summary of the IMFA

Where to start? hmm,so much on my mind..First of all im sad to say i lost my first fight so i am out of the competition.(IMFA World championship)this is the story:

I came to the hotel in bangkok in the afternoon,when i stepped inside the giant lobby,i saw the whole swedish team,and i joined up with them,and we had a quick meeting,and then i went