Cellar Fight Team Travels to 2010 Muay Thai Classic

This past weekend the Cellar Fight Team traveled to Des Moines, Iowa for the 4th annual Thai Boxing Association’s Muay Thai Classic.  This year was the biggest ever with 350+ registered fighters.  It was also the first year The Cellar has competed at the event (although Jon Cichon has competed the past 3 years as a member of Team Singto).

Competing from The Cellar was Jon Cichon, Sarah Salzgeber, Colin Taylor, Dania Weinberg, and Meredith Cummings.  All 5 fighters put on fantastic performances inside the ring.  They gave it their all and The Cellar came away with some big wins, close decision losses, and a very good experience.

Jon Cichon - Jon’s first two fights took place at the Muay Thai Classic back in 2007 and he has returned each year in hopes of capturing the prestigious tournament belt.  Jon competed in the Men’s Lightweight (125-132lb) Class A division at this year’s tournament against the best Thai Boxers in North America.  He ended up receiving a bye in the first round and then faced Ontario’s Saji Geeverghese in the semi-finals.  Cichon and Geeverghese fought a very patient and technical fight with both fighter’s showing the other much respect resulting in very few exchanges.  But when they did exchange, Jon was more effective and came away with the decision victory.  In the finals, Jon met the 2009 defending Muay Thai Classic champion in Tony Manoharan, also from Ontario.  This fight got off to a much quicker pace as Tony put pressure on Jon and went on the aggressive both kickboxing and in the clinch.  The second round was much closer as Jon started to find his mark with his hands and kicks, but Tony still racked up points in the clinch.  In the third, Jon became the aggressor, bringing the fight to Tony and also landed the better knees in the clinch.  But in the end, it was too little, too late as Tony Manoharan got the split decision win and his second Muay Thai Classic title.

Sarah Salzgeber - Sarah was originally registered for the 135lb novice division of the tournament, but after fighting twice this year and with some weight classes being closed, Sarah was forced to move up to the Women’s 153lb Super Welterweight Open Divison.  Sarah was the least experienced fighter in the division and was given the bottom seed and a first round draw of Kat Johnson.  But Sarah thrives as the underdog.  She took the fight straight at Kat and even though she took some shots, her aggression never slowed.  She put the veteran through a three round war, but in the end Sarah lost a split decision.  It would be Kat’s 3rd MTC Tournament title and Sarah was given a new level of confidence having hung with one of the best female fighters in the game right now.

Colin Taylor - Colin competed in the Men’s Novice Welterweight Division (142-147lbs).  He entered the 8-man division with a record of 0-0 and a desire to make a name for himself.  In the preliminary round, Colin challenged Illinois’ Phil Halverson.  The first round was close and could have gone either way. Colin began to find confidence in his kicks during the second round and clearly got the nod from the judges.  In the third Colin decided to rely almost entirely upon his kicks and Phil had a hard time ever closing the distance.  Colin put on a show landing effective kicks to the legs, body, and head to get the decision win and move on the semi-finals.  In the semis, Colin challenged Canada’s Rami Farah.  Colin started the bout continuing his kicking attack, but focusing the strikes to the front leg of Rami.  He continued the second round with the same strategy and really began to wear the Canadian down.  In the third round, Colin was on his way to a decision victory, but took it out of the judges hands with a shot that echoed threw the event center as Colin landed a monster left hand that put Rami on the canvas for a long period of time.  Colin got the win by KO.  Colin was then scheduled to fight Sunday in the finals and was excited to compete until he heard that his opponent had decided to withdraw due to injury and the other semi-finalist decided to decline participating in the championship bout.  Colin would win the finals and the Novice Welterweight belt by forfeit.

Dania Weinberg & Meredith Cummings -Dania and Meredith both decided to register for the tournament at the last minute looking to get valuable fight experience.  They both realized how hard it is to find other female fighters at similar weights and experience levels and decided they’d rather jump in the ring now, than wait a full year until the next tournament.  Both women got drew very tough and strong opponents as Dania challenged Nebraska’ Elizabeth Gregory and Meredith took on Arizona’s Yumi Urata.  Both Cellar fighters got pushed in the ring, but they fought back with everything they had and refused to show any signs of quit.  In the end, both Meredith and Dania lost by unanimous decision, but we are all proud of their performance and we look forward to the next time these two step in the ring.

All in all it was another great weekend for The Cellar Fight Team.  We had a lot of fun catching up with old friends across the country, our young fighters got a taste of the tournament environment, and The Cellar also added one new champion to it’s list.  Congratulations to everyone!