On 16th May the Jersey Thai Boxing Club hosted the ISKA Super-welterweight title at the Fort Regent venue in jersey. Competing for the title was raising star Thomas McCormack against Jerseys own Michael Blood. This was the first ISKA Championship bout contested in the Channel Islands

the event caused massive media attention on the island and had a great undercard of jersey fighters vs. fighters from mainland England. The 900 strong crowd gave a great atmosphere to stage one of the biggest events the island has ever held.

the first round bell rang and both fighters started to feel each other out, however, it was McCormack who was the quicker and his experience showed, catching blood and tripping him up on several occasions. McCormack gained confidence as his unorthodox style was preventing blood from finding his rhythm.

Blood came out in the third with intentions to turn the fight around which is exactly what he did. He set the pace walking forward, putting pressure on McCormack all the way, however the Sheffield fighter proved evasive.

Blood did manage to connect with some solid blows in the fourth but McCormack footwork keep him out of trouble and allowed him room to counter attack. McCormack won a unanimous decision

Michael Blood’s trainer and event promoter Rob Mitchell was pleased with the overall performance of Blood and the rest of the Jersey fighters saying “I think we done extremely well matching the standard of fighters from much larger clubs from England and put Jersey on the map and Michael’s performance especially”.

The club received nothing but praise from Mick Mullany (McCormack’s coach) who was impressed by the hospitality and calibre of fighter the Jersey club offered.

Rob Mitchell would like to thank everyone from Sheffield Thaiboxing, fearless Gym and Black Widows Gym for travelling to Jersey and helping to make the event possible.

The Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny has certainly established itself as the home of world class Kickboxing events with the P.T’s Kickboxing show once again raising the bar for kickboxing in Ireland. The main event featured ISKA World Light-middleweight Champion Tommy McCafferty in his second attempt to win the ISKA Middleweight belt.

McCafferty faced French Champion Dino Perrotto to contest the vacant title. McCafferty took the fight to Perrotto from the first bell dominating the opening rounds the Frenchman struggled to keep up. Perrotto opened a nasty cut under McCafferty’s left eye after which he seemed to regain his confidence and ride out the storm, finding his own rhythm. The French Champion had a big sixth round attacking with powerful punches and kicks earning McCaffery’s respect but Perrotto dropped the next two rounds to the relentless work rate of the Irishman. Perrotto got a second wind in the ninth and took the fight to McCafferty for the first time he managed to get McCafferty to take a backwards step landing heavy accurate blows. McCafferty really does have the heart of a Champion and the ability to dig deep inside himself to produce incredible durability and strength, that’s exactly what he did in the remaining rounds cheered on by the capacity crowd, Perroto was still dangerous and ready to trade leather but McCafferty would not be denied and at the end of the twelfth and final round was judged the winner by unanimous decision. The new two times World champion was happy with his work but now plans to take a break after three 12 round World title fights back to back inside the last eight months.

ISKA World Cruiserweight Champion Daniel ‘Pinta’ Quigley faced ISKA British Champion David Ball in a non-title contest. The match ended prematurely when Quigley closed Ball’s right eye with a solid right hand, Ball retired on his stool after the second round with impaired vision. Aidan Lafferty lifted the ISKA Irish Light-middleweight title belt due to a third round stoppage of Shane Montgomery.

Vienna, Austria;  ISKA EUROPE deputy chief referee Mr. Josef TEMML / AUT got since June 6th official EBU pro Boxing license. This shows once more again, that our seminars and training for referees are excellent and we are on the right way.

Congratulations from ISKA EUROPE head office, well done Yussuf