24 December, 2008

Sri Lanka, the night before the tournament

Ben Vignola

I caught up with O and G in the hotel restaurant and we chatted with the local guys over supper. The mood was so tense - everyone was really nervous about the upcoming fight and it was showing. I wasn't really that bothered about the tournament really - it's not that I was supremely confident, more that I really don't care if I win or lose. So I think, up until that night, I managed to be fairly cheerful about the whole thing....

An hour or so of talking to the guys changed that completely. The locals went on and on about how strong their training was, how strong their fighters are, how they eat fire and shit bullets, train for years and bash each other over their heads with rocks for fun, they were properly winding us up. After about an hour of this, O and I had had enough and I suggested that we both go for a light run to calm the nerves.

It worked, we ran in the pitch black, bullshitted about nothing in particular, cracked jokes and chased off the local mangy mutts our for a scrap. Eventually we got back to the hotel in good spirits, not thinking about the fight at all. Then we saw G and we all started talking again... big mistake, within an hour we had wound ourselves up to fever pitch again, so, with piano wire nerves, we called it a night and turned in.

On the morning of the fight we were all pretty strung out, no doubt a night full off bad dreams for the guys. Personally, I slept like a baby but I still woke up worried.. bloody waste of time. Anyway, we all had breakfast, packed our kit for the fight and finally made our way to the competition. A couple of us went in the last van and we were taken on a circuitous rout via Kumara's home village, we met a man with the most impressive man breasts that I've ever seen and had a cordial glass of warm cream soda while we all politely inquired about the village, all the while declining from hurrying up our driver. 

When we finally got to the tournament, I discovered that the heavyweights were fighting last, as usual. So, I had plenty of time to wander around the back of the hall and meet all the fighters. I found all the heavyweights and introduced myself, cheerfully shaking hands and slapping backs in an effort to be both respectful and cunning. The cunning idea being that if the man you are about to fight sees you blithely unconcerned, even blasé, at the prospect of the upcoming fight then, if he is at all unsure, he will begin to worry. I fed that worry with a fat grin on my face, hiding absolutely the pounding of my heart with effusive good cheer.

It worked all too well on my first opponent, a tubby green belt from an obscure martial art, so much so that when we eventually got into the ring, he basically ran away from me, hopping nimbly from one foot to the other and occasionally shouting a kiai at me (perhaps in an effort to scare me from the mat, or, more likely, to scare the demons out of his own mind). The crowd were laughing and, as I didn't want to actually run after him (decorum at all times, of course), there was very little contact before the ref asked him if he wanted to continue, he demurred and the fight went my way.

Round two was much more satisfying. I was fighting a blackbelt from a Kyokushin style branch of karate. Though shorter, he was heavier than I with a thick set body and a decent sized fist. Far less intimidated that the previous fighter, he came straight at me and we closed, he obviously thought he had a decent punch and put his bulk behind it. Up until this fight I had concerns about how much of a hit I could take - in my last bout I had been TKO'ed by Oyabu-Shihan with a strike to the body, so, I wasn't sure if I could take it at all. After feeling the strength of this guy hit me I tangled him up and tried to pull him onto my hiza. He pretty much had nothing except the punch and so I concentrated on trying to hiza him in the ribs or the face. I landed a couple on his ribs - by the look on his face I knew they had hurt him, more, I knew that he didn't like it at all and I began to move him back.

Now, realising that his punch wasn't going to put me out I began to trade punches with him, alternating punching with hizas and finally, when he began to tire, I started kicking his legs. He was too tired to block and I got some decent strikes to his thighs - they definitely hurt him and he had no answer. We closed again, more hizas and then the round ended. The judges decided it was a draw and we got to fight another round - I don't know how it was a draw but there you go.

Right at the start of the second round, I came at him and caught him a decent hiza on the head and a second on the jaw. He fell back as the ref broke us up and the ref awarded a wazari to me. We toed the line and, as I went for him again, he held his hands up in submission. I had won.

That was the semi final - there are so few heavyweights that one needs only to win three fights to win the competition. so, I had won two and had only the final to go.

My final opponent was the standing Sri Lankan Champion. He was a fairly stocky blackbelt, again about my weight or a little more but a bit shorter, also with a decent amount of experience. I believe he was the favorite to win and had a pretty easy route to the final - he had one no show and his second opponent gave up in less than ten seconds, so, he should have been pretty fresh. When the first round began, I went straight at him and he started moving sabaki, throwing the odd decent maiwashi-gedan and some very strong punches. I blocked a few of the kicks and took the body strikes, always trying to close the distance. In doing so, I landed a few decent maiwashi-gedan of my own, also, some heavy punches to the body. We were pretty even at a distance.

When we closed, I kept Makoto's advice at the forefront of my mind - hold him at arms length and hiza the body or maiwashi the thigh. He was shorter than I and heavier, like the man before and he had a very decent punch so I didn't want to stand there and trade body hits. Still, we did a fair amount of that and my hiza techniques were partially countered by his ability to block them - I definitely didn't have anywhere near as much success in landing them as in the previous round.

