Twice the expected crowd watch Muay Thai spectacular

Organisers have been floored by the response of the Whangarei public to the Rise of the Champions Muay Thai spectacular at Kensington Stadium.
Roundhouse Kickboxing Studio's Simon Lee Haenga said organisers had hoped for  about 400 people to turn up and watch the bouts on Saturday evening and were stunned when almost double that number arrived.
"We wondered how it would go, particularly because there are more kickboxing shows around these days, but we were very happy with the response and have put it down to the hard work done [to promote the show] by the network of people who are part of our gym," he said.
If the crowd was disappointed by the late change made to the feature fight they did not show it. The headline act, former K1 fighter Jay "Hardman" Hepi, was injured in training for his bout and organisers were forced to bump the fight between Jacob Heta (H-Clan Thai-boxing) and Ras Peters (Ngapuhi Muay Thai) into the feature slot.
The bout turned into a worthy replacement as the local fighter took the initiative early in the contest. Heta put down his opponent twice in the opening two rounds and had the fight in the bag until he ran out of luck in the third round, snapping his achilles tendon. He was forced to retire from the fight, rewarding Peters for his courage in continuing to compete despite being in trouble in the ring.
"It was just a matter of time until Jacob knocked out Ras, I believe, but it's not over until it's over and Ras found that out to his advantage," Haenga said.
In total there were 13 bouts on the card, including two mixed marshall arts bouts and one boxing bout.
There were two women's kickboxing bouts with Megan Velden (ETK North) beating another local "Panda" Anderson (H-Clan Thai-boxing) on points in the bout. In the second bout H-Clan's Hayley Cassidy beat Auckland's Lion Whitefield (City Kickboxing), also on points.
Cassidy knocked down Whitefield in the second round but the Auckland fighter hung in during the bout although she rarely looked like beating her Whangarei opponent.
"Hayley has the potential to be a champion in the future. She beat a good opponent on Saturday and is technically a very good fighter," Haenga said.
One of the most exciting bouts of the night was the match between two promising young fighters with only two fights apiece under their belts. Whangarei 15-year-old Morgan Rangi (H-Clan) beat fellow novice 15-year-old Jordan Herewini (ETK North) in a unanimous decision but the crowd were treated to great action right from the start.
"Both showed they were very strong fighters and showed off their range of skills. Both showed the kind of attitude in the ring that some of the older fighters can only try  to aspire to," Haenga said.
In the end, Rangi's superior kicking saw him take control of the bout.
 Haenga said the support from other kick-boxing gyms in the region had turned the event into a big success.