Night of the Assassins

Che Barlow

Nerves have no place in the heart of an Assassin.

It promises to be a big evening for the little Assassins Muay Thai Gym as they host a 12-fight card this evening at Springvale Stadium, which will be headlined by "Tha Muss" Makatea-Leylander and Alpha Porirua's Aaron Cole trying to claim the IKBF New Zealand light middleweight title.

The five round scrap is one of two title fights on the card, as Eden Phillips (CKB) takes on Connor Mooney (J's Gym) for the IKBF lightweight belt.

Other Assassins on the card include Brendan Wallace meeting Rangi Haggie (Stormforce) and Corey-Lee Robinson meeting Nathaniel Fagg (Feilding Tiger Muay Thai) in three round bouts.

Both Makatea-Leylander and Cole are touted in the promotional material as having knock out power - with Makatea-Leylander having got himself to peak fitness, while his opponent has power in his hands.

Promotor and Assassins founder Kyle Gallacher said both Makatea-Leylander and Wallace have been training hard and are not overawed by the situation.

"Everyone's the best they've ever looked - real confident.

"Mike's coming off the title fight, so he's at a point where he's been there before. It's just another day at the office."

Both of them are veterans of the River City Rumble events at War Memorial Hall in previous years, so are familiar with fighting under the bright lights in front of the home town crowd.

Setting up Springvale Stadium yesterday, Gallacher was excited to transform the netball and basketball zone into a gladiatorial arena, which is no problem for his small but motivated group.

"I always wanted to put a show on here, it's the perfect venue with the court and the stands."

The stand seating is an all-ages section, while the court floor area will be restricted to R18 so alcohol may be served.

Other local connections to watch on the card include Emily Kara (Scorpion Gym) taking on Kerri Sullivan (Canterbury Fight Centre) in a padded Thai fight.

Che Barlow (Rivercity Martial Arts) will return to Muay Thai fighting after entering the boxing ring last year for two fights with David Letele, aka Brown Buttabean, including a loss on the undercard of the Joseph Parker's WBO world title victory at Auckland's Vector Arena.

Expat Whanganui fighter Jono Anderson was originally scheduled to meet Auckland's Jake Walker for the IKBF North Island welterweight title, but that bout has been removed from the card.

The action starts at 6pm.