October 21 marked the peak in a marathon month of fights for Easton fight team, as well as a star-studded display of international kickboxing excellence at 5,280 feet. For those of us who train at Easton, the Undercard would be the highlight of the night.
Easton Training Center coaches Sean Madden and Dan Wilson, as well as High Altitude’s Noufel El Kasri were featured as bouts one-through-three of the evening. Easton showed up in full squad-up fashion, filling the stands and dialing the volume up to ten as the First Bank Center dimmed and the white canvas of the ring illuminated beneath the glow of the spotlights.  The bouts began, with Noufel up first. His opponent landed a flush punch in the first round, and Noufel rallied to answer the 8-count. With great heart, Noufel battled out the last two rounds, but unfortunately the decision went the other way.
Sean Madden was the next to hop over the ropes. His opponent, Willy Baisley was an MMA fighter making his kickboxing debut. The announcer introduced our friendly neighborhood Madden, and we all waited while a lengthy list of accolades were read: Lion Fight Veteran, WKA Silver Medalist, WKA World Team Member, and so on and so forth. The bell sounded and Madden sprang into action, delivering three dominant rounds, and several million spinning backfists. With knees that resonated through the arena, and vicious body kicks, Madden claimed a Unanimous Decision Victory.
Up next, Dan Wilson made his second professional kickboxing appearance after almost a year and a half on the shelf. His opponent was another scrappy MMA fighter who favored a tight shell defense and employed a great deal of movement. Round one started slow, per Wilson’s Thai-style background, and then picked up in rounds two and three. Dan utilized blistering kicks, and strong Dutch-style combinations to clinch two rounds out of three on all three score cards, securing a Unanimous Decision victory.
After these bouts, the undercard continued with performances from local standouts such as Justin “J-ho” Houghton, LT Nelson, and Danny Mitchell. Colorado put on an excellent showing, with explosive, competitive fights from all combatants across the board.
The riveting battle between Richard Abraham and Mike “Blood Diamond” Mathetha, and the searing dominance of Thongchai Sitsongpeenong in his routing of Casey Greene were standouts among the main card bouts of the evening, while both stunning performances by Israel “Stylebender” Adasanya secured him victory in the Middleweight Contender tournament and the love of a nearly sold-out Denver crowd. Gabriel Varga lost his belt in the title Superfight between himself and Robin Van Roosmalen. Roosmalen marched forward in a tight shell, delivering round after round of punishment to the champion, eventually stripping the Canadian of his belt and earning himself the honor of being a multi-weight class champion. Simon Marcus defended his belt against Dustin Jacoby, a fight which disappointingly ended due to doctor stoppage when Marcus delivered a sharp knee to Jacoby’s forearm, and shattered it. Finally, Nieky Holzken faced off against Murthel Groenhart in a Welterweight World Title Bout that ended in a controversial decision, in favor of Holzken. Though the Champ started strong, he appeared to fade in later rounds while Groenhart delivered many effective strikes. In the judges eyes, though, Holzken remained champion.