Fight Night 3 was the second of the 2009/10 Academic year, taking place on the 7th May 2010 in Bath University’s packed Sports Training Village, three temporary stands filled with students, mostly supporting the home side on their quest to keep the Trophy in Bath for the first time.
Bath got off to a flying start in front of a raucous crowd as future committee members and heartthrobs Robert Dinsey and Peter Hachfeld picked up two early points with hard-fought wins. Loughborough evened up the score in the next two fights though, with Claire Kirkwood cementing her status as the most successful fighter in Fight Night’s short history by winning her third successive varsity bout, this time against previously unbeaten Sarah Goring, while Olly Fletcher defeated Jesse Page in a particularly bruising encounter.
With two fights to go before the interval and the scores level, Bath sent in the big guns: Both attached to the arms of Men’s Captain Ahmed Suleiman. Despite being unfairly docked a point for a simply gorgeous trademark Superman Punch, Ahmed defeated his opponent with typical ease. His female counterpart Julia Reed came into the next bout having lost in both previous encounters but showed her undoubted class in beating Zoe Duck to send Bath into the break with a two point advantage.
After a performance from BodySoc, tension mounted as Bath and Loughborough trade two victories apiece, with Tom San Juan and James Tay winning for Loughborough sandwiching successes for Bath from Anna Ross and Jasmin Staples, who was avenging the still open wounds from the “robbery of the century” against a Loughborough fighter in the finals of the National Uni Championships just a few weeks prior to this event.
With three fights to go, Bath led by 6 points to 4, needing only one more win to secure victory. Having been in a similar situation in Loughborough five months before though, nobody was celebrating and when Leigh Schwartz won the penultimate men’s fight for Loughborough. Two wins from the last two could see Bath’s rivals pull out a second win from the jaws of defeat in the year. Nerves were on edge going into the last two fights, not least amongst those who had already fought...
They needn’t have worried. The final two fights both went to Bath, with Amy Bradburn tying up the win against Loughborough Chair Dani Harker, who was in her final varsity fight, and final year and former Chairman Vito Tomasi signed off from Bath with a win over Mike Szumski in a two-round war. As the team rushed the ring, Bath were crowned Varsity Kickboxing Champions for the first time, crowning the achievements of one the best years in the club’s history.
Here are the highlights, full videos are available on the YouTube tab to your left:
Notes and Full Results:
Bath won the Women’s Fights by 4-1, with both sides winning 4 Men’s fights. All Fights were Semi-Contact, with Bath winning by 8-5, the final fight taking place over two rounds won by Bath. Two fighters on each side were ever-presents taking part in their third fight night: Anthony Shum and Julia Reed for Bath along with Lauren Westwood and Claire Kirkwood for Loughborough. Of the other 22 fighters, 12 were debutants with 10 having fought in either previous event.
The full results are below. Winning fighters names are in bold, FC denotes Full Contact fights of two rounds worth double points.
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Bath Fighter
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Loughborough Fighter
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Score
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Robert Dinsey
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Nathan Oliver-Taylor
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1-0
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Peter Hachfeld
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Guy Crouch
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2-0
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Sarah Goring
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Claire Kirkwood
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2-1
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Jesse Page
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Olly Fletcher
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2-2
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Ahmed Suleiman
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Stefan von Pfeffer
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3-2
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Julia Reed
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Zoe Duck
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4-2
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Dan Culling
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Tom San Juan
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4-3
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Jasmin Staples
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Franzi Rother
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5-3
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Anthony Shum
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James Tay
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5-4
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Anna Ross
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Lauren Westwood
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6-4
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Freddie Glebocki
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Leigh Schwartz
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6-5
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Amy Bradburn
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Dani Harker
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7-5
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Vito Tomasi
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Mike Szumski
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8-5
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Bath University
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8 Points
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Loughborough Uni
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5 Points
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