WBC Amazing MUAY THAI World Festival 2025 Verona

Arrived in Verona

Having qualified for Team England by winning the English open qualifiers Connor (left) Holly (Centre) Dan (Right) all attended the WBC Amateur World Championships.

Connor was fighting in the -71kg category and this was a huge category, 19 entrants which meant if you didn’t get a bye in the first round you would have to fight 5 times in 4 days to win the final. Connor was not put off by the challenge. He was to be the first to represent the gym on day one of the tournament after not getting a bye. He was to fight the Danish lad. I was confident it was a fight Connor could win despite the Danish lad having a huge amount of kick boxing and K1 fight experience, I estimated probably some where in the region of 50 fights against just 3 fights of Connors. The fight started and Connor looked strong in the opening seconds, starling the Dane with his power. The plan was to push the fight to the clinch where I knew Connor would be dominant. Connor backed him up in the corner which was where we wanted him. Unfortunately Connor made 1 mistake, he stepped back, this allowed the Dane to throw a left body kick which struck Connor straight in the liver, the Dane immediately stepped in throwing a couple of straights then kneed Connor in the head. It was all over and unfortunately Connor was not able to continue. Connor obviously devastated but will learn so much from this and he will be back stronger. The Dane went on to win the championship.

Next to represent the gym was Dan. He was fighting in the -81kg category. This category had 8 lads so Dan would be making his debut in the quarter finals. His first opponent was an American lad with MMA fight experience. I was 100% confident we would win this fight in the clinch alone. I told Dan keep walking him down and clinch him. The tactics worked very well and Dan had a strong win although the heat was 35C and was far more challenging than Dan had anticipated. Dan took very little damage which was the plan and why I wanted him to clinch. We are a very strong clinch gym, rarely getting beat at this range and tournaments are gruelling with the damage.

The next day Dan was up again in the semi final. He would be fighting a Swiss lad who had beat a very tough and experienced Ukrainian who had allegedly had over 120 amateur fights. The Swiss was much better than the American in clinch and had watched Dan so they would of had a fight plan based around Dan clinching. I edged my bets on this and quickly taught Dan to march and control the range. The Swiss lad liked to lunge forward and controlling the range would disrupt his timing. This worked brilliantly in round 1 and Dan took the round and impressed me in how quickly he adapted to the new style for him. We knew the Swiss lad liked his spinning elbows which he used to KO the Ukrainian lad. I taught him a counter for the spinning elbows should he use them again. Round 2 the Swiss lad got the better of Dan and won that round. Round 3 was all to fight for with 1 round a piece. Dan still kept the marching and disruption going well, scoring against the Dane and to my delight pulled off the spinning elbow counter. The Dane was getting the better of the exchanges In the second half of round 3 and it was right down to the bell. The referee lifted the Danes hand for the win, out scoring Dan by just a couple of shots it was that close. But how much Dan grew in that fight was sensational and his own little victory. Just like Connor’s opponent the Swiss lad went on to win the final. Stopping his Panamanian opponent very easily. Out of his 3 fights Dan was the only one who took him the distance and was just a few shots off beating him. Dan earned a bronze medal for placing 3rd in the tournament. Inspirational!

Holly was to be fighting in the -51 kg category. There were 6 girl in this category so 2 girls would automatically get a by to the semi final. Holly didn’t get the bye and would be facing the Mexican girl in the quarter finals. Holly is very tall for her weight cat and we knew the Mexican girl was tiny. Just like Dan I wanted her to make a statement in clinch in the first fight, this would also allow her to limit damage and all her opponents would be expecting her to clinch through every fight and wouldn’t want to be in that range. Holly totally dominated the Mexican girl and the referee waved the fight off in the 2nd round.

Holly’s semi final would be against a French girl who had gotten the bye. She also had quite a lot of fights experience. Like with Dan I took Holly off and taught her to march. I knew they would be expecting us to clinch and I knew the French girl like to lunge in and throw big hands. So the plan again was disruption, fight her on the outside and let her opponent over commit and put themselves in the clinch. This again worked like clockwork and Holly won every round big. Her hand raised and she progressed into the final.

The final was to be by far the other strongest girl in the tournament. The Austrian girl had also stopped her first opponent in her 1st fight and also faced a girl who had a bye into the semi. She defeated the Italian girl and it looked to be a very high stakes final. I worked tactics with Holly again, I had her rehearsing them the night before the fight. I couldn’t of asked for more, Holly shut down the Austrian girl at every range and totally dominated her in the clinch. Although it was Holly’s hardest fight of the tournament she still won every round. She fought impeccably in every fight and so earned the gold medal.

Bronze Medal 🥉

Gold medal 🥇

I couldn’t be prouder of the team they were sensational. I’m even more looking forward to what comes next as they have all learnt some amazing stuff and will not only grow themselves but the rest of the gym with them.

The full icing on the cake was Team England won 24 gold medals in total giving the English team the number 1 spot. There is so much talent in England at the moment, gyms, coaches and fighters. It’s an amazing time to be involved in the sport. 🙏