The bout became a war of attrition; we closed, traded body strikes, leg strikes and hiza's, were separated, then repeated the moves; I called it a rough waltz in an email to a friend and it felt like one, just much much more tiring. I was so tired, really, the heat, the worry, the strain and the previous fights all combined to drag me down, it was all I could do to keep moving forward. At the end of the wearing first round, my Shihan, Burnel-Shihan, came up to me and said in my ear -'he's moving backwards, he's demoralised, keep him moving back and you'll beat him'.

It was heartening to hear because I felt so tired that I thought there was no way I could be winning. The second round began and I went straight for him again - this time he went for me and put forth a huge effort to punch me off the mat. it bloody hurt and took a lot to walk through it and come back at him. I got him in a clinch and the moments respite as Kancho separated us was a welcome relief, just enough time for me to collect myself sufficiently to attack him again. At this point, I made my second mistake - I hit him on the chin for the second time. It was an honest mistake; my hand slipped on his chest and glanced into his face but he was pretty pissed and I received my second chui of the match. I thought two was a disqualification but I was lucky - the Sri Lankan rules call for three chuis, not two, so, the fight went on.

We closed again and, as my hizas had been effectively blocked, I concentrated on maiwashigeri-gedans to the leg - and I met with some success; after a couple I could see that they were hurting him and he was running out of energy to block them. We separated and as we closed again, I tried a tobi hizageri, it didn't land though but it was fun to try, it gave him a shock too and put him on the back foot again.

We closed again and this time I dropped him with a sweep - it evened the score as he had put me down during the last round - then the round ended. Once again, the judges made it even and we toed the line for the final round. Again I concentrated on tying up his hands and striking his legs, scoring again and again on his right leg and meeting little opposition. He was tired now, really tired, I was too but he had given up any attempt at coming forward so I knew that, as long as I kept going for him as fast as I could, I would look like the stronger of us... so it went until the end of the round. The judges scored it in my favour and I found myself the proud holder of the Sri Lankan Heavyweight title for 2008, also, the owner of a Shidokan GB teeshirt free of charge(Burnel-Shihan had told me before the fight that I could have mine for free if I won the competition). 

It was an odd feeling to be on the podium to collect the winners trophy, I wasn't elated, I didn't really feel much at all, satisfied perhaps... I was probably too tired to feel anything - I kept a straight face anyway and ended up looking half dead, pale and sweaty for the pictures.

The rest of the GB team did heroically well - O had two huge fights with two really very good middleweights. The first fight was brilliant - I watched him start, he was fairly composed but, after being punched full on the nose and massively in the body, he got angry and went for it - I think he was trying to put his knee through the mans back at one point, uncaring at how many body shots he took. It was brutal, brilliantly brutal to watch, well done O. It went to a first hikewake, after which, his opponent was disqualified for more foul blows. It was a pretty even fight but I would have given it to O anyway, fouls or otherwise. It was a good win and well earned.

The second was equally tough, on top of that, the fighter was obviously a local favorite because the crowd made a huge noise that you couldn't hear anything but their screaming. O lost the second thanks to the fighter twice hitting him after the ref called yame and two wazari being scored against him. Bad luck the ref didn't catch it, to tell the truth though, he took such a huge hiza to the groin it would have been dangerous for him to continue anyway. All credit to him though, his look of disbelief and unwillingness to leave the mat was proof enough that he wanted to.

D's first fight was against a tough blackbelt and, in D's favour, it was pretty even. D was swept a few times but they both looked strong. Unfortunately, D was disqualified for hitting his opponent in the face. I think they were honest mistakes but you can never tell, D has a bit of the bad boy streak in him. Bad luck mate, hope you have a better one next time.

R was funny - his first fight was over in about ten seconds; he punched his opponent in the head, got a chui scored against him and won the bout over it. His opponent didn't want to carry on and, as he had only fouled once, they gave it to R. His second fight was much harder, it was against G. He lost that one after a tough round and went on to fight for third place. In this fight, he too was disqualified for hitting his opponent in the face and had to settle for fourth place... It seemed that the GB squad was intent on gaining a reputation.

G was brilliant, his shaved head and intense glare must have scared the life out of the Sinhalese - he was like a bull, charging his opponents and trying to batter them out of the ring. His first fight lasted about ten seconds, his second not much more - two ippons already. Then he had to fight R, the pair of them put on such a good show, it was great to watch; they had trained together for the best part of a year, were good mates, yet they still tried to knock each others blocks off, the two of them really made everyone from the GB squad very proud, G had to really earn that win. Then, in the final, G fought the green belt that had beaten O. The green belt had shown spirit in the previous rounds and we were expecting a longer fight. However, it was over suprisingly soon - G's opponent gave up in the first round after an injury to the arm. G had won and was the 2008 Sri Lankan Middelweight Champion.

For everyone except myself, it was their first tournament. As such, everyone did really well in the Sri Lankan's backyard, we all showed huge spirit and were a credit to the GB Branch. To have gone there and made sure our reputation stood up at the end was all that counted - to have won or lost was immaterial; we all fought to the end of every round and no-one gave an inch, which, in the end, is all one can do. 

Until next time.