It was 8 month in the making and finally Monte-Carlo made Muaythai history on June 14th at the 2014 Fighting Masters.
The event started with a great opening with HSH Prince Albert II entering the stadium and the capacity crowd standing up to show their respect to his Highness . The Baroness Cécile de Massy, the visitors from Thailand lead by M.L. Trinuch Sirivadhanabhakdi , the Thai ambassador to France M. Apichart Chinwanno, Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan and Stephan Fox, representing the world Muaythai community were also given a warm welcome to stadium.
The first fight between Pakorn Sakyothin versus Yetkin Ozkul from Turkey was great opening fight. Both boys showed some fast furious Muaythai and after 5 rounds, Pakorn from Thailand came out with the win. Pakorn was also the recipient of the Peace and Sport trophy for the tournament.
Ekkarit versus Dylan Salvador was one of the closest fights of the evening and future events will call for rematch between these two warriors. For 5 rounds, both fighters battled it out, not giving an inch and in the closest of margins the current world champion, Ekkarit, retained his title.
Bukaow Banchamek and Djimé Coulabily was a fight worth the hype and left nothing out of what it promised. After 5 rounds of world class Muaythai, Bukaow was the victor and received the Royal Trophy.
The fight between Beurnung and Abdallah Mabel was a highly entertaining fight. Sadly, Abdallah from France received a cut during the bout forcing the referee to stop the fight and Beurning retained his world title.
Yohan Lidon from France verses the WMC World Champion Alex Harris from Sweden was the middle weight title fight. This was a fantastic fight with Lidon trying to step inside the longer reach of Harris, but after 5 hard fought rounds, Harris defended his title in a world class performance.
Artem Vakhitov and Dzianis Hanchronak was the fight many had seen as one of the most anticipated fights. It was a fight which showed that the heavyweights can be as fast as the lightweights. Vakhitov, after a world class performance, has been crowned the new WMC Heavyweight Champion in a rematch of the SportAccord combat games as he defeated Hancharonak.
The super heavyweight title bout between Paul Slowinski of Australia and Tsotne Rogava of Ukraine was one of the toughest fights of the night. In the first two rounds, many saw the Ukrainian superstar taking the fight to Slowinski, but in round three, Slowinski changed his game plan and took the 3 remaining rounds to be crowned again WMC super heavyweight world champion.
The event did not disappoint as the spectators saw 7 champions come out victorious in an amazing night which made history. Thank you, your HSH Prince Albert II and thank you, Monte-Carlo for an unforgettable evening.