Khon Reach, blue, just barely eked out a victory over Kun Khmer Champion Season One winner Cheam Adam on Sunday Nov 16. The loss knocks Cheam Adam from the 65kg title tournament. Khon Reach joins Ty Bunhan, Pich Arun and Him Saran in the semifinals.

Full story from The Phnom Penh Post.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 1
Paddy’s fight Club Cambodia, Antonio Graceffo began his Khmer boxing training with Paddy Carson, at the old Paddy’s Gym, in 2004. Now Paddy Carson has a new gym, dedicated to the training of professional fighters, doing both western boxing and Khmer boxing (Bradal Serey). For Antonio it is an exciting opportunity to work with his old coach and clean up some bad habits he has acquired in his quest across Asia, training with so many different teachers.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 2
Paddy Carson explains to Antonio Graceffo his vision to create a world champion boxer in Cambodia. He watches Antonio spar, Khmer Boxing, and gives Antonio feedback, mainly that Antonio needs more consistency in his training, because he has been training with too many different kinds of teachers around the world.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 3
Paddy Carson tells Antonio Graceffo about Mas Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin and the influence which that art had on his boxing and Khmer Boxing training.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 4
Paddy Carson teaches Antonio Graceffo to hook more effectively. Paddy discusses the impact Mas Oyama had on the fight world and what a visionary he was. Paddy also explains the importance of throwing all of your weight into a punch and of exploding.  Antonio is not good at exploding, but listening to Paddy is always instructive.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 5
Paddy Carson watches his fighters spar and tells them what they are doing wrong. He calls Antonio Graceffo a brawler and says that Antonio lacks technique because he was roughing up his opponent, with grabbing and throwing in a sparring match that should have been English boxing rules. Antonio strongly agreed.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 6
Paddy Carson watches Antonio Graceffo spar, while preparing for his upcoming black belt exam. Paddy isn’t happy with what he sees. He says Antonio is rushing in and punching. Antonio isn’t using the art and isn’t using combinations of kicks. He also warns Antonio that in a tournament fight, the Khmer boxers would be using knees and elbows and Antonio would get cut to ribbons, smothering his opponent on the inside. The interview continues, and Paddy talks about how the overall sport of fighting has evolved in the mare than forty years he has been involved in the fight game.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Paddy’s Fight Club Part 7
Antonio Graceffo gets tapped out by Garin Etcheberry. And Paddy Carson speaks the simple truth about fighting, “just prove it in the ring.”

The annual national tournament started yesterday. More then 200 boxers and 300 kickboxers. Fights last for 13 days with about 100 fights per day. Starts at 1 p.m. at the Tae Kwon Do facility at Olympic Stadium complex. Please come support local fighters.

The photo is Seng Makara, just before his match with Pich Arun. A great fight. Pich Arun won.

Fight Night Promo

Sen Bunthen v Ervant “The Wolf” Atagyan

Thun Sophea v Dominik Zidov Akuma

[PHOTO: The price of victory: Sen Bunthen gets four stitches after defeating Chey Kosal on points Sunday at TV5]

Sen Bunthen will face Chey Kosal today at TV5. Sen Bunthen is the favorite.

TWELVE unknown rookie fighters will try to slug their way to wealth and fame in the second season of Kun Khmer Champion at the CTN boxing arena, which airs its first show Sunday.

For the dozen newcomers the Kun Khmer Champion reality series offers a chance to skip years of fighting in little-viewed undercard bouts and go straight to the main event, where packed arenas cheer every punch and gamblers shower their winners with prize money.

Like fighting sport the world over, a boxer’s ability to command big money rides largely on his popularity, with fighters often spending years brawling in obscurity before breaking into the limelight.

“A year ago I was pouring cement,” said Sam Ournlourng, a 21-year-old from Prey Veng and one of a dozen hopefuls on the show. “I’d rather fight.”

Read the whole story.

That’s the cover of the April edition of The Globe. (It’s Thun Sophea.) Virginie Noel has the photos and story.Unfortunately, The Globe doesn’t have a web site. The only way to get the story is to download the pdf. It’s a big file: 12MB. If you’re outside Cambodia things like that don’t matter so much.

Kun Khmer boxing is currently promoted by three Phnom Penh TV stations: TV5, CTN and Bayon. Each station hosts 2 cards per weekend.

TV5 has fights on Friday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the arena at the Old Stadium. Tickets are 1,500 reil on Friday and 3,000 reil on Sunday ( $US1 = approximately 4,100 reil ).

CTN hosts cards on Saturday and Sunday starting at 2 p.m. CTN fights are held at the CTN studios, located at Kilometer 3, National Road 5 (to Battambang). It’s just past the Coca-Cola factory on the right-hand side of the road. There is a giant TV antenna there. making it impossible to miss. Admission is free.

Bayon also hosts fights on Saturday and Sunday at their purpose-built arena, located about 2 kilometers past the Monivong Bridge on National Road 2 (to Vietnam). Fights at Bayon start at 4 p.m. Admission is also free.

It is recommended to arrive early at CTN and Bayon fights, in order to get a good seat.

Typically, fight cards consists of anywhere from 5 to 7 fights. Sometimes Western boxing matches are included. And at Bayon, sometimes girls fight on the undercard. Generally every card has two high-quality fights, with the rest of the card rounded out with one or two matches between noteworthy up-and-comers (or veterans) plus one or two matches between green rookies thrown in for entertainment value.

SCHEDULES

I am making a concerted effort to publish Kun Khmer fight schedules here every week. Generally I will publish by Wednesday the schedule for the coming weekend. I’ll try to offer a little insight or point out especially noteworthy matches in the future.

Spencer Hall: Been to Cambodia yet?

Dhani Jones: I have not been before, but I went a couple of weeks ago to train in Pradal Serey.

SH: What were you trying there?

DJ: Dhani Tackles the Globe is a show where I travel to different countries, try different sports, and utilizing that sport try to learn about the culture. In Cambodia I was doing Pradal Serey, which is kind of like the big brother to the more well-known Muay Thai boxing.

Word.

LINK: http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/18047/dhani_jones_tackles_the_globe_(in_a_speedo)