Initiation II – 29th May 2010, Skelmersdale

What a night!  It’s a long time since I’ve been to a show and seen so many standing ovations as all fighters gave their all in the new concept which is GBH.

The show had excellent support from local club such as Next Generation MMA, Huyton MMA, Capital Punishment (Ireland), City of Liverpool, Kirkby Thai Boxing and Merseyside Kickboxing and GBH (Skelmersdale and Haydock)

With the help and support of the above, the show was an absolute cracker.

It started with a demonstration to explain the concept and rules of GBH to the crowd.

This was between Emma (Blondie) Pennington and Mandy Cullen, and was commentated by the one and only Steve Gentleman Taberner, our MC.

This set out five rounds of GBH as follows:

Round 1 – Boxing
Round 2 – Full Contact
Round 3 – Low Kicks
Round 4 – Thai Boxing
Round 5 – MMA

The MC explained to the crowd that in amateur and professional bouts, neither fighter would know the round order of their fight until the night.

The Demonstration over, the show began:

Fight 1

Jack Birkett (Huyton MMA) V Aaron Robertson (Next Generation MMA)
Junior (12-17) GBH – 5 x 1.5 minutes

This was a junior GBH competition, and it was agreed between corners that there would be a change of gloves.

The round order was drawn during the fight meeting prior to the start of the show and was as follows:

Round 1 – Boxing
Round 2 – Low Kicks
Round 3 – Full Contact
Round 4 – Thai Boxing
Round 5 – MMA

The fight got off to a fantastic start by both fighters and in round 4 the Referee stopped the competition in favour of Aaron Robertson from Next Generation MMA who took the decision by TKO, Round 4, 10 seconds.

Fight 2

Paulie Godfrey (Merseyside GBH) V Joey O’Brien (Capital Punishment)
Amateur GBH – 5 x 2 minutes

The round order drawn during the rules meeting was as follows:

Round 1 – Low Kicks
Round 2 – MMA
Round 3 – Thai Boxing
Round 4 – Boxing
Round 5 – Full Contact

As both fighters were introduced to the ring, Paulie Godfrey received what can only be described as fantastic support from his home crowd.

Paulie had an explosive first round, with Joey doing his best to keep Paulie off.  Unfortunately Paulie had other ideas in mind, catching Joey with an over-hand right which put Joey down for a full count of 10, to the delight of Paulie and his supporters.

Paramedics wee straight into the ring to check on Joey’s condition, and on standing Joey was given a round of applause by all the supporters.

Both fighters embraced after the decision, Paulie Godfrey winning the fight by KO in Round 1.

Fight 3

Neil Rawlinson (Merseyside GBH) V Joe Niell (Next Generation MMA)
Amateur GBH – 5 x 2 minutes

The round order drawn in the pre fight meeting was as follows:

Round 1 – Thai
Round 2 – Full Contact
Round 3 – Low Kicks
Round 4 – MMA
Round 5 – Boxing

This was an absolute cracker of a fight, with Neil taking the first 3 rounds on all judges’ cards.

Round 4, the MMA round came, where Joe came into his own  forcing a tap out from Neil after 1 minute 22 second.

This was to Neil’s dismay after his hard work in the previous three rounds, but that is GBH for you.

This should make a great return fight, and congratulations to Joe Niell from Next Generation MMA Liverpool.

Fight 4

Rob Johnson (Merseyside GBH) V Lewis Niell (Next Generation MMA)
Amateur GBH – 5 x 2 minutes

The round order was determined as follows:

Round 1 – Full Contact
Round 2 – Low Kicks
Round 3 – MMA
Round 4 – Thai Boxing
Round 5 – Boxing

What an excellent display of technique from two first timers who had the crowd on their feet on a number of occasions.

And with blood coming from Lewis Niell’s nose it still didn’t put him off, with his corner doing an excellent job in-between rounds.

The judges got it spot on with all three making it a draw, as no one deserved to lose this fight.  An excellent fight, and congratulations to both fighters and corners.

Fight 5

Danny Skelhorn (Merseyside Kickboxing) V Thomas Tolcher (Kirkby Muay Thai)
Amateur Thai Boxing – 3 x 2 minutes

Again a first fight for both competitors, who after weighing in at the exact same weight entered the ring with great support from both sides.

The bell rang for round 1 and both fighters came out with their all, neither wanting to back off with some excellent techniques.  The judges had this round even, but in round 2 Thomas caught Danny with a  combination sending Danny to the canvas for the count of 8.

The fight continued and Thomas really turned on the pressure putting Danny down for his second count.

The referee stopped the fight at this point, as two knock downs in one round is an automatic stoppage.  Danny was disappointed, but I am sure he will be back even stronger now he has had a taste for it.

Congratulations to Thomas Tolcher from Kirkby Muay Thai.

Fight 6

Mick Shipley (City of Liverpool) V David Roc (Capital Punishment)
Amateur GBH – 5 x 2 minutes

The round order was determined as follows:

Round 1 – Low Kicks
Round 2 – Boxing
Round 3 – MMA
Round 4 – Thai Boxing
Round 5 – Full Contact

This was an absolute cracking competition, evenly matched right up to Round 4, Thai Boxing, where Shipley was caught with a combination of techniques thrown by David Rock.  Shipley went down for the count of 10 making David Rock from Capital Punishment the winner by TKO in Round 4, 1 minute 26 seconds.   The Paramedics were once again straight into the ring to attend to Mick who rose to the applause of the crowd.

Congratulations David.

Fight 7

Dave Howard (Merseyside GBH) V Kostodin Toycher (Huyton MMA)
Amateur GBH – 5 x 2 minutes

The rounds were drawn as follows:

Round 1 – MMA
Round 2 – Low Kicks
Round 3 – Full Contact
Round 4 – Thai Boxing
Round 5 – Boxing

This was a change of opponent for Howard, as his original opponent was forced to pull out due to broken ribs during training.  Total respect to Kostodin, who took the fight on the same day, and what a fight this was.

This had everything that GBH is about, with the fight going the full five rounds distance, and the fighters receiving a standing ovation before the decision was announced.

The decision was given to Howard on points to the delight of his supporters, and respect must again go to Kostodin and his corner, who were total gentlemen.

A big thank you must go to the all the GBH Staff, Referees, Judges, Corner Men, Clubs, Fighters and supporters who made this a great show, the next of which will be announced soon.

Steve Reeves, the Liverpool Legend, was also scheduled to fight on this bill.  Unfortunately his opponent withdrew due to hand injury, and a replacement could not be found at short notice.  Steve was a total gentleman on receiving this news and said that he would definitely be fighting on the next show.

Steve received his rightful purse as this was no fault of his, and we would like to thank him once more for his understanding.

We would also like to thank and commend the Irish supporters and fighters who were great ambassadors for their country, and a big thank you to Dylan Scally our Irish Representative for GBH for arranging his team.  Unfortunately Dylan could not make it over for this show, but we look forward to seeing him for the next show.

Thank you to Event Photography for the use of their photographs.  You can view the full gallery here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 3:24 pm by Golden Belt Admin and is filed under Show Reports 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.