Due to the number of people signed up to fight, and due to time constraints, both of my fighters had their matches moved to the evening event.
My first fighter (the white guy on the left-hand side of the above pic) was fighting in his first match, and was paired up against a guy with an "official" 35 lb weight advantage and a 2-0 record. Because my fighter flew all the way from California to represent us in this event (he used to be my assistant coach, but was restationed to CA by the Army and now coaches out there) we decided to go ahead and take the match so his trip wouldn't be a total waste. He gave a good accounting of himself. His MuayThai technique was actually better than his opponents, but his opponent had better timing and knew how to use his weight to his advantage and therefore my guy lost the decision.
My 2nd fighter, Ron (black guy on right of photo) did everything right, but lost his match due to poor judging. Unfortunately, many who judge MuayThai matches simply do not understand the scoring. My fighter's MuayThai was better, he was scoring with cleaner techniques that had a more visible effect, but his opponent was busier with his hands and was throwing techniques with more "flash". My fighter was landing more kicks and knees, and he was usually the fighter finishing each exchange. His opponent was a good fighter, but Ron was "on" that night. I felt very bad for him that the judges did not have the knowledge or experience to make the correct call.
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