Kickboxing: Former Hawk Patrick O'Brien captures world title

Patrick O'Brien with the medal haul from his northern hemisphere trip. Photo/Paul Taylor

To most of us Patrick O'Brien is the bloke who runs Battle for Life, Hawke's Bay's longest-running charity boxing extravaganza, or a former Hawks basketballer.

But when O'Brien returned home from the northern hemisphere on Wednesday it was as a world champion kickboxer. Although 36, O'Brien, won the under-90kg 18-35 years division at the Unified World Championships in Italy.

The only Hawke's Bay member of a 24-strong Kiwi contingent at the champs, O'Brien beat an Ireland opponent by a points decision in his semifinal and a Ukraine fighter by a majority points decision in his final.

"I first did kickboxing a little over 10 years ago to keep fit for basketball," the 2006 Hawks player explained.

"In recent times I've probably spent more time training kickboxers than competing. When this opportunity came up I thought it would be something good to tick off my bucket list. It was a goal I set at the start of the year and I lost 30kgs while training for it," O'Brien recalled.

Four days before weighing in at his first world championships in Italy O'Brien fought in a World Cup tournament in England.

"It was supposed to be a warm-up tournament for Italy but it was pretty full on and we got pretty banged up."

O'Brien, who was a member of a Curtis Wooten-coached Hastings Boys High School senior A basketball side which won won 43 consecutive games during the 1998 and '99 seasons, won silver in the heavyweight K1 division after losing in the semifinals of the under 90kg K1 division.

"My semifinal was lost on a technicality. I thought I had done enough to win both divisions but I was up against English opponents on their turf so I probably had to knock them out to be awarded the wins," O'Brien said.

"I think I was set up a bit in England. We spent 10 hours there on the first day and had no fights. Then on the second day I had my under-90kg semifinal 10 minutes after my heavyweight final."

The owner of The Lab Training Centre in Napier and a father of two, O'Brien pointed out he was the underdog at both tournaments.

"The standard of fighting was definitely up a level from what I had experienced previously. My opponents were more experienced and fought every weekend as part of their preparation. For me it was hard to get fights back here in New Zealand."

O'Brien will spend the rest of the year recovering from his bruises and will chase more fights next year.

"I won't be going to the world champs again but it would be good to fight overseas one more time. I want to fight for a national title before hanging my gloves up to focus on training.

"Training and fighting is definitely two different ends of the spectrum. While you are coaching you are always thinking about others but when you are competing you are only thinking about yourself."

Although self-trained most of the time O'Brien was grateful for the assistance he received from fellow Bay trainer Dallas Peneha during the build-up his northern hemisphere expedition.