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The Irish Karate
Kyokushinkai (IKK) entered a team of fighters in the
British Karate Kyokushinkai (BKK) Regional Knockdown tournament on
Saturday 30th April in Milton Keynes. Knockdown fighting is full
contact bare knuckle fighting. Face punches are not allowed but full
contact punches to the upper body is permitted along with full contact
kicks to the legs, body and head. The team was made up of fighters from several
IKK dojos including Finglas,
Killester
and Mullingar. The team
members were Maria Moran, Patrick English, Ciran Stapleton and Michael
Waldron.
Maria had a tough
fight in the opening round and after six minutes the decision went to her
opponent. As there were only four competitors this meant that Maria came
joint third.
Michael Waldron looked a much improved fighter form his last outing at
Crystal Place in October 2004. Unfortunately he lost on a decision after
four minutes in the first round.
Patrick English was drawn against an old foe in Paul Travers. Paul is one
of the BKKs leading heavyweight fighters and is rarely off the podium in
tournaments. Patrick more than matched him over four minutes but lost on
weight. This was one the best performances I have seen from Patrick.
Finally we had Ciran Stapleton in the Novice Middleweights who came up
against Kevin Harling Philips of Sevenoaks dojo in the BKK. Ciran looked in
good form and stopped Kevin half way through the first round to advance to
the next round where he unfortunately lost on a decision.
The IKK coaches, Sensei
Shane Lalor, Sensei
Ken Fitzpatrick were extremely pleased with the teams
efforts.
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