2015 US Muay Thai Open Results (Phoenix, AZ)
Absolutely my finest performance to date, I took silver in the 2015 US Muay Thai Open held in Phoenix, Arizona. In the second round of the tournament, I faced a tough fighter in Daniel Dubuque, after receiving a bye in the first round. The fight with Daniel is a total blur. I thought I won handily, but it actually came to a split-decision victory in my favor.
My opponent in the final would be from a neighboring Minnesota gym. The championship fights in this tournament were to go 4 rounds to simulate what championship fighters would face if selected to the IFMA US Muay Thai team. Well, after 4 rounds, the judges had us tied, so we went to a sudden-death winner-take-all round where my opponent edged out the victory.
This fight set the bar for me though. I felt that I'd finally put the pre-fight and in-fight jitters to rest and really just showed up to throw down. I felt that I'd given my all in this fight and that's about the best feeling you can have in this sport, a feeling that you represented yourself fully.