Dylan Parry (Young Lions) defeated Robert Leaver (Wrecking Crew) by R2 KO (Right Cross)
Chris Anstey (Int’l Wing Chun) defeated Mark Djikic (Mantis Boxing ACT) by Unan Decision
Shane Altman (Young Lions) defeated Matt Thompson (Int’l Wing Chun)by Unan Decision
Chris Baxter (Street Heat Evolution) defeated Jordan D’Silva (Mantis Boxing ACT) by R2 KO (Left Hook)
Pat Millar (Int’l Wing Chun) defeated Sai Shutz (Wrecking Crew) by Maj Decision
Julian Toh (Sunrise Bredahl Serey) defeated Shannon Peake (Street Heat Evolution) by Unan Decision
Sean Walker (Shidoshi MA) DREW Dominique Liddle (Integrity PT/ISO Health)
Garry Smith (Southern Wrestling) defeated David Arthur by R2 KO (Uppercut/Cross combo)

The guys from Dragons Breath Promotions put on a very successful San Shou event, tonight. In what was the first San Shou promotion in South Australia, a total of nine gym’s brought out fighters for eight well contested bouts. In what was a surprise to many, the event was completely sold out. I made the silly mistake of not getting to the venue 30mins prior to the first fight starting & got stuck waiting in a line that went down flights of stairs, through a foyer, out the front of the building and down the street. Making the best of the situation, i took the time to have a chat to the people waiting to get in. Most people had only even heard the event running just a matter of 24-48 hours prior, either through word of mouth, friends, reading it on the internet, or noticing a few posters in the Adelaide markets. The people attending the event seemed to span a variety of martial arts backgrounds, ages and club affiliations. Having never been inside the main area of the Dom Polski centre before, i was pleasantly surprised to see how well the two level function centre was laid out for events such as Boxing / MuayThai / San Shou. The place was pretty well packed, on both the ground floor and first level. Next time i come back, i’ll probably plant myself upstairs & borrow a flash & use the long-lens for a different angle of photography.

First fight of the night featured Dylan Parry from Young Lions and Robert Leaver from the Wrecking Crew gym. Dylan set the pace very early on in the first round and found range with crisp boxing. Robert was knocked down with a heavy right cross midway through the first & was not able to recover enough to get back in the fight, from there on. Continuing down the same path in round two, Dylan landed another big right cross and Robert was unable to continue. Chris Anstey from the International Wing Chun Academy put on a dominating performance in the night’s second bout, defeating Mark Djikic from the Mantis Boxing Society. Chris dominated round one with evasive footwork setting up a nice counter left hook, to knock down Mark. Round two saw both fighters work well within the grapple, each landing a variety of impressive takedown’s and throws. Chris pushed on well in round three however, and dominated with crisp punching combinations and a few nice throws.

Shane Altman from Young Lions and Matt Thompson from the International Wing Chun Academy put on a close contest. Shane dominated the striking for the first two rounds, but Matt equally dominated the grapple and throws through the same rounds. In a fairly intense final round, Shane was able to use nice footwork to evade the takedown’s and eventually landed a nice counter uppercut, causing Matt to take a standing 8-count. It was just enough for Shane to seal the decision and get the victory. In the first of the two 85kg battles for the night, Chris Baxter from Street Heat Evolution out boxed Jordan D’Silva from Mantis Boxing Society. Both fighters chose to slug this fight out toe-to-toe and not worry about any of this grappling or kicking business. Jordan rocked Baxter with a hard overhand right midway through the opening round, but then charged in with his hands low and ate a big counter right hook for his trouble & only narrowly beat the count, himself. Baxter took over from this point and early in the second round, ended the bout with a heavy left hook, that had Jordan planted on the canvas & the referee waiving off the bout.

In what was the second 85kg bout of the evening and crowd favorite for fight of the night, Pat Millar from the International Wing Chun Academy used a nice variety of takedown’s, throws and low kicks, to edge out a majority decision over Sai Schuts from the Wrecking Crew Gym. Sai finished well in the third, however, the wind was well and truly taken out of the sails from Pat Millar late in the contest, by multiple unintentional kicks to the groin. Pat was brought out later in the night and awarded with a merchandise pack from Boon MuayThai Equipment, for his efforts as fighter of the night.  Julian Toh from Sunrise and Shannon Peake from Street Heat Evolution put on the most highly skilled display of fighting for the night, next. In a bout that could have been a feature on any MuayThai event, Shannon pressed hard with nice punching and low kicks, while Julian countered with exceptional teep kicks, footwork and body shots. The two 61kg fighters showed a great display of combinations, counter striking and clinch work. In what proved to be the decisive factor coming down the home stretch, Julian’s body shots slowed Shannon down late in the bout just enough for the Sunrise fighter to nip in and out almost at will, landing scoring punches on the way in and counter kicks on the way back out. It was a well fought and hard fought decision win for Julian Toh.

Second to last fight on the card featured Sean Walker from Shidoshi Martial Arts and Dominique Liddle from ISO Health fight out a closely contested battle. So close in the end, the judges gave the fight a draw. Sean was never really able to capitalise on his boxing skills, while Dom was unable to secure many clean throws or takedown’s. What resulted was a battle of MMA-style dirty boxing from inside the clinch and both fighters nullifying each others strengths. Neither fighter seemed disappointed with the decision and each will take home a good learning experience, if nothing else. The final fight of the evening featured a heavyweight showdown between Garry Smith from Southern Wrestling and David Arthur. Garry used nice footwork to keep on the move and land nice counter jab after nice counter jab. Stuffing each and every takedown attempt, Garry continued his boxing work, systematically picking apart David Arthur with simple yet effective 1-2 and 1-2-3 boxing combo’s. Midway through the second round, David slowed to a virtual standstill and Garry took advantage, lnading about 15 clean unanswered punches and collapsing Arthur in the corner. Stepping in to prevent Arthur from sustaining any further punishment, the referee waived off the bout. A well fought and thorough victory for Garry Smith.

My thanks to the Dragon Breath Promoters - Seth especially. Also to Sam Binetti, the ISKA officials, the gyms, fighters and trainers who were all kind enough to pose for photos and provide me with access to any info i needed. The Dragons Breath Promoters should be VERY pleased with this first event, now the dirt and dust has settled. The fights went well, were matched fairly evenly and a good number of gyms put guys in for some experience at something new. In an event that has no ties or affiliations to any one gym, style of Martial Arts, or one group of fighters over another - these San Shoe events will likely catch on and become bigger and better from this point on. The beauty of San Shou is that it’s simply just a set of rules, that brings together all codes of full contact martial arts and competitive forms of ring fighting, to fight under one set of unified rules, that no one seems to have any particular problem with. The fighters seem to like them, the gym’s are happy and the government officials and sanctioning bodies are supporting it. The event is excellent experience for those fighters wanting a slow or easy learning curve in to Mixed Martial Arts or MuayThai / K-1 fighting down the line. It’s a good mix of grappling and striking and the fights are quite entertaining to watch, from a fan perspective. The night finished off with some final words from the promoters and a plug for the next Knees Of Fury event. The crowd was very receptive to the fighters all night long & there were no issues with security or the crowd. Overall, for a first event, it ran very well from start to end. At this stage, the next event is set for March next year, so until then San Shou fans, stay healthy.