Kick Boxing: Hussain the one that got away

Lee Kara looks to land a leg kick against Moe Hussain in their New Zealand Super Heavyweight title fight at Night of Assassins 2 on Saturday.

Jackals fighter Moe Hussain was able to break the cycle of defeated visiting title challengers when he kept the IKBF NZ Super Heavyweight belt out of Lee Kara's hands at Night of Assassins 2.

The first title fight to go the full five rounds on Saturday evening at Springvale Stadium, Hussain showed his experience as he started strong with stinging leg kicks.

Kara wrestled with him, leading to a referee break, before the grappling continued and both men crashed to the canvas on the bell.

Hussain kept up the leg kicks before Kara, the current WKA NZ super heavyweight champion, scored with a big overhand right.

But Hussain tied him up and took Kara to the ropes, getting a couple of shots in the clinch, before Kara again slammed him down.

Hussain hitting the deck continued in the third round from another Kara grapple, but he stayed composed and scored with the jabs, while getting a couple of big hooks near the bell as the Awa Kings president looked discouraged.

Kara was pressing as the fight entered the championship rounds, but Hussain lifted his game with an attempted superman punch, while he found his range to connect with several other shots.

In the final round, Hussain weathered the early Kara flurry to score with body kicks, and would come back strong after every solid blow to score in combinations.

It was enough to sway all three judges in his favour.

The other battle of the big boys between hard punching local Che Barlow (River City Martial Arts) and Colin Rameka (The Pen) ended in a no-contest after one wild round.

Rameka tripped Barlow twice in the early exchanges of the 110kg clash, before both men nearly tumbled out of the ring with the referee barely hanging onto them.

Barlow pounded Rameka into his own corner, and although he tried to comeback at the bell, he took another tumble into the ropes from a hard shot.

However, Barlow's last blow had come just after the dinging, and Rameka hurt his back in the fall, with it being deemed he should not continue with the injury.

It had gone better for the locals earlier in the card as popular Assassin Corey-Lee Robertson won a unanimous decision over a brave Stefan Harrison (Freestyle MMA Morrinsville).

Robertson has serious knockout power, but the wide-eyed Harrison was willing to stand with him, although he got tagged with a punch after a blocked kick in round 1.

Harrison started the second round strongly with knee strikes and kicks, keeping Robertson off balance, however the local fighter hurt him with one good shot.

Harrison still kept coming, pounding away on the ropes, while scoring with leg kicks late in the round from a distance, as Robertson looked tired while waiting for an opening.

He made his own opening early in round three as a rare leg kick was followed up by a great punch to drop Harrison, however the plucky visitor got up and started throwing non-stop shots to try and save the decision, with Robertson pushing him away.

Despite the comeback, Robertson's solid first round and knock down in the third was enough to get the nod.

Expat Jordan Griffiths (Jackals) celebrated his homecoming with a unanimous decision over Jesse Broughton (TPK) early in the night.

Broughton started well with a good leg kick to wobble Griffiths, but he replied with a shot to the top of the head which put his opponent down to a knee and was scored as a knock down.

The second round was stop-start as the Prajioud (armband) of Griffiths kept slipping down, while he came forward with head down looking to connect with overhand shots.

Both men traded jabs in the final round, with Broughton connecting with a couple of hard shots, but it was not enough to sway the judges.

In women's action, Assassin Emily Kara was not happy with her performance in a split decision loss to athletic Waitohu Ngawera (Pitbull).

Ngawera had no wasted movement, and was able to pull her head back out of Kara's range while swiftly coming back to score in combinations, as Kara did not connect on as many counterpunches as she needed.

She was able to push Ngawera over into her corner in the second round, and connected with a nice roundhouse punch in the third round, but Ngawera had done enough to convince two of the three judges that she had the better of the fight.

River City's Aaron Stratford was also left to rue a close finish to the first round of his MMA fight with Cossack Waaka (Hori MT), who was able to go on and squeeze out a very close split decision victory.

The taller fighter, Stratford had better success with his kicks and punches until Waaka got a take down near the end of the first round and was teeing off with body shots at the bell.

The take downs continued in the second round, with Stratford having to turn to his hands and knees and struggle his way back to his feet, being able to stop Waaka's other attempts.

The local fighter dominated the final round as he stuffed Waaka's takedowns and countered them to end up on top, with Stratford now doing the pounding on the ribs and staying in the dominant position right to the bell.

However, two judges felt Waaka had done enough with his late first round flurry and control of the second round to call it in his favour.

Results

Undercard
Matt Penny (Pitbull) bt Brent Surge (Fortitude) by unanimous decision; Jordan Griffiths (Jackals) bt Jesse Broughton (TPK) by unanimous decision; Waitohu Ngawera (Pitbull) bt Emily Kara (Assassins) by split decision; MMA fight: Cossack Waaka (Hori MT) bt Aaron Stratford (River City Martial Arts) by split decision; Sam Gourely (Lion Pit) bt Jethro Campbell (TMAA) by TKO; Corey-Lee Robertson (Assassins) bt Stefan Harrison (Freestyle MMA Morrinsville) by unanimous decision; Jade Fleetwood (Fortitude) bt Melissa Dyke (TMAA) by split decision; Che Barlow (River City Martial Arts) vs Colin Rameka (The Pen) was No Contest.

Title Fights
IKBF North Island Welterweight title: Jono Anderson (Lion Pit) bt Kodie Huffam (Hydras) by TKO.

IKBF New Zealand Middleweight title: Brendon Wallace (Assassins) bt Mike Kapi (Misfits) by TKO.

IKBF New Zealand Super Heavyweight title: Moe Hussain (Jackals) bt Lee Kara (Awa Kings) by unanimous decision.

IKBF New Zealand Light Middleweight title: Champion Mike Makatea-Leylander (Assassins) bt Rene Rashka (Hybrid MMA) by unanimous decision.