– Dan Perry contributed with this report
Over 500 people crammed into the Yarborough Leisure Centre on Saturday night to see the best of Lincoln’s fighting talent at the Kickboxing Classics: Back to Basics fight night.
The enthusiastic crowd, which included the Mayor of Lincoln Councillor Geoff Kirby, were treated to 15 bouts over the course of the evening, including one for the IKF English Light Middleweight Amateur Title.
The event, organised by Shawn Burton and Aaron Robinson of Lincoln Kickboxing Academy (LKBA) Promotions, began with a junior bout in which the highly-rated seven-year-old Wiktor Gornicki defeated Shahin Khalfi in the second round.
There was a solid win for LKBA’s Jordan McLoughlin by unanimous decision and an impressive victory for the Academy’s Roman Sikorski due to a referee stoppage after he downed his opponent twice in the opening rounds.
Later on, Burton stepped into the ring with James Cornick, earning a hard-fought draw after an exciting fight which went the full six rounds.
Callum Thompson came out on top against Murray Dadswell of the Bailang Gym in Telford before John Whittam stopped John Lawton in the fourth round with a big right hook. That win meant he retained his IKF English Title.
The evening’s penultimate fight came to a disappointing end for local favourite Lee Coult, as a retirement due to a wrist injury forced him to concede defeat to James Shepherd at the end of the second round.
The final duel of the night saw the event’s joint-promoter Aaron Robinson take on Ryan Lyall of the Rivals Gym. Lyall came out on top with probably the hit of the night around a minute into the first round, sending Robinson to the canvas after connecting with a heavy right hook.
Shawn Burton was delighted with the event, and said: “The gym’s been buzzing.The lads have got their own show to fight on, they’ve been training hard and they’re all fighting fit.”
He added: “In kickboxing you train to fight, so it’s nice for them to put their hard work into something rather than just hitting the pads in the gym or sparring. They’ve got all their friends and family here and the whole city has got behind them and supported them.”