A CAPACITY crowd watched Wey-mouth Martial Art Centre’s King Tiger Thai-Boxing club, in conjunction with Dorchester Kickboxing, stage their fifth and biggest fight night.

In an electric atmosphere, a crowd of 850 at Weymouth Pavilion’s Ocean Room, saw 15 fighters from the club take on opposition from all over the country under Thai-boxing, boxing, kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts rules.

King Tiger’s Dan Hutchens overcame Plymouth’s experienced Regan Wilkins to claim the WKA English cruiserweight title.

The Weymouth man, who also stars for the town’s cricket team, dropped Wilkins with body punches in the first and second rounds before winning on points in a dominant display, The second title fight of the evening saw King Tiger’s Darren Anstley in against unbeaten Exeter Skorpions’ Joe Moreshead for the heavyweight version of the same belt.

In a wild first round shoot-out, the big punching Anstley dropped Moreshead twice to score a knockout victory and thus become the new champion, The evening started with local teenager Jordan Garnett dominating Carlos Taylor from the Eagles gym in Cardiff before suffering a flash knockdown in the second round, which resulted in the three-rounder being scored a draw.

This was followed by King Tiger’s Rachel Webb remaining unbeaten as she dominated Dorch-ester’s very brave Cheryl Gee with hard leg kicks and punches, which left the latter unable to continue in the third round.

Next up was local fighter Dan Dunford, who after a bright start suffered a dislocated shoulder, and was unable to continue, handing victory to his opponent, Southampton’s Jason Needham, Another Weymouth fighter to extend his unbeaten record to six wins (four knockouts) was Sam Osmond.

In what was one of the most exciting fights of the night, Osmond, fighting under K-1 rules, had to weather the early barrage of heavy punches and kicks from unbeaten House of Pain fighter Kryszstof Taratyka.

However, Osmond then unloaded heavy punches and kick knee combinations to drop, then stop his opponent in the second round to send the crowd wild with delight.

This was followed by two charity white collar boxing bouts.

The first of which saw the club’s 54-year- old Chris Sampson and Bournemouth’s Owen Reid, 52, proving that age is just a number as they showed great skills and fitness in their demonstration bout while raising money for children’s charity Julia’s House, The second bout was a war of attrition between Bournemouth’s Les Simmons and Weymouth’s Kevin Benson, who with just six weeks’ training, took the bout so he could raise money for Cancer Research UK.

The decision went to Simmons who also donated his purse to the cause.

An exciting points win for King Tiger’s Sugar Jay Robinson over Weston-super-Mare’s Wojciech Sudah was followed by points losses for locals Scott Gannon (K-1), Liam Sekham (MMA) and Matt Hale (boxing).

Dorchester Kickboxing’s Gordy Childs was next up, losing a gruelling four-round points decision over Weston’s Kade Sherlock.

The penultimate bout of the evening saw hugely popular local British and European Thai-boxing champion Lee Lucas up against Southampton’s Trevor Soko.

After a strong start from Soko, using good knees and clinchwork to take an early lead, Lucas came on strong in the final two rounds to take a split decision, much to the delight of his huge support, Top of the bill saw King Tiger’s multiple belt holder fresh from a six-week training stint in Thailand, Jo Edwards take on British K-1 legend Mark Beale from Coventry’s Just Muay Thai gym.

In a highly anticipated bout under full Thai rules (knees and elbows allowed to head), the crowd went wild as both fighters tested each other with hard powerful kicks and punches.

However, it was Edwards who made the breakthrough dropping Beale heavily to the canvas with a huge shinkick to the ribs.

Upon rising, Beale was soon under heavy pressure before being dropped again with a left-hook low kick combination, which left the referee no choice but to stop the fight.

After the show, King Tiger trainer Tom Ashe paid tribute to his team of fighters and backroom staff, who helped make this the best show yet.

He said: “We’ve got a great club here and even the guys and girls from the gym who didn’t get fights all came down to help out and cheer their training partners on.

“We have a great team spirit at Weymouth Martial Arts Centre and have fighters representing the town all over the country most weekends.

“It was a great to show to put on in our hometown and the crowd’s support was incredible.”

Joint promoter Keith Adams of Dorchester Kickboxing also paid tribute to the staff at Weymouth Pavilion who worked very hard to help make this a successful event.

Anybody interested in training or competing in Muay Thai, K-1 or MMA can contact Ashe on 07812140950 or Adams on 079929183607.