This was one of the last big kickboxing events I covered and one of my favourite articles to write – mainly because of the great backstage moments I was able to witness:

K-1 Battle of the Anzacs 2005

At first glance it seems a strange way to commemorate Anzac day. Matching 8 Kiwi kickboxers against 8 Aussies and watching them beat the snot out of each other, while entertaining, is not the 1st thing you would think of at this time of year.  NZ K-1 promoter Dixon McIver, has perhaps recognised that his ‘K-1 Battle of the Anzacs’ event is the natural progression of our trans-Tasman rivalry – it’s not ‘Bring back the Biff’, it’s ‘Get rid of the Footy’!  Seriously though, it’s not that much of a stretch – kickboxing is a sport that, even more than most, thrives on courage and bravery – true Anzac ideals if ever there were any.

The Australian team waits in the wings as Brett ‘the Butcher’ Zanchetta prepares to make his entrance in the night’s first bout. Zanchetta’s fight name is not just the usual ‘pick a fierce sounding word out of the dictionary’ variety – he’s a butcher by trade and his employer is one the event’s sponsors. He gives them some good exposure as he is led out by two fake blood splattered, Hannibal Lecter mask wearing, meat cleaver-wielding, muscle-bound behemoths complete with butcher’s aprons (apparently he goes even further in Oz, having the muscle men chase a guy in a cow suit into centre ring where they proceed to ‘butcher’ him).  K-1 Oceania champion Peter Graham leads the team in that charming “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” cheer we all love so much (insert sarcastic tone and/or eye-roll here).

Brett gives the Australians the first runs on the board after managing to survive a first round onslaught by the powerful, but less experienced, Tavita Tai. Zanchetta holds on and rakes up the points over the next two rounds to take the fight by decision.

McIver is keen to use tonight’s event to blood some new fighters and give them some international experience. At 6’5’’ and 113 kg, Hamiltonian Peter Sampson is a big unit with a huge future in the sport. He scores a spectacular KO over Australian Heavyweight champion Kevin Blanch, setting him up with a spinning back kick and front kick to the guts before finishing off with crushing left and right punches that send the Aussie astral travelling.

The Australian and New Zealand borders are blurred in true ANZAC fashion. Sampson lived and trained in Australia for several years and Aussie trainer, John Halford has come over to work his corner, “I’m a kiwi for the weekend”, he jokes. Super Middleweight, (80 kgs) Chris Johnson is a Kiwi boy from the Manawatu who now lives across the ditch. In Australia he’s known as the New Zealander who performs the haka after winning a fight but tonight he’s wearing an Aussie uniform. He highlights his awkwardness with the situation at the previous day’s press conference by wearing one of the league jerseys from the ANZAC team that played in the UK last year. With one-half black and white and the other green and gold it’s a fitting metaphor. Strange as the
situation may be, the decision to switch allegiances isn’t that hard, “At the end of the day, I just want to fight.”

He may not have been so keen if he had had an inkling of the punishment that Sampson’s ‘Ultimate Kickboxing’ gym mate, Joe White was going to be dishing up in centre ring. White uses his height advantage to maximum effect, throwing kick after kick and knee after knee to Johnson’s legs, ribs and head. Most fighters will only throw a couple of high kicks in an entire fight, White doubles and triples them up in combinations, following them up with crisp straight punches and punctuating them with flashy jumping knees. It’s a dazzling display from a fighter on the verge of big things.  Despite the battering, Chris is a warrior and refuses to back up. Time after time he rallies and retaliates with powerful counter punches. Ultimately though, White leaves the judges with no question as to who the victor is and he takes the evening’s score card to 2-1 to the Kiwis.

It’s a case of the young buck versus the old dog in the next bout between New Zealand’s Pola ‘the Tongan Tornado’ Mataele and Mitch ‘Mandingo’ Ohello. 27 year old Mataele is a 6 foot 7 inch, 115kg newcomer to the sport who is being personally groomed for the K-1 big time by Dixon McIver. Coming from a boxing background, the former Team Tua camp member has adapted well to the kicking and kneeing game and won his first 4 K-1 fights by knock out. For the past couple of months he has been working extensively with Russian uber trainer, Andrei Glydzin.

Despite the language barrier, communication doesn’t seem to pose much of a problem as Andrei helps him warm up on the hand pads, with a lot of mime and sign language – along with “yes, yes” and “no, no” – being used to great effect.

His opponent is a true legend of the sport whose fight career spans two decades and whose resume reads like a who’s who of kickboxing. His press kit bio says that he is 36 but it’s probably said that for at least the past 5 years. Mitch Ohello has the intense stare of an old gunfighter with a worn and weary demeanour that speaks of a hard life. He first found the sport at the age of 16 as a young Papua New Guinean fighting against the prejudice he experienced in his new home of Australia. “Australia’s a pretty racist country and it was even worse back then. I’d just be walking down the streets and guys would be calling me a ‘black c***’ and giving me hidings. I was the oldest brother and there was no-one to look out for me so I had to look
out for myself.”

He started training in Karate before moving on to Kickboxing, relishing the skills he developed and the opportunities the sport  gave him to prove them, “No one can call me a black c***now.”   I ask what keeps him going and how it feels to be facing young fighters who are almost half his age. “It doesn’t worry me. I just love to fight. It’s what I do. Besides which I know I’d punch a hole in their head if it was on the street. They might win in [the ring] but I’d f***** kill them on the street. My age – what’s age? It’s just a number! As long as I can still give it everything and match it with them in the ring, that’s all that matters. Look at George Foreman, everyone said he was too old and he won the world title.” Despite the tough words, Mitch is friendly and approachable and despite my patriotism, I can’t help but hope that he can prove that there is life in the old dog yet.

It’s not to be as his bigger, younger, faster opponent makes short work of him. Pola shows his increasing comfort with his new code by throwing a surprising number of kicks before moving in for the kill with his explosive hands. He lands a big right hand that puts the veteran down. Mitch lurches to his feet, nearly falling out of the ropes before regaining his equilibrium. He comes back hard, throwing the huge bombing punches that are his trademark, but Pola is too slick and too powerful. He puts Ohello down twice more before the referee steps in to stop the fight.

I find a lonely and disconsolate Mitch Ohello backstage. He sits staring at the floor while Paul Slowinski and his trainer Alan Wong warm up, providing a thunderous soundtrack as “the Sting” pounds huge kicks and punches into the leather pads. “No excuses, he was just the better man tonight,” Mitch says softly.  He pauses for what seems like a long time, “Maybe it’s just time for the old to step aside for the young.” He asks me how he looked out there – I tell him that he showed huge heart to keep on going after the first knockdown. “I’m just happy I didn’t stay down. ‘Modesty in victory and courage in defeat’ is always a good saying.” I leave him to his thoughts as the sound of Slowinski’s punches echo hollowly up the corridor.

If you have ever seen Jordan Tai fight, you will know why he is called “The Terror”. The 23-year-old Middleweight is a force of nature in the ring with a ferocious application to the fight that seems to say, “I’m gonna mess you up! Then I’m going to kick your dog, steal your girl and slap yo’ mamma!”  Outside of the ring, however, he is painfully shy, finding interviews and press conferences an ordeal, “I’m a lot better at fighting than talking!”

His matchup tonight is an important one as he tries to get his career back on track. After twice winning the K-1 Max New Zealand (K-1 Max is the Middleweight division of K-1) and defeating New Zealand’s most internationally renowned Middleweight, Shane Chapman in 2003, Jordan had a lacklustre showing in last year’s K-1 Max Oceania.

He has also been working with Andrei over the past two months and his style is still in transition. His opponent Ben ‘Pixie’ Burton, although only 25, is a veteran of 65 fights who has faced some of the biggest names in the business.

It’s a tough contest with ‘Pixie’ out muscling Jordan in the grapple and scoring with his knees (K-1 Max rules allow fighters to clinch while standing in order to set up knee strikes) while Tai looked to work his powerful hands. It looks like it is going to go the Aussie’s way until Jordan lands a big right in the 3rd round that staggers Burton and results in a standing 8 count.  Tai finishes the round strongly and looks dominant but runs out of time to put Pixie away. Pixie has a deep cut over his eye that his corner claims came from a head clash. If this is the case, a point will be deducted from the perpetrator and one point can mean all the difference in the world in a fight like this one. The announcement of the decision is delayed while Dixon, acting as the adjudicator reviews the video footage. McIver rules the clash accidental and the judges award  Jordan the decision – to the surprise of many who are expecting a draw and an extension round (if there is no winner after 3 rounds the judges may extend the fight by up to 2 extra rounds until there is a clear winner).

There’s confusion and disappointment in Pixie’s dressing room. “I thought that I had it or that it was maybe going another round, but when they gave it to him….” Burton shakes his head. One of his entourage chips in, “Pixie! It didn’t even look like he was hurting ya!”   “No, he can hit. He hit f****n’ harder than…” Burton pauses as if to mentally review his 65 fights, “…anyone.”   “I thought I heard someone say at the rule meeting yesterday that even if the head clash was accidental there would be a
point deduction”

The team continue to debate the justice of the decision but at the end are philosophical, “It’s in New Zealand with their judges”. Pixie is keen for a rematch and is says he is going to call Jordan out publicly if he gets access to a mic. Brent Todd walks past the open dressing room door prompting a shift in conversation.

“Hey that’s Brent Todd!”

“Who?”

“Brent Todd – he used to play footy about 50 years ago!”

“League?”

“Yeah”

“That’s why Pixie doesn’t know who he is – he’s a Union supporter”

As the conversation continues it turns out that not only is Pixie a Union supporter, but he’s also a kiwi! He was born in Christchurch, moving to Australia when he was 11, and is still a rabid Canterbury fan. More boundary blurring at the Battle of the Anzacs.

It turns out that Mark Pease, Burton’s trainer, despite being a Queenslander, doesn’t follow the league either. “I’m into real football!”  “What AFL.” “No Soccer”. Brett Zanchetta gives him some stick about his choice of sport and the banter goes back and forth. “Watch out, I’ve still got a couple of leg kicks in me” says Brett.  Pease fires back, “Mate, I saw you out there… I’m not worried!”

The boys wander off, leaving Pixie with the Doctor who has come to stitch the cut in his eye. “I’ll have to shave around the eyebrow.” Pixie shrugs, “No worries, it will grow back.” He sits back and lets the doctor go to work. It’s not the first time he’s been stitched and won’t be the last, “It’s just part of the game.”

Jordan Tai doesn’t look like a man who has just won a fight, he sits looking into space as Andrei mimes his post-fight analysis, “I just felt really tired in the ring – I was feeling really flat.”  In the background we can hear the crowd roaring in appreciation for the brawl of a match up between Ron Sefo and Paul Slowinski. Sefo lands some huge punches and rocks the Polish Australian on several occasions but Paul keeps his technique sweet and his work rate high, taking the fight by decision.

The upset of the night comes as New Zealand favourite; Jason “Psycho” Suttie loses to Chris ‘Godzilla’ Chrisopoulides. Suttie The Aussie surprises everyone by taking Suttie to a draw after 3 rounds. Although he’s a world class fighter, few had rated his chances against ‘the Psycho’.

The fight goes to an extension round. Jason gives everything he has left in the tank and appears to have the best of it. The judges think so too and have him ahead on their scorecards but Dixon, again in his role as the adjudicator over-rules the decision and calls for another extension.

Suttie shakes his head in disbelief, he was sure he had it. He is completely out on his feet and can offer no resistance as ‘Godzilla’ lands two big punches and a leg kick that sweeps him to the canvas. He’s totally exhausted and just sits there while the ref counts. Suttie prides himself on being a warrior and has a strict “no-towel-thrown-in” policy, “I’d rather die in the ring than throw the towel in.” He begins to struggle to his feet but his father, watching from ringside, can take no more. He walks over to Jason’s corner, grabs the towel and throws it in.

Backstage, Chrisopoulides is ecstatic. His excitement bursts forth in an almost incoherent rambling mess, “I can’t believe I won! I’m shocked! I’m even more shocked at this than when I drew with [K-1 Grand Prix finalist] Musashi! I’m shocked! There must have been something wrong with him! Was there something wrong with him? I can’t believe I won!” His corner assure him that, yes, he did win, that he’s a world class fighter and deserved to win – but in the corridor, I hear them ask the same question, What was wrong with Suttie?

I know but I don’t tell them. After the press conference the day before I hear Jason tell a friend that he was having surgery on his elbow straight after the fight. He has a callous inside his elbow that prevents him from holding his right hand up to his head, effectively leaving him unable to guard his right side. This leaves him wide open to the left hooks that Chris throws consistently throughout the fight.

After the fireworks and controversy of the previous bouts, the Main event is something of an anti-climax. Alexi Ignashov, an international superstar in the K-1 circuit, fights his first bout as a new New Zealand resident against Peter Graham.

The fight is a fizzer as Ignashov aggravates an old knee injury during the 1st round, taking away his trademark knee strikes and high kicks. Graham is cautious – wanting to prove he can go the distance with one of the K-1’s finest. Not much is happening and it’s difficult for the judges to make a decision. After 3 normal and two extension rounds, the Aussie is finally given the points victory.

The lights go down and the show is over. The final score is 4-4, a result that seems fitting for the occasion (New Zealand and Australia as equals and all
that). The fighters from both teams mix and joke as they get into the bus that will take them to the after-match. There is a shared camaraderie and kinship that is shared between fighters that transcends club and national loyalties. They’ve tested their courage and bled in the ring and now they go to renew old friendships and establish new ones in the true spirit of the ANZACS.

 

Suttie Speaks Out!

Here’s an interview I did with Jason Suttie shortly after the tournament
By Matthew Henderson (May 10, 2005)

It almost seems like a case of ‘another New Zealand K-1 event, another Jason Suttie controversy.’ This time this time it centres around his upset loss to Australia’s Chris ‘Godzilla’ Chrisopoulides at the K-1 Battle of the Anzacs. The judges scored the fight a draw after 3 rounds and called for an extension round. After the 4th 2 of them had Suttie ahead on their cards. Promoter Dixon McIver overruled the decision and called for one more extension – in which an utterly exhausted Suttie was TKOd by the Aussie, the towel being thrown in by his father against Jason’s own strict ‘no-towel’ policy. Matthew Henderson caught up with Jason to get his perspective and feelings about the night’s events.

MH: Did Chrisopoulides surprise you with how hard he came out?

Jason: No, not at all. I expected him to come out hard – I was just surprised that he didn’t use his legs so much.

MH: So starting with the 1st round, how were things going for you – were things going to plan?

Jason: Yeah, the first round was comfortable for me. During the fight I thought I won the first round but watching the video it was quite close. Neither threw that many kicks but I landed a few good punches on him.

MH: In the 3rd round he dropped his hands and called you on. Is that the 1st time that someone has done that to you?

Jason: Yeah, it might be. It didn’t worry me because he even did it when he was rocked, which is good cover up, but I just knew that I’d just hit him so that’s why he was telling me to come on, but good on him.

MH: before the event you had mentioned your elbow injury and that you were booked in to have surgery on the day after the fight – how much impact do you think that that had on your performance?

Jason: Not much, it would have taken away 10% of me possibly. I had another injury as well but you never go into a fight 100% anyway, I haven’t been 100% for ages. The elbow’s been a problem for a long time and I’ve needed this operation for at least the last year. Now I can tell people because I’ve had the operation but I never defended my right side – my elbow wouldn’t let me, I couldn’t touch my ears. But I can now I’ve had my surgery. I had a callous on the inside of my elbow so every time it gets hit I can’t use my arm for a few seconds and all my ligaments and tendons get torn.

MH: How did you see the 2nd and 3rd rounds in terms of the scoring?

Jason: The 2nd was his big round, and I remember that I came back in the 3rd, because I had to come back. During the fight, I remember giving myself the 1st and the 3rd but not the 2nd.

MH: So when you went back to your corner at the end of the third, was it in your head that it would go to an extension?

Jason: I thought that I’d win – I thought I’d win the fight, but I always suspected that it might go an extra round for some reason – maybe business or something, you know it’s good for the show to make it go for one more extra round. So I gave it everything in the fourth round, but I never expected it to happen to me twice – that the judges or the adjudicator or bad luck or whatever would happen to me twice in one night, but it did!

MH: But you must have been feeling quite confident at the end of the fourth.

Jason: The 4th round was the only time that I really had him going backwards the whole time. To have a small guy having a big guy going backwards really says something and he nearly spewed up in the ring! You could see in his face and in my face that we both thought that I had won the fight.

MH: Obviously you hadn’t left anything in the tank for the 5th round.

Jason: No, not at all. My fault, my wrong – his right. I can’t take anything away from him – 5 round fight, he won it. He won the 5 round fight fair and square. The only thing is that I don’t think in all fairness that it was supposed to go for 5 rounds. My mistake – I only trained for 4 rounds, because I did believe that I would beat him in 3 but I trained for 4 just in case of some back luck. So I trained for 4, he trained for 5 and he won the 5, absolutely.

With the towel being thrown in – honestly, I couldn’t have got up. I couldn’t even remember him leg sweeping me, I thought he just got through my guard with punches. It didn’t make me dizzy but I just had nothing left. But that’s how I wanted to lose – lose in the ring, not from the towel. Unfortunately my Dad came over and threw the towel in. I can’t blame him or be mad at him – I’ll just have to keep him a little bit further from the corner next time! It’s still my rule, “no towel”. I’d rather die in the ring than have the towel thrown in.

MH: Dixon McIver has come out and publicly stated that he changed the decision in the 4th round – how do you feel about that?

Jason: That’s cool if it was Dixon’s point of view, but that’s why you have 3 judges and you take the majority decision from the 3 judges. There should never be any adjudicator in any tournament – you’ve just got to pick 3 judges and trust them, and those 3 at the Anzac are good judges, I hope they do it again because they’re 3 of New Zealand’s best. I know that they’re hard on me but they’re hard and they’re fair and you want those kind of judges all the time. Dixon said that he’s not going to be the adjudicator again. I said that he’s a good promoter, so he should just be a good promoter and leave the judging to the judges

MH: How did it affect you mentally in terms of being able to get yourself back up for the 5th round after already thinking you had won the fight?

Jason: It definitely affected me. They took that fight from me – physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally – every way you could take the fight they took it from me. Maybe I could have got back up for the 5th round but my head just wasn’t there because I was thinking about what they had done.

MH: It seems that this kind of controversy has dogged you just about every time you’ve stepped into the ring on a K-1 promotion in the past couple of years – does this sort of thing make it harder for you to get yourself up for the next one?

Jason: No, it just makes me stronger. There’s always going to be some kind of Bullsh** like this, political sh** or whatever you call it but if I’m the best fighter and I have the hardest road, it’s just going to make me even better at the end. What I’ve learned from this is that I should have trained for 5 rounds. I’ve got to plan like everyone’s against me: the guy in the ring, the judges, the press, the promoter, everyone – they’re not, but I should plan it that way so that when I fight, I fight full on, full spirit. If they say that there’s a possibility of it going for 9 rounds – I should train for 9 rounds, I should train for 10 rounds. If they say that there’s a possibility of it going for 5 rounds, from now on I train for 6 rounds. There were little things that I learned. I knew that Chris was going to come out strong and I take my hat off to him, well done. Thank you for the test, Chris and you know now we have to do it again, and hopefully we’ve only got to do it 1 time, not 5 times. The referees and the judges have got nothing to do with Chris, he fought well and I thought, “Man, once again I have brought out the best of another fighter!”

MH: They all lift themselves against you – that’s a compliment!
Jason: Yeah.

MH: Knowing where you are in relation to Peter Graham, how did it feel to see him beat Ignashov?

Jason: Good on Peter. It’s just good for us in the South Pacific, he’s lifted us all up a little bit, but it was him there not me so I’ve still got to get there myself.

MH: Dixon has been talking about bringing an international opponent for you in July. Two of the names he has thrown around are Mighty Mo and Jerome Le Banner – how do feel about the prospect of fighting one of those guys?

Jason: I think I’d prefer to fight Jerome LeBanner actually, because he’s got the bigger name, but I’d be happy with any of them.

MH: Is there anything you will differerntly to prepare for a fight like that?

Jason: No, I’ll train exactly the same minus a few things that I did do wrong this time. I was a little bit busy in the days leading up to the fight – this time I will completely clear myself for any fight in the future. My training is good, my power is good – I don’t know why I ran out of gas against Chris. I had taken natural supplements before the fight and my other fights I took nothing before the fight and I believe that from now on I will take nothing before the fight. The supplements I used never raised my heart rate but I won’t take anything at all, I’ll just rely strictly on myself.

MH: So in the short term, you’ll just be recuperating from your surgery?

Jason: Just recuperating and I’m just going to think hard about how to get to my maximum, maximum fitness. I also want to put a little bit more weight on. I want to keep the same fat percentage but put on a couple more kilos. Ultimately I would like to try to come in at around 103 but in the short term somewhere around 100 – 102. The same fat percentage, but just more muscle.

MH: You came into this fight a bit lighter than some of your more recent fights – did you feel a loss of power?

Jason: No, I didn’t feel so good in the fight, but that’s just because I was feeling funny before the fight. I was feeling tired and sleepy but nothing to do with my weight – the night just wasn’t starting out so good for me. But no excuses – my build up was excellent, my power in training was excellent, it just didn’t happen on the night – and maybe because Chris didn’t make it happen on the night, he made it difficult for me. I don’t want to take anything from him at all.