"INTERNATIONAL SHOWDOWN 2001" - (California, USA) April 14th, 2001

This report was written by Howard Hughes (UKMTA, Devon)

Sat 14th April saw UKMTA chief instructor and founder Kru Sandy Holt take 3 of his best fighters to the other side of the pond to fight and represent the UK in a Muaythai extravaganza in Victorville, just outside of LA. The combatants were John Hale, Vicky Roberts and Jussy Lowe, all of which train under Sandy at the Bolton and Wigan clubs.

The pressure was on right from the offset with a 4 hour drive to the airport, a 2 hour delay and change of airport!, 12 hour flight to the US then 3 hours drive to the town of Victorville.The 3 English fighters also had to undergo stringent pre fight tests including Hiv, Hepatitis and even pregnancy tests for the 2 girls.No tapes would be allowed on hand bandages and no oils were to be applied to the body in pre fight warm ups.Both John and Vicky made the weight on the day but Jussy was 3 pounds over and had to work out for 45 minutes to finally make the weight.

First to fight on the day was Vicky, she was to fight the Japanese champion Kaori Koi-Zumi, defending her IKKC featherweight intercontinental title. The fight went the way of the British fighter on a points decision. Next up was Bolton's own Jussy Lowe, a champion fighter already she was now to face the IKKC world champion, again from Japan.A hard fought contest going the full distance with another win for Britain and a new World Champion, Jussy Lowe.

This was the second visit to the US by the Japanese girls where they demolished there American opponents inside of 3 rounds to win their titles, just showing what a good job the British girls did.

Last but not least was John Hale, this fight by far was to be John's biggest test to date. With 14 N,C and B class fights under his belt this was to be John's first true A class fight and his opponent was to be the IKKC World Champion Craig Buchanan. Local hero and hometown boy Buchanan had a 28 fight record to John's 14. Another head to head battle commenced with the advantage going to and from between both fighters for the full distance, with John managing to drop his opponent twice and breaking Craig's arm in the later stages of the fight. The score cards were read out as both fighters waited,

Judge A scored 47-46 Buchanan, Judge B 47-46 Hale and Judge C scored 47-46 Buchanan. Buchanan had kept hold of his title by the narrowest of margins,but it could have so easily gone the other way to John. No complaints from the British team led by Sandy Holt, he took 3 valiant warriors to the other side of the globe were they all gave 110%. The event was filmed by TV giants CBS FOX where Sandy was interviewed and a possible rematch between Buchanan and Hale was mentioned, so watch this space!!