Teen Masterton fighter heads to worlds

SMART MOVER: Masterton Muay Thai club kickboxer Khan Warwood, 15, is one of the youngest fighters in the Kiwi Black Gloves squad travelling to the IFMA World Muay Thai Championships, which launch in Bangkok on August 14. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Teen Masterton kickboxer Kahn Warwood will carry the legacy of late club founder Cody Tomuri to the 2015 IMFA World Championships in Thailand next month.

Warwood, 15, earlier this year won selection to the 40-fighter New Zealand Black Gloves squad of fighters travelling to the championships in Bangkok. He will be accompanied by fellow Masterton Muay Thai club member Callum Perry.

The pair were originally to have travelled on their almost three-week stay in Thailand, which will include a week at the Sasi Prapa fight camp, with club founder and former head trainer Cody Tomuri, who died on March 31 from an autoimmune disorder.

Tomuri had a 30-fight muay thai career that included twice competing at the annual world championships himself.

Makoura College student Warwood will be fighting full muay thai rules for the first time and will join battle in the 48kg weight division at the champs. The teen will turn 16 just before he leaves for the champs on August 5 and will be one of the youngest fighters in the Kiwi camp.

"He's on seven fights now - four wins and three losses - and he is fighting in the 48kg division. We're having to bulk him up a bit but that's going well," Perry said.

"He has had some unanimous decision wins and his losses have been against far more experienced boys, and far heavier. It makes a real difference in the clinch but he's a highly technical fighter, very intelligent.

"He doesn't just go in there and bash and smash, he stays calm and composed and technical."

Warwood is keen to fight under full muay thai rules and believes his fitness will work for him alongside his ability, given his smaller stature and height, to stay inside and close to his opponents.

Warwood also helps coach the younger fighters at the Queen St club, alongside his mother Sarah, who started training as a kickboxer at age 13, and said his enthusiasm for the sport had been mounting each time he stepped into the ring.

"I got into it and started liking it more and more. I seem to have a real passion for it, and I think keeping close and on the inside is where I'm strongest. My fitness is good too but it could always get better."

Warwood had trained at the SMAC Gym in Auckland and in Dannevirke with the Kiwi squad as part of his world champs build-up and had been fighting across New Zealand for his competitive bouts, usually in Palmerston North or Wellington.

He returned with a trophy from his latest fight in Nelson after a unanimous decision win over a heavier opponent, in a bout he accepted with only a day to prepare.

"I go more for points but if you can see a knock-out, you go for it," he said.

"In Thailand we'll have to see what I'm up against once we get there.

"I stand about 150cm tall and they could be way taller over there. I'll really need to stay on the inside."

Warwood has a Wellington-based sponsor but was on the hunt for more to help his career, his mother said.

His experience in Thailand would be invaluable both for himself and for the younger fighters he was helping to coach here at home.

Professional muay thai fighter and boxer Zane Hopman, of Fortitude Thai Boxing Gym in Masterton, is also travelling with the Black Gloves squad to Thailand.

Hopman will fight in the heavyweight division, after seizing a gold medal in the amateur division at the WMC IMFA World Championships in Malaysia in May last year, and at home the 2014 Wairarapa Times-Age Supreme Sports Award and Senior Sports Personality of the Year titles.

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