WCK Muay Thai delivers on “Ultimate Conquests” boast

In the Main Event, it was the 23 year-old WBC Super Featherweight National Title holder **Brandol Mendoza** (left) of Los Angeles, Calif. retaining his title after stopping local favorite, 31-year-old **Marvin Madariaga** from The Boxing Club located in San Diego’s East Village.

Once again, props to the 18 male and 4 female Muay Thai fighters who entertained the capacity crowd on Saturday evening, February 8, 2020 at the Four Points By Sheraton Hotel in San Diego. Using their mastery of kicks, punches, elbows, etc., these fighters had the crowd on the edge of their seats for this latest installment from promoter extraordinaire Dennis Warner of WCK Full Rules Muay Thai. The fearless athletes went toe to toe while exposing their bodies to the batter and bash tactics of the sport. Getting to watch their trigger like response when countering is also a treat to watch. Of course stopping an opponent dead in their tracks is even more riveting. Once again, props have to go out to our local fighters. Of the seven featured guests who were visiting from afar, Utah, Arizona, Washington State and Calgary, Canada, only three came out victorious.

For your perusal we’ve added this photo of the evening’s Fight Card with all the notations made by the Head of Officials, Sarinda Chaney.

In Bout #1 it was 24-year-old, 5’8″ tall “Action” Jackson Scott (1-0) (left) coached by Steven Fry of Victory MMA, Point Loma, San Diego, Calif. taking on the 21-year-old, 6’3″ tall Haneef Agaba (1-0-1) coached by the highly respected Kru Airr Phanthip of Las Vegas, Nevada.

By round 3, the power of **Scott’s** blows had taken their toll on the more slender **Haneef Agaba** and as a result Scott earned himself a 29-28 unanimous decision victory.

After his win “Action” Jackson Scott (center) was joined by teammate Alyshia Madison (r) and his proud coach Steven Frye.

Here we have one of the best action photos from the night. In Bout #2 it was the 23-year-old, 5’10” tall Shamik Hayes (4-1) from Phoenix, Arizona landing this powerful kick on the 28-year-old, 5’7″ tall Dante “El” Patron (2-0) from the 10th Planet Jui Jitsu Gym in Spring Valley. Photo credit: Richard De La Cruz of 35 RAW

At this point in their bout, **Dante El Patron** (center) was throwing caution to the win and made this all out advance on Hayes to take the final round. Photo: Jim Wyatt

After the scores were tabulated, the judges had Shamik Hayes (l) winning a sweeker (29-28).

After his win, **Shamik Hayes** was joined by mates from the Sitan Gym of Chandler, Arizona, which included his proud coach **Thiago Azeredo** (left).

Bout #3 turned out to be quite a surprise. After being the busier fighter in round one, and then landing this dynamite left hook in Round 2, the 20-year-old Diego Lopez Pimentel of Swama Martial Arts in Imperial Beach had firmly established a solid lead over the usually more dominate C. Patrick “Tex” Harrington. Even after Harrington became more competitive, it was certainly not his night and all three judges had Pimentel winning himself a 30-27 shutout victory.

With the loss, the 6’1″ tall, C. Patrick “Tex” Harrington from City Boxing (located in San Diego’s Downtown) now drops to 2-2.

With his win, the 20-year-old, 6 foot tall **Diego Lopez Pimentel** improved to 2-4.

Before leaving the ring, **Diego Lopez Pimentel** posed for one additional photo with his supporting cast of Team Beltran which included his coach **Mario Cortez** (left) and coach Victor Beltran Jr (right)..

Bout #4 was one of the strangest matches on record as the combatants 22-year-old, 5’4″ tall Adrian Diaz (1-1) of Valor Muay Thai and the 20-year-old 5’4″ tall debutant Joel Lozano of Team Parusa, which trains at the UFC Gym in Mission Valley, had to deal with one oddball occurrence after another. At first it was Diaz’s loose head gear which kept slipping down over his eyes. The same headgear interrupted the match multiple times. Finally, one of his corner people decided it would be best to wrap the head gear in gauze from Diaz’s chin to the top of his head. This indiscriminate wrapping of the head gear gave the impression Diaz may have just gotten out of surgery, and who would be that callous to land blows on the head of someone recovering from brain surgery.

Then, in the latter stages of the match, Diaz kicked Lozano squarely in his private parts. As a result, the match was stopped. A more seasoned fighter would have taken the necessary time to recover, walking about the ring or perhaps taken the fully allotted time to recover which is five minutes. The amenable Lozano, must have felt embarrassed by this development and took less than 20 seconds. Taking such a miniscule time to recover, the pain hadn’t subsided and a short time later you could see he was regretting that decision. Meanwhile, there was the perpetrator with the oddball head gear, gritting his teeth, and anxious to renew his attack on the now helpless rival.

As a result of Lozano’s focus on his groin area, the more refreshed Diaz became the more confidant and powerful opponent.

After the announcement of his 29-27 unanimous decision victory from all three judges, Diaz’s coaches from Valor Muay Thai joined him in the ring for the celebratory photo.

One of the best action shots from Bout #5 was taken by Richard De La Cruz of 35 RAW focusing on Robert Cota (2-0) landing this straight left jab to the face of the surprised Daemien Obeso (2-2) who after being clobbered was stopped dead in his tracks.

The bout between **Robert** **Cota** (left) of the Steven Frye Muay Thai Team and **Daemien** **Obeso** from the Christopher Mooring Power Box Team of Whittier, Calif. was over in a flash. After that opening bell, Cota wasted no time and went on the attack imediately.

This extremely hard, straight jab hit Daemien Obeso like a battering ram.

The 22-year-old **Obeso** never even had a chance to warm-up before **Robert Cota**, the hometown favorite was in his face throwing these serious punches in bunches. With Cota’s incredible energy level the bout came to an end at the 1:59 mark of Round 1.

After that first knockdown, it’s likely the referee had just one question for **Daemien Obeso**, “Are you ready for more of this?” The end came at the 1:59 mark of round #1.

**Referee Jerry Millar** stands between **Robert Cota** (l) and **Daemien Obese** (r) awaiting the announcement from the show’s Master of Ceremonies **Chris Gregory**.

Teammate **Alyshia Madison** and **Coach Steven Frye** join the exuberant **Robert Cota** after his emphatic victory. From the look of delight on their faces, you had the feeling they were about to join in a rendition of that Pharrell Williams hit single: “Happy!”

In **Bout #6**, it was the 5’3″ tall, 21-year-old **Angel Montano** of Spring Valley, Calif. (right) taking on the 5’5″ tall, 20-year-old **Brytni Parson-Hurst** from Wicked Ways Muay Thai of Salt Lake City, Utah in a three round IAMTF Women’s Lightweight contest.

If Montano (r) wasn’t kicking her opponent, she was busy doling out the in-your-face abuse.

Soon, it was **Brytni Parson-Hurst’s** turn and she responded with this in your face elbow.

From the look of confidence on Angel Montano’s face, you had to believe she was thinking: “Oh yeah, I’ve got this thing sewn up!”

Seconds later came the winning scores to confirm her victory. “Was there ever any doubt?”

After receiving her unanimous decision victory, **Montano** was joined by two of her biggest supporters, fellow fighter **Daniel** **“Panda” Cesena** and coach **Kris Bruno** from the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu gym. At that point it was time to showcase those million dollar smiles.

Next up, it was the 5’7″ tall, 29-year-old **Jason Durrant** (left) of San Diego by way of Sydney, Australia, (2-3-1) who trains with Steven Frye at Victory MMA in Point Loma, taking on **Hussein Eldasek**, (right) a gentleman who is originally from Cairo, Egypt and now trains at The Boxing Club in La Jolla with coach Caine Gayle. Not only did Durrant’s opponent out-weigh him by 8 pounds, he was younger by 4 years and four months, had a ton more experience, and being 7 inches taller, he had a sizable reach advantage.

Durrant’s crunching of the numbers is a lot different than most: ‘With Eldasek having all of these advantages, imagine what a great victory this will be.’ With Durrant’s former opponent backing out, the popular Aussie was asked if he wanted to move up in weight to fight a fighter by the name of **Hussein Eldasek**. The high-spirited Durrant, who never, ever backs down from a challenge, said yes. With this new challenge, Durrant had to put on some additional weight for the California State Athletic Commission’s pre-fight weigh-in. Then, what happened the next day wasn’t exactly what our hero had bargained for. Eldasek appeared even taller, bigger and more agile than he could imagine. In addition, Eldasek is the real deal, a well-schooled individual in the sport of MuayThai.

As a result, Durrant found himself going down early and often from Eldasek’s blows.

Referee Luis Cobian showed his concern. Durrant’s response: “Oh yeah! I’m fine and dandy!”

After the tough as nails competitor went down for a second time, we can only hazard a guess as to what was going through his mind. “Nothing more than a loss of footing.”

Wow! That was certainly fun and it appears the crowd enjoyed it. And as Dr. Martin Luther King might interject: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

With the win, **Eldasek** improved to 9-6, while the gutsy **Jason Durrant** dropped to 2-4-1.

**Hussein Eldasek** is joined by his proud coaches from The Boxing Club, **Caine Gayle** (left) and **Jessie Magusen** (right) who no doubt enjoyed posing for this celebratory photo.

**Bout #8** saw the return of the ladies, (l to r) the 5’5″ tall, 46-year-old **Susan Wallace** (9-3) from Encinitas, Calif. who trains at Steel MMA/Muay Thai, Tierrasanta, Calif. with **coach Carl Gebhardt** facing the 5’3″ tall, 32-year-old **Gabi Maxwell** (12-15) who trains in the colder climes of Seattle, Washington with her coach **Steve Wilson**. With Wallace being her usual busy self and going at Maxwell non-stop with a wide variety of attack modes, we can say without being prejudicial that she won most every round except for round four.

After the scores were read and **Susan Wallace’s** hand went skyward, there was **Dennis Warner**, the **WCK Muaythai CEO** presenting the IAMTF Super Atom-weight Title Belt and as you might imagine, more than half of the building went bonkers cheering for their heroine.

Soon everyone in the building was rushing forward to have their photo taken with **Susan Wallace**, the new IAMTF Super Atomweight Champion. (right to left) **Coach** **Carl Gephardt**, teammates **Magalie Alvarez** and **Zoarel Fuentes** plus the show’s Promoter **Dennis Warner**.

An additional photo of Wallace’s opponent **Gabi Maxwell** was added. Here she is in the company of her coach **Steven Wilson** plus Team Double Dose Muay Thai’s **Bryan Dobler**.

Bout #9 featured the 6’1″ tall Roman “The Russian Sensation” Lysenko (10-4) from The Boxing Club (Downtown) taking on the 5’10” tall James Dixon from the Steven Frye Team of Victory MMA in a five rounder for the IAMTF Super Welterweight Western Title.

In Round one, with Lysenko taking his own sweet time, you would have to award that first round to the busier Dixon.

Lysenko then rallied in Round 2 with many impressive kicks and punches.

Round 3: Even though Dixon started well, it was Lysenko who ended up dominating in the closing minutes as we saw Dixon doing a lot of holding and leaning on Lysenko to prevent any chance of ending up on the canvas.

Round four was a repeat of round three, with it being Dixon early and Lysenko late. It appeared the further we went, Lysenko began to dole out more and more punishment after discovering Dixon’s weaknesses.

After both men had given it everything they had in Round 5, it appeared the more experienced Lysenko was well ahead on the scorecards.

After the announcement of the judges’ scores of 49-46 for Lysenko, the excitable Roman “the Russian Sensation” Lysenko dropped to his knees and looked to the heavens.

After the IAMTF 156 lb. Title Belt was attached to his waist, **Roman Lysenko** was joined by (left to right) **WCK MuayThai President Dennis Warner**, Lysenko’s coaches from The Boxing Club, **Caine Gayle** (left) and **Jessie Magusen** (right) plus the lovely Ring Card Gals.

Tired and a bit bruised, the new IAMTF 156 lb. Title Holder posed for that one classic photo.

Bout #10, “Big” Mac versus “Big” Ben

As if under some self-imposed pressure to outshine the preceding bout, out came the popular, 28-year-old, 6’3″ tall Benjamin “Ben” Roberts (7-2 AMT, 2-3 AMMA) (right) from nearby Steel MMA of Tierrasanta and his opponent, “Big” Mac Laursen (l) who had traveled all the way from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A well seasoned fighter but unknown in these parts, the 6’3″ tall, 25-year-old Mac Laursen had a record of (14-5 AMT, 4-3 AMMA). This was a matchmaker’s dream match – two gents of equal size, close in age, same height and weight plus both had the same set of skills to win.

After Ben Roberts (r) caught Mac Laursen with a stiff jab to the back of his head, the fierce competitor swung completely around to face his opponent and instead they banged heads. At first it was thought that only Laursen had been cut just below his left eye but then with a better view it appeared both had a nasty bruise and cut around their left eye.

Back and forth these warriors went, unloading some of their very best punches and kicks to confound the judges until that crucial moment in Round 4. Then, all of a sudden Roberts dropped his hand and bang, down he went and he just couldn’t get up. That one punch that landed so square it broke the fighter’s glass jaw. It landed in that one location which makes every fighter not only helpless but hopeless.

Like an obedient soldier, Ben Roberts continued to kneel in the neutral corner.

As more time passed, Ben Roberts was still unable to function.

All of a sudden Roberts miraculously rose to his feet.

On rubbery legs and unable to remain steady, Roberts once again began to fall to the canvas.

Once they had Roberts sitting down, everyone was quick to react.

Looking across the ring at Roberts, you could see the concern on Laursen’s face as well.

After the announcement of his victory, the jubilant “Big” Mac Laursen looks skyward.

Here we see the CEO of WCK Muay Thai placing the IAMTF Light Heavyweight Western Title belt around the waist of the new Champion “Big” Mac Laursen of Calgary, Canada.

Soon everyone had gathered to have their photo taken with the new Champion to include (l to r) WCK Muaythai CEO **Dennis Warner**, Ring Card Gal **Kirstie Masciel**, **Laursen’s** **Coach Arjan Mike Miles**, plus fellow Ring Card Gal **Stephanie Vino**.

An insightful quote from Ben Roberts following his battle royal:

“Lost a tough fight to my Canadian twin “Big” Mac Laursen. We both got cut up and gave each other a makeover 😂. Went to war last night and went out on my shield in the 4th. I was told I was winning the fight until I wasn’t. My opponent was a f’n warrior and kept getting amped after every exchanged, which actually made me smile and so grateful I made a battle-brother last night. I wish nothing but the best for him and hope to cross paths again. I learned so much about myself and it reminded me why I love this sport. I’ll be back better than ever. A thank you to everyone who came out and everybody who reached out to me! I do this all for you!!

Top photos show the fighters without the injuries sustained on Saturday evening February 8, 2020 at the Four Points By Sheraton Hotel. The bottom photos were taken after that February 8, 2020 fight and show the cuts sustained around each fighter’s left eye.

Ben’s coach Carl Gephardt had this to say about the fight: “If you ask me, it was a special fight. It was a great, high level, barn burner of a fight.”

The final bout of the evening, Bout #11, the Main Event featured a scrap for the WBC MuayThai Super Featherweight National Title between the challenger Marvin “The Mad Lion” Madariaga of The Boxing Club located in San Diego’s East Village and Brandol Mendoza the Champion from Los Angeles, Calif. who trains with the indomitable MuayThai America coach David Huey. If we cut to the chase, it was Brandol Mendoza defending his WBC title by way of a beautifully timed right elbow that KO’ed Madariaga.