"MOSCOW STORM - (Moscow, Russia) May 12th, 2001

This report was written and supplied by Mike Miles

3 athletes from Canada were invited to take part in the first large Kickboxing event in Russia in 5 years. The event was called ‘Moscow Storm’ and it took place at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow on Saturday May 12th, 2001. The venue was visually overwhelming, made to easily sit at least 40,000 people. For this event, the venue was cut in half and the Promoter Serguei Kobzev had high hopes of bringing in from 20,000 to 25,000 fans to watch Team Russia take on athletes from the USA, Canada, England and France. The day of the event saw a crowd of between 5,000 and 10,000 fans appear to support and enjoy the entertainment (which featured fights, rock performances, magic acts, etc.).

Some of the noteworthy people who attended the event included American’s Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson (as color commentator), Lou Neglia (East Coast Promoter and former World Champion), Paul Hennessey (UK fight promoter, manager,… a man of many different hats), and Vladimir Borodine (New York trainer and a man all the visiting teams relied on for translation etc.).

Problems occurred for the non-Russian speaking coaches and athletes due to the language barrier. There just were not enough English-Russian speaking people to avoid some of the confusion which took place during the show. This is not a slight at the show itself, or at the promoters, it is just much confusion did take place for the visiting teams. Athletes and coaches were very busy being brought to appointments the day before the show and none of the athletes were given enough time to rest up and properly prepare for their performance the following day.

An analysis of the Canadians performances will come first in this report and then the results of the bouts will follow:

Erin Linley (Canada) took on Russia’s Anastasia Touktaulova for the vacant ISKA World Oriental Rules Superflyweight Title. The Russian girl is the European Flyweight Champion in international boxing. Upon first meeting of the Canadian girl who is very slight in appearance and demeanour, the Russian girl burst forth with over-confidence predicting to knock the Canadian girl out in the first round at the press conference. During the bout, the Russian girl would dance and mock the Canadian athlete. Linley kept her composure and every time the Russian girl would come in to deliver her punch combinations she would be greeted by front kicks. After the Russian girl would deliver her punches Linley would land heavy low kicks which the Russian girl would take full force. The kick strategy allowed Linley to land good punches when the Russian would expect kick attacks. In the second round, Linley slipped on water in the Russian girls corner and she fell to the canvas. The Russian girl pounced in and then delivered a hook catching Linley in the face while she was sitting prone on the canvas. The referee did not warn the Russian athlete for the obvious foul but instead gave Linley a standing 8 count. “What was the referee watching?,” complained Canadian corner-man Trevor Smandych. By the third round, the Russian girl was trying to hide the fact that her leg had taken some punishment. She appeared to be tiring and was only dancing and attacking sporadically as the fight progressed. Linley used a defensive strategy to nullify the Russian girls boxing experience. By the last 3 rounds, Linley became the aggressor and chased the Russian girl around the ring. The Russian girl made a few more attempts to come back in the final round and though she had the Canadian girl on the ropes, most of the punches were bouncing off of Linley's arms. “Erin did an excellent job and outpointed the Russian girl with clean and ‘effective’ techniques,” said Canadian Coach Mike Miles. “I felt Erin won at least 5 of the 8 rounds. Anastasia would just dance and clown around with occasional bursts of flurries, most which were intercepted, missed, or bounced off of Erin’s gloves.” The Russian girl was weary at the end of the fight, bent over and trying to catch her wind. Linley looked fresh and stood tall walking around the ring confident of her win. The decision was read to the audience. The result was split and awarded to the Russian athlete. Television color commentator Don Wilson stated, “This was the fight of the night, but the scoring reflected that the decision was in their hometown. The Canadian girl lost by only a 1/2 point (the ISKA uses a half point scoring system).” Lou Neglia was also surprised at the decision stating he felt Linley had won the bout and the last 4 rounds easily. UK fight promoter and aficionado Paul Hennessey was also surprised by the decision. He felt Linley had won the bout and being a judge of the bout, scored it that way. ISKA President Cory Schafer has stated that Erin will get the first mandatory title fight defense and rematch with Anastasia, stating that “there will be 2 neutral judges the next time the two meet (November maybe?). “What a fight! I was inspired by Erin’s battle plan and her ability to make it work. One of the most inspiring fights I have see in a long time,” said ISKA President Schafer.

Trevor Smandych was scheduled to fight Andrei Popov (Russia) The bout was under freestyle rules (low kicks above the knee only). The language problem came to the forefront during this bout. Smandych was to be the first bout of the evening and an assistant to the promoter kept telling the Canadians that Smandych would be in the ring to fight by 6:00 PM. This was reinforced by several other Russian assistants agreeing the fights were to start at 6:00 PM. Smandych started warming up at 5:30 pm. 6:00 PM came and went, as did 6:30 and 7:00. Finally at 7:30 PM Smandych was called to the ring. His opponent came to the ring and he was not even dressed nor did he have his gloves on. In the first round Smandych took a head butt and the Russian athlete was not warned. In the second round, the Russian athlete delivered 2 knee attacks (this was not a Muay Thai bout), and he was never warned for the rule infraction. The Russian athlete kept up a good work rate and though the Canadian was never in any trouble, Popov won the close fought bout.

Canada’s Nick Ring was supposed to fight Russian athlete Vitaly Kudashov under modified Muay Thai rules. Ring came down with a severe case of food poisoning at 2:00 AM on the day of the fight. In severe pain from cramping and vomiting, Ring ended up being far to sick to compete. “Nick was severely dehydrated going through eight 1 litre bottles of water in less than 2 hours!,” stated Canadian Coach Mike Miles. “I really thought he was going to die!”

Since Ring was out the Russian athlete instead stepped into the ring with Lithuania’s Kestutis Abrocius (who now lives in the USA). The bout had the Russian athlete taking a lot of shots but when he would take one he would pressure the Lithuanian backwards and land multiple punches and occasional kicks. The Russian athlete won the bout by split decision.

The remainder of the event had the following results:

Andrei Dudko (Russia) vs. Jeff Ford (USA) for the ISKA World Superheavyweight Free Style Rules Title. This was a very short bout. The Russian athlete came out very strong throwing very strong punches meant to get the American out of the ring as quickly as possible. The Russian forced the American backwards into the ropes. The two clinched and Dudko delivered a shot to the back of the neck of Ford. Ford was perturbed that the Russian was not given a warning. Dudko delivered a strong punch which the American ducked under. He then countered with a strong left hook which broke the Russians nose. The bout was stopped with Ford winning the title by 1st round stoppage. Congrats to Jeff ‘Big Diesel’ Ford.

Sergei Arhipov (Russia) took on the UK’s John Wyatt in a Muay Thai rules bout. In the second round the Russian caught the Brit with a heavy right hand which sat Superheavyweight Wyatt down for the count.

Dimitry Stepanov (Russia) took on the USA’s Moti Horenstein. The bout was battled under Muay Thai rules. Stepanov used his superior boxing techniques to win this close fought bout. Horenstein used ax kicks, back kicks and knees but could not score as effectively as the Russian did with his hands.

Dimitry Kolimazhnov (Russia) battled against David Greter (France) for the ISKA World Lightheavyweight Oriental Rules Title. The Russian won the close fight by use of superior hand techniques and low kicks in rounds nine and ten.

Sergei Pavlovets (Russia) battled with the UK’s Dave Cole in a 5 round Free Style Rules bout. Low kicks from the Brit were what won this bout. Cole was dropped in the first round by a big punch but he was to survive and come back destroying the Russian athletes legs in the process. Cole won by unanimous decision.

John Dixon (USA) won a Free Style Rules bout against Russia’s Igor Sharahov. As the Russian athlete tired, the American kept calm and poured on the pressure to clinch the victory