I brought my fight blog and camera on the weekend to Fight at the View III, presented by Gerry Gionco International at Fraserview Hall, Saturday night, April 17 2010. Gionco, who has been presenting the local fight scene for years, proves yet again that there is a strong local following for martial arts fight nights with MMA, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai all on one card. Real Vancouver fight fans aren’t going to wait for UFC 115 to see live fight action in Vancouver and they want to see the stars of tomorrow today. The full house in attendance on a hockey playoff night proved that without a doubt. With gyms from Victoria to Calgary on the card, the night was a great cross section of the hot young fight talent in Western Canada in martial arts.

Hasman Sandhu from the Lion’s Den in Calgary won by judges decision over Suneel Bangarh from Peteric’s in Victoria in this kickboxing match at 145 lbs between these two young fighters.

A bantamweight MMA fight was settled by a brutal knockout in the second round by Oliver Vajda of Raptor in Maple Ridge over Francis Montes of Columbia Martial Arts Burnaby.

In her first appearance back in Vancouver since that great fight with Wendy Roy at MMA At The Rock in January of this year, Sarah Mcleod of Team Denarius Calgary won her exhibition kickboxing match over Angela Business from Phantom Kamloops.

Alex Tribe of Peteric’s got the judges decision over Joe Halfar of Posener’s in Vancouver for a 160lb Muay Thai bout.

Sony Sahota of Wuji Systems Vancouver won by tapout, with some kind of twisted around front naked choke and arm bar with legs in round 2 in a fast-paced welterweight MMA bout against Nick Marinos. Despite the pressure Marinos put on Sahota, it was a calmer Sahota that won out over Marinos in the end.

Bryce Gougeon of Raptor won by tapout using a rear naked choke against Andrew Valiqutte of Columbia Martial Arts, Burnaby in that welterweight MMA match.

Adam Blanchette of Iron City Muay Thai, Richmond, earned a unanimous decision against Kevin Mackenzie of Phantom Kamloops for their Muay Thai fight at 195lbs. Adam’s record is now 4-0.

Dave Logan of Team Denarius won his middleweight MMA match by ground submission, called by referee against Clay Ares of Wuji Systems Vancouver.

Hakeem Dawodu of Mike Miles Muay Thai Calgary scored his 145lb Muay Thai victory by knockout in round 2 against local favorite Josh Jauncey of WKX in Surrey.

The main event was for the Western Canadian Amateur Muay Thai title for Cruiserweight (185lbs) between Kiarash ‘The Beast’ Moghaddam of Versus21 MMA Vancouver and Mike ‘Knock ‘em Down’ Downey from Peteric’s Kickboxing Victoria. After 4 intense rounds of action it seemed like Kiarash Moghaddam had the fight. He felt he had it, the crowd felt he had it, but there was some delay and discussion in the ring before the result according to the judges was announced. It was pronounced a draw. The capacity crowd at fight night went nuts, and were ready for the next round on the edge of their seats. Both fighters, having already left everything in the ring, laced their gloves back up and went back in for one more two minute round to decide the owner of the title. In the end, Kiarash Moghaddam won by unanimous judges decision with superior calm, conditioning, and strikes that would fill up the judges scorecards.

Full Photo pool from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623748559699/

Full Photo pool from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623748559699/

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