'BATTLE AT THE BULL CITY' - (Durham,
North Carolina, USA) June 10th, 2006
Courtesy of Trevor Smandych..
Three fighter’s from National Kickboxing Northwest: Mike Musto, Nick Belegrave
and John Hamm along with coach Trevor Smandych traveled down to Durham, North Carolina for some great
fights. The tournament style event was put on by IKF East Central regional rep. Mr. Will Smith. The boys
determination to win was clear by their hard training showing they meant business.
Mike Musto looked sharp with good clean techniques and awesome speed. In his preliminary bout he defeated
Jeremiah Lancaster by unanimous decision, utilizing fast combos and taking little to no damage in return.
After an approximate 2 hour break he stepped in the ring a second time to defeat the hometown athlete Lance Eakes
by unanimous decision in an exciting 3 round final. Once again Musto was in and out so fast he left his opponent
frustrated.
Nick Belegrave stepped into the ring for the first time against USA’s Casey Anderson who was also
fighting for the first time. At the opening of the first round, Casey came out swinging hard, going for the quick KO.
Nick weathered the storm calmly as Casey’s energy slowly depleted. In the second round Nick started countering
effectively with strong kicks and punches. By the third round, the American was tired and Belegrave kept picking up
steam putting on a great last round and taking the fight by decision. Congrats to both fighters for stepping into
the ring for the first time.
The last of the three to fight was John Hamm, his opponent being Natural Allah of DC. Natural
showed impressive boxing skills and footwork in the first round. John stayed calm and worked the right cut kick
effectively when Natural would take a wide stance to punch. Round 2 saw John putting the cut kicks in harder and
following them with nice punch combinations slowing the American almost to a hault. In the third round John set up
a roundhouse kick to the head with a heavy cut rocking his opponent for the eight count. Allah beat the count but
Hamm quickly got on him with heavy punches which forced a stoppage when Allah’s corner threw in the towel.
The event was an great showing by the Canadian fighter’s.