Three out of three

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
YARRA Valley’s annual Fight Night was full of thrills and spills – with a mix of martial arts and boxing.
Lilydale Youth Club boxers put on a great show with three wins from as many bouts on Saturday 4 December, by fighters from Launching Place, Lilydale and Wesburn.
Trainer Nick Lundh said the first fight saw Bentley Shefford from Launching Place take on Boronia’s Adrian Jenkins.
“For the first time in the Yarra Valley, we had a mixed martial arts bout, which is the same type of rules as for the UFC, which people will have seen on Foxtel,” he said.
“They can fight standing up, kicking, punching, elbows, knees and then they can grab each other, throw each other, wrestle and even punch each other on the ground.”
Mr Lundh said despite it looking to brutal, there was still a great deal of technique and skill required to compete.
“It was an evenly matched fight, but Yarra Valley’s Bentley Shefford emerged the victor,” he said.
The next champion was Lilydale’s Rachel Phillips, who took on Jamie Sherer from Boronia.
Mr Lundh said Rachel won each round in a closely-fought contest, to become the new Victorian bantamweight kickboxing champion.
In the main event, Dave Rayner from Wesburn took on Nathan Alison from Frankston in the Victorian heavyweight kickboxing title.
Mr Lundh said this fight kept everyone on their seats, with most in the crowd cheering for Dave.
“The first round was one-sided with Nathan kicking Dave in the head, knocking him the ground,” Mr Lundh said.
“The referee gave Dave a count but he was okay.”
Mr Lundh said Nathan then let loose with a barrage of punches, which saw Dave go down again for another count.
“Dave managed to hang on to the end of the round,” he said.
“In between rounds, the doctor was quite concerned and all I could do was bring Dave’s focus back and inspire him to go on”
Mr Lundh said the fight then turned around when Dave kept moving forward and knocked Nathan down for a count by the referee early in the second round.
“Nathan got back up but Dave was back onto him with another barrage of punches, which then saw the referee come in to stop the fight, giving Dave the Victorian heavyweight kickboxing title by a knockout.
“The MC called it ‘the greatest come back since Lazarus’.”