How can anyone not love this! Virginia Beach in June. Great weather. Great kickboxing. Outstanding ‘scenery’.
Ok, first lets talk about the event…
As usual, this event was attended by Muay Thai and ‘Full Contact’ fighters from around the country. Naturally, some of our favorite guys and gals were from New York! Being from the Midwest, it’s always a ‘trip’ to spend time with these folks– especially when they’re from Brooklyn! These are the original ‘in ya face’ kind of guys & gals that don’t take crap from anyone and are ready to step into the ring at anytime to prove it. Tap Out drove the image, these guys created it!
Ok – now lets talk about the event….
What a studded cast of trainers assembled for this tournament. Quality, Quality, Quality. Here’s just a few of the names that yours truly gets to spend the weekend with (and Mark thinks he has to pay me to go to these events!!);
Elliott Cooper, Gary Miles, Dennis (did ya hear the one about….)Palmer, Lane Collyer, Mike Hess, Victor Borodin, and, of course, Phil Nurse. These are some of the most dedicated and knowledgeable trainers that Thai Kickboxing has to offer in the USA. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting these folks at National tournaments for several years and notice that their traveling teams only get larger and their fighters only get better.
Ok – now lets talk about the event…
Heres the real cool part. Every year, I meet Chuck and Dan Pemble. Father and son. These two guys are some of my favorite fighters. They train in little Marquette, MI (its not the edge of the world, but you can see if from there) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Dan has been a champion (both IKF and WKA) for as long as I’ve known them. Chuck, at 48, has come close. But they work each others corner and train together.
Now heres the question that just begs to be asked. The Pembles are one of the best stories that Kickboxing has to offer. The big Magazines (Black Belt, etc) and any other Kickboxing oriented media offering should be driving these kind of articles. Good for everyone, but best for the sport. No bullshit politics, no nonsense about sanctioning bodies, no ‘this gear is the greatest ads’ just simply good for the sport. – nuff said
OK, now lets talk about the event….
Can you believe how many of our customers attended this tournament? Mark was really pleased as fighter after fighter introduced themselves as ‘website customers’. It’s always great to gain business, but it’s even better when our customers come back and let us know how much they like the PrimeTime and Top Pro brands.
As you all know we are also a huge champion of Top Ten headgear. In our opinion, the safest headgear available today. NextMove Gear provided the headgear and gloves for the WKA tournament, and, of course, there was not a single head injury. This is just simply great stuff. Now if only we could get Top Ten to help support us with some promotional monies to help pay for event gear…..
Ok Now lets talk about the event…..
A lot of great matches, but our favorite was watching a few of our customers, Steve Ferguson and Patrick Sears who were ‘rookie’ fighters. Patrick was training with Randy Palmer of Executive Kickboxing in Austin Texas, before moving to Chesapeake, VA. This was his first tournament and he actually came away with the title! Congrats Patrick!
Steve Ferguson is also a great story. Steve had never fought full contact prior to this tournament. His first fight was one of the most entertaining that I’ve seen in quite a while. Rocky 2 – who’s gonna have enough left to be standing after the third round! Steve won, but lost his next match. Still it was a great job and it was fun watching a guy who’s been ordering from us (for a long time) do well in a national tournament!
Other Eastern fighters who made our day was Primo (Brooklyn, NY) Rigel (NYC) and Stephen Strotmeyer (Pittsburgh). If you’re ever in their area, call them up. There’s always a place to train!
And, last but not least, how can anyone not mention the Hess family of Mi-Ki-Do in Washington. Mike’s team took several titles and will continue to dominate as we will see at the upcoming IKF event.
(Editors Note – as usual we’ve had to trim KO’s contribution to the newsletter. The rest of the story was simply about stuff ya’ll just aren’t interested in like the girls on the Virginia Beach boardwalk, beautiful female kickboxers, a comment on another vendor’s ‘ample’ figure, how much he drank Saturday night and on, and on, and on. How is it that I pay this guy to attend these events? He’d probably do it for ‘beer money’)
For full results of the tournament check out this link to the WKA – www.wkausa.com