to his great ability as a kickboxer, but certainly his reality show appearance had its effect. What’s the answer in the UK? Get Liam Harrison on I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here?

..By Ron Simpson..

Billionmore.com

* The fight with Sarah McCarthy was cancelled because of Sarah's work commitments, followed by a hand injury to Maria. Maria still visited Leeds and filmed an interview/profile with Edward Irish and Richard Cadden.