Ajarn Kong gets ready to rumble!

Here is a video of Ajarn Kong doing some light training and padwork in preparation for his fight tomorrow. Ajarn Kong is still an active fighter, as well as a full time trainer here at Legacy Gym. Good luck, Kong, show them how it's done!

Ajarn Nuay's muay thai fight video

Here are some highlights of Ajarn Nuay's muay thai fight in Benchalak earlier this year. Many thanks to Hampus for the editing!

Legacy Gym announces partnership with Juggernaut Fight Club (Singapore)

Ole "Iron Fist" Laursen was in Singapore at the beginning of this month to close the recent partnership deal between Legacy Gym and the newly open Juggernaut Fight Club. Ole delivered a seminar at the inauguration of the gym, and has agreed to share Legacy Gym's expertise in martial arts training. Legacy has sent our head muay thai coach, Ajarn Nimnuan, to Singapore for four months to set the foundations of Juggernaut Fight Club's muay thai programme. Ajarn Nimnuan hopes to share his wealth of knowledge as a trainer and instill in his new students the same dedication and drive for success that Legacy Gym promotes in its fighters.

We wish Ajarn Nimnuan and Juggernaut Fight Club every success.

It's been a long time!

Legacy's new outside ring getting ready for action.

Hello back! Apologies for the lack of posts in the last couple of months, as I was away on holidays. The guys at the gym kept busy though, training and fighting both nationally and internationally. Here is the latest fights update:

Adam from Sweden and Kenny from Denmark fought last month at a local show near Ubon. Adam put on a fantastic fight, coming back from being knocked down three times to eventually KO his opponent in the first round. Kenny's fight was unfortunately a mismatch as he ended up facing off against a much more experienced opponent. The referee intervened and stopped it in the first round.

Matthew and Nick, both from America, also fought a couple of weeks later at another village show. Nick won his bout by what he called an "Anderson Silva elbow knockout" in the third round. As for Matthew, he faced off against a taller and heavier opponent with many fights under his belt. Matthew lost by KO due to a head kick early in the first round.

Legacy's muay thai trainers Ajarn Kong and Ajarn Nuay fought last month too. It was Ajarn Nuay's last muay thai fight, as he now retires (again!) in order to pursue his fledgling mma career . He won on points, as did Ajarn Kong.

On the mma side, Vaughn "Blud" Anderson has returned to Legacy to once again head the mma training programme. After just over a year here at legacy, Marcus Waters has made his way back to Dallas, his hometown. Thank you Marcus for all your hard work here at Legacy.

Ole has just come back from China, where he accompanied three of our mma boys who fought at the World Martial Arts Champions event. It was Ajarn Nuay's mma debut, and he used his muay thai expertise to land some damaging elbows on his opponent, but his lack of experience on the ground led allowed his opponent to gain the upper hand and submit him by armbar in the first round. Chris also lost his fight by submission, due to a rear naked choke. Vaughn on the other hand, had a fine performance which added to his ever growing winning streak.

I will try to post photos and videos of the fights soon.

New Ole "Iron Fist" Laursen highlight video!

Enjoy...

Alex wins Fight of the Night in Legend FC 4

Last Thursday 27 January, Legacy's Alex Niu made his debut appearance for the growing Legend Fighting Championships promotion in Hong Kong. The event was broadcast around the world, and it was the first ever Chinese MMA event to be broadcast on American pay per view.

Alex's bout against Chinese sanda fighter Wang Sai was the opening fight on the pay-per-view card, and had the distinction of being awarded Fight of the Night after the event. In a tough 3 round fight, Alex used his boxing skills well. Alex got the better of the striking exchanges, landing some ferocious leg kicks and a good solid elbow. He also did well on the ground, with a nice arm bar attempt in the first round and a mount at the end of the second round. After three hard rounds, Alex won a unanimous decision, getting his Legend FC career off to a great start.

Many thanks to Marcus, who was in Alex's corner, for the update and the details. And a big shout out to Vaughn 'Blud' Anderson, who was commentating at the event.

Here is a link to Legend FC's run down on the fight: http://www.legendfc.com/news/index.php?newsId=62

And here is Vaughn's fight card preview: http://mrblud.com/article.asp?id=85

Sisaket Fight Videos

Here's Aidan's fight debut.





And here's Thalita's fight:






Finally, Ajarn Nuay's 5 round victory.

Legacy brilliance in Benchalak

Last night, in the small sub-district of Benchalak, in Sisaket province, a trio of Legacy fighters turned in impressive performances to seal what has been a great opening week to 2011. In the 5th bout of the night, Aidan "The Yardman" from Ireland had his first ever fight against local fighter Fardaisay. Aidan has been training part-time at Legacy for 5 months and was eager to see the results of his hard work. Like most first fights, this fight wasn't exactly technical, but The Yardman showed great punching power, some very hard knees in the clinch, and pushed the fight to an incredibly high pace from the first bell. He floored his opponent early in round 2, and finished him off soon after by KO. He was ecstatic with the victory and says he can't wait to get in the ring again in February.

Later the same night, in what was billed as one of the main events, Thalita "Mad Dog" Vergilio took on the well supported and highly regarded local fighter Banchom. Thalita had a very hard fought 5 round battle against an opponent who she considered to be her strongest to date. In a fight that really seemed to get the crowd going, both girls threw a huge amount of kicks and punches, and Thalita also landed some very nasty elbows. Mad Dog's performance gained her a few new fans as, after she got the decision, a number of spectators came to congratulate her and her trainer, Ajarn Nimnuan.

To round off the night, the "retired" Ajarn Nuay had his second fight in just over a week! He stepped up to replace a friend of his who had come down sick a couple of days before the fight. With very little pre-fight training, "Mongkol Kao" still managed to get the decision after 5 hard-hitting rounds. Both he and his opponent were obviously in a league of their own, with speed and technique that outshone the rest of the card. The fight was very close, with both fighters exchanging lightning quick combos in the opening rounds. It was only when Ajarn Nuay dropped his opponent with a clean rib-cracking body kick in the 3rd round that the balance tipped firmly in his favour.

After the fights were over, the event sponsors presented both Ajarn Nuay and Thalita with trophies for their impressive performances. All in all, it's been a pretty good week for Legacy Gym.

Videos of last night's fights will follow soon.

Legacy Gym off to a great start in 2011

Hello and Happy New Year! Although I wasn't here to witness it, Legacy Gym got 2011 off to a great start on 1 January. At a local fight event in Det Udom, Marcus Waters, our BJJ coach, made his muay thai début. He won by 4th round TKO, forcing the referee to stop the fight with a barrage of unanswered punches. Unfortunately, there is no video footage, as the rest of the gym was recovering from New Year's eve celebrations.

Ajarn Nuay, aka Mongkol Kao, continued fighting through his retirement with another impressive knockout victory on the same day. He stopped his opponent in the second round.

Nut rounded off a great start for Legacy with a 4th round stoppage, which was made more impressive by the fact that he had just fought two nights before and lost a hard 5 round decision.

Congratulations to all three fighters and, once again, Happy New Year to everyone from all of Legacy Gym!

Malik Arash Mawlayi beats Carlos Prada in Rumble of the Kings 2010

The Natural Born Killer is back again! This time, Malik faced off against young up-and-coming Swedish talent Carlos Prada in a very exciting MMA fight that took place in Stockholm as part of the Rumble of the Kings 2010 event. Prada started off strong, but was soon overwhelmed by Malik's striking power. Malik landed a number of spinning back kicks cleanly before closing the distance and delivering a flurry of unanswered punches. The referee had no option but to stop the fight, giving Malik the victory by TKO in the first round.

You can watch Malik's fight here.