SIXTY Thai Boxers, male and female, will do battle in the ‘Night of Champions 2’ event being in held in Horan’s Nightclub tonight (Saturday).
“The thing that sets us apart is we promise knock-outs, said organiser David O’Sullivan. “Normally on these nights you get maybe two knock outs – we had ten the last time we organised this event,” he said.
Amateur Thai Boxer Aoife O’Neill in a promotional poster for “The Night of Champions 2”
Amateur fighters will open the night between 6 and 8pm, while from 8:30pm on it’s the turn of the pros.
“We’ll have the best standard of fighters from all the best gyms up and down the country. Thai boxing is very big in Tralee, we have a good loyal following at this stage,” said David.
“People are used to watching fights on TV, but this is the real thing and is a far greater experience,” said David.
Overall there will be 27 fighters from Tralee in the ring, one of whom will be Aoife O’Neill who will contest her first competitive fight.
“I guess I’ll be a bit nervous the night of the fight, but we were told when training for this that if our preparation is right we’ll have nothing to worry about” said Aoife O’Neill.
A quick scan through ‘The Night of Champions 2″ Facebook page you will see attending the event there is about a 50/50 split male and female. I asked Aoife why she thought their was such a large female interest in what is traditionally a male dominated sport.
“The success of Katie Taylor has been massive, she has shown that women can fight as well, also Conor McGregor has provided a lot more interest for the sport,” said Aoife.
“Its been great preparing for the fight, there is a lot to be gained from the preparation and commitment that goes into the training, I haven’t drank for a month!” she said.
Tickets cost €15 if you buy them before the night and €20 on the door. For more information call 087-1811044. See video below for more…
