On Saturday 13th of February, Polish lovers of muaythai were treated to a massive all-day event organised by the Warrior Lodz Club, a member of the Polish Muaythai Federation. The event consisted of two tournaments - First Step Fights for beginners and an Amateur League for experienced fighters, organised as part of the WMC Muaythai Against Drugs world wide campaign. The First Step fights belonged to beginners - cadets (over 14 years but less than 16) showing that full-contact sports can be practised by youths as well as seniors (no elbows and knees on the head were allowed in the cadet age category). Following that, the juniors (over 16 but less than 18) took over and presented VERY fast 'n' furious muaythai action, which garnered standing ovations from the gathered audience. Next up - the seniors (over 18 but less than 35) starting from the lowest weigh category all the way up to 91+ where some over 240 kg fighting machines put on a great display, bouncing off the ropes, putting the audience into a frenzy of excitement that as so loud the referee had problems shouting commands to the fighters over the overwhelming cheers from the crowd. It was then time for what all the fans were waiting for, the Amateur League. Keeping in line with the recent IFMA rule amendment, the Polish Muaythai Federation discarded body guards for the A division. The results were stunning with fighters executing perfect clinching, powerful knees and no wait-for-referee breaks where knees could fly. Positive feedback on the rule change all round as the fights gained a "thai" taste, which is always a good thing to see. Summing it up - there were 89 fighters (one of the juniors fought twice a day) from 14 Polish clubs as well as fighters from Belarus joining in the event, who fought in 45 fights filled with adrenaline in the 9 hour display of beautiful muaythai.
Special thanks must go to the organiser - Robert Karpinski (owner and a main coach of WARRIOR CLUB from LODZ, POLAND), for holding a most memorable event! Source: http://www.ifmamuaythai.org/HTML/10_0305_Poland.html
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