A near record snowfall in the greater Victoria area couldn’t keep the ticket holders away from the 2006 edition of the King of the Ring Tournament, an event that this year boasted their best talent in the tournament yet.

In the first fight of the King of the Ring Tournament, local favorite Todd Steen moved forward the whole 3 rounds but could not come away with the decision losing a close one to Mike Defresne of Vancouver. Early on it was clear that Defresne wanted no part of Steen’s inside power game and stayed to the outside connecting with well placed outside and inside low kicks. Near the end of the first Steen appeared to hurt Defresne as he powered his way to the inside but it was not meant to be for the reigning champion as he was dethroned by Defresne who smartly used his reach and to mark his range with outside kicks and punches and using his front kick to keep Steen at bay when his opponent got to close. Mike Defresne wins a split decision over Todd Steen after 3 rounds.

Highly touted John Laing out of Lethbridge Alberta came in as the heavy favorite over Paul Beaulieau who has proven to be a crafty veteran but looked to be the older, undersized underdog. I guess everyone but Beaulieau was wrong as the local favorite turned it up to score the first big shot of the fight with a beautifully timed spinning back punch near the end of the first that dropped Laing to the mat and forced him to pick himself off the canvas in an unexpected turn of events. Laing was able to refocus however and as Beaulieau came in to close out the bout late in the first he ran right into a well timed punch that felled him to close out an entertaining first stanza.

The second round was a close one but in the third Beaulieu went back to the Spinning back punch with good result landing a stiff shot that stunned Laing and then later firing a strong front kick to the chin that completely turned him around and it proved to be enough for the judges to score the unanimous 3 round decision over his favored opponent.

The final first round match-up took place against King of the Ring 2005 veteran Justin Jones who took on the tournament favorite Jesse Miles, who also happens to be the son of Mike Miles, one of the leading Muay Thai trainers in Canada. Miles would prove to be too much for Jones who was game and gave what he had, but was overmatched in the end the Calgarian who used the most effective body shots of the night. Miles went high and low with kicks and punches thundering to Jones’s body early and often. Miles also turned to kick catching to effective use, catching the leg and sweeping his opponent almost at will and sometimes catching the kick and punishing with a punch to the body. Jones did fire off a right kick that whizzed over the head of Miles and it appeared that it connected but in the end, Miles was diligent in his methodical deconstruction of his opponent and went on to win a well deserved unanimous decision over the game Jones.

Keri Crothers met up with fellow Gym mate Lindsay Ball in a boxing bout that apparently featured a heated back story between the two competitors who both trained at the same facility for many years. Crothers who has dabbled in MMA and competes in kickboxing and Muay Thai looked to keep the fight to the outside and use her reach advantage and edge in experience to take the fight to Ball who was the less seasoned of the two. That game plan flew in and out the window as Ball, a fiery slugger who charged out to the start the fight was more then happy to exchange haymakers in the pocket. Crothers did her best work from the outside but was baited into exchanging flurries by the shorter stockier Ball who surprisingly held her own despite being the underdog. Ball proved her worth in the fight landing solid shots and taking as many in the 4 round bout never giving an inch and throwing hard hands for the full duration of the fight. In the end, the bout was declared a draw. 

Aaron Varga who I have written about before as one of the bright lights of the Canadian kickboxing scene took his eighteen year old deceivingly rail thin build into the bout against relative unknown Ian Love. I must confess to knowing very little about Love especially so considering he was announced as having no previous fights, when I heard that it was his first fight, I had a sinking feeling Love would be feeling very little “Love” in the ring that night and I was right.

Varga continued to impress his will upon his opponents scoring at will in a contest that wasn’t really a contest at all. Varga literally beat up Ian Love for the duration of the fight finishing the contest with a knee punch combo that put the fighter down. It was complete domination as Varga scored with headkicks, punches to the head, knee’s to the body and basically had his way with his overmatched foe. In the final exchange, the ref gave Love a standing count but the doctor stepped into the ring while the count was being issued to look at the downed Love. Here it became a little confusing as the corner for Love complained loudly that Varga landed a Low blow, I didn’t see a low blow but in the end the fight was stopped, a welcome sight considering Love was clearly over his head. He displayed a unwavering heart and tried to exchange but took more then his fair share of punishment and should come back stronger the next time around. Love was impressive in his heart and resolve, but it was another impressive showing by Varga who came into the fight with an injured foot and still notched another impressive showing.

Shane “The Warrior” Wilson continued to roll with a strong performance that went a long way to showing the skills that Wilson obviously possesses. Wilson’s speed and power were on display and his opponent showed an amply serviceable chin and heart as the fight went to the decision in a one sided affair. Wilson dished out a 5 course serving of knuckle sandwiches that his opponent Sam Haynes regrettably dined on all night long.

Haynes came out and the difference in hand speed was apparent from the get go as Wilson landed first using head movement and power shots to keep Haynes off balance and searching for a way to counter. Once in round one, and once in round two, Wilson dished out a flurry of punches that rocked his opponent sending the ref in to issue the standing eight count without a knockdown.

It looked as if Wilson was on his way to another stoppage victory but Haynes proved to be worth his weight in heart as he launched punches back even when it looked as if he was hurt. He was not able to catch up to Wilson however, who continued to look for the power shots and landing them steadily. Wilson wobbled Haynes again in the fifth but Haynes would not go away staying in the pocket and fighting with everything he had battling to the bitter end, an end that came in the form of a unanimous decision victory for Wilson who slowed in the fourth and fifth rounds but showed natural ability that belied his level of experience. Shane “The Warrior” Wilson wins again but Haynes also went home a warrior and I hope to see him compete again.

The remainder of the tournament was decimated by injuries as the winner of his first round match Mike Defresne could not continue due to a foot injury, Todd Steen who lost to Defresne wanted to continue in his place but he had a concussion so he could not fight. John Laing who lost to Beaulieu hurt his hand so he could not fight either so Miles, the favorite going in looked across the ring to see the undersized Paul Beaulieau staring back at him from across the ring. Miles was clearly the stronger fighter as he muscled Beaulieu from the clinch punishing him with knees to the body and throwing him around ring with relative ease. He swept Beaulieau several times and as expected it didn’t last long as Miles eventually worked his opponent into the corner dropped him with a punch and a knee to the head as he was falling down to claim the 2006 edition of the King of the Ring at 2:29 of round one.

After the event was over Miles later admitted to MMARR that the kick from Jones in his first fight did indeed land and that “It fazed me a lot, my vision was foggy…and I was dazed.” He recovered well however and proved to handle his shots well, shrugging the shot off and going on to continue his dominance in the fight, and going on to take the 2006 King of the Ring Crown.

In other action due to adverse weather conditions I could not make it to the event on time to catch the first two fights and only caught part of the 3rd fight where undefeated MMA fighter Nik Hinchliffe defeated Harry Maurice via armbar in the first stanza to move to 3-0 with all fights ending in the first. The John Punt student told us “Fans want to see a brawl, so I try to make the fight exciting” he did that and appears to have a bright future.

In the end promoter Stan Peterec seemed satisfied with the event telling MMA Ring Report besides the weather, fighters came out to fight and did a good job.” He expects his next Victoria event to take place sometime in the summer.