· “National Muay Thai Championship 2011” Recap And Results

· Article author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Posted on 03/07 at 01:16 PM

Stand Up Promotions' "National Muay Thai Championship 2011" delivered another amazing night of Muay Thai fights at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles on March 5.

The fight card contained eight amateur fights and three professional fights, including a WBC interim title bout, which made for an all star night of fights as the venue was packed and every seat was filled. Some of the industry’s biggest names were present at the event including professional Muay Thai fighters, Kevin Ross, Christine Toledo, Chaz Mulkey and Baxter Humby, to name a few.

A major highlight on the amateur card was the amazing match between Ron Scolesdang (1-0) and Beto Rodriguez (6-3), who went five, three-minute rounds. Team Oyama’s Scolesdang is undefeated in mixed martial arts with a record of 4-0; he is also the International Fight Showdown MMA champion and was making his Muay Thai debut against Rodriguez, himself a fierce competitor in the ring.

In round one, Scolesdang came out with fire in his eyes and successfully showcased his boxing skills against "The Iron Man" Rodriguez, who can clearly take a punch. Scolesdang had Rodriguez up against the ropes as he laid on the strikes to Rodriguez’s head and upper body. Rodriguez looked less than affected as he got off the ropes and applied some big kicks to his opponent.

Scolesdang continued to strike his opponent in series of rapid punches and heavy kicks throughout the fight. There was a point when his corner had to tell Scolesdang to slow down because of his almost inhuman momentum. It would seem that Scolesdang would have gassed out by the third round, but he remained consistent and if anyone could have taken those strikes, it was Rodriguez—who convinced everyone in attendance that he is officially made of iron.

Both fighters scored knockdowns off of accuratly placed strikes and made for an exciting five rounds of Muay Thai. These amateur fighters delivered a performance on a professional level. The decision went to the judges who scored a unanimous decision in favor of the winner, Ron Scolesdang.

Also on the card was Scolesdang’s Team Oyama teammate, Oscar Sanchez who had a successful night in the ring as well with a unanimous decision victory against Kha Tran. These two wins add to Team Oyama’s undefeated fight record in 2011.

In the first professional bout of the night, Riverside’s United States Karate Organization’s Joey Pagliuso (2-3-2) took on Unlimited MMA’s Jose Palacios (4-2) for five, three-minute rounds.

Pagliuso and Palacios had a very close fight until the last round, where Pagliuso poured on several powerhouse kicks to his opponent. Palacios caught one of these kicks to send Pagliuso down to the mat. A now tired Pagliuso got up, and threw a kick to Palacios’s head. Palacios blocked Pagliuso’s kick and countered with a high kick to Pagliuso’s head, knocking him out for the win with 15 seconds left in the fifth round.

In the fight of the night, Artem “The Russian Experiment” Sharoshkin (2-0) went head-to-head with Boorzoo Honargohar (2-1). This fight had the audience on the edge of their seats.

Sharoshkin displayed top athletic performance in the ring against his opponent, Honargohar, who trains out of the esteemed Team Janjira in Texas. The two fighters battled for the full five rounds.

After feeling each other out in the first round, Sharoshkin quickly took control in the ring as he dominated his opponent. In the last round, Boorzoo made a final attempt to get the win and Sharoshkin openly received the tireless punches from his opponent because he clearly knew that he had this fight in the bag. The judges agreed with Sharoshkin and scored the bout a unanimous decision in favor of the winner, “The Russian Experiement.”

“In the first round we were feeling each other out and in the second, third and fourth round, I knew I had the advantage and I knew I had him hurt. In the last round, I could tell that he was desperate, especially in the second portion of the last round. He was trying to catch me and I was just trying to move around and letting him punch himself out and finish the round. I already knew that the fight was pretty much over. He was throwing punches, but he was really tired, so they didn’t do that much damage,” Sharoshkin said after his victory.

“I feel good about my fight, I’m a little disappointed in my performance about my conditioning because I got sick two weeks before my fight; I got the flu and I was fighting it for two weeks up to the fight. I even took medicine today, but regardless, I tried to push through it and tried to put on a good show”

Even on a sick day, Sharoshkin was on top of his game and made the ring his own for all five rounds.

“Boorzoo is a great guy, a true fighter, I love the guys who leave the bullshit out of the ring—he looks at it just like I do, it’s a sport. We go in and it looks violent from the outside, but it’s a sport and we are both ready for that. I wish him best of luck, he is a tough, tough fighter.”

What’s next for Sharoshkin?

“I saw the WBC rankings and I saw the guys in front of me and I saw Shane Oblonsky and Joey Pagliuso, and I would like to be in the top five if not first place or second place for the WBC belt. That is my goal,” he said.

In the last fight of the evening Joe Schilling (10-1) picked up another win against Chase Green (10-2) to receive the WBC super middleweight interim title.

Even if you blinked an eye you would have still heard the blows as Schilling pounded Green inside the ring. After Green was knocked down several times, Schilling threw some heavy strikes to Green to take his opponent out of the fight for good. Schilling defeated Green at 2:13 into the first round, delivering a top performance and proving once again that he is unstoppable.

After the match I caught up with Kevin Ross to get his take on the fights. “They were great, they always do a great job, they pack the place—really great matchups, really great amateur card, under card and really good pro fights. It was exciting and gave the fans what they were looking for. They are helping the sport of Muay Thai grow and I hope they can continue on,” Ross explained.

Ross’s favorite fight of the night belonged to Artem. “Artem, other than Schilling because that was just crazy and exciting watching him when he fights is just nuts. But technically Artem’s fight was [the best]. I have trained with him before and watched him come up. Seeing his skills improve and his style, I feel like we have similar styles. He has real good boxing and good leg kicks, he just pushes that pace the whole time. He is a really exciting fighter and I love watching him fight,” Ross said.

Overall it was a very successful night of fights, new crowd favorites were made, classic knockouts were witnessed and the glam and the class of Muay Thai was diligently encompassed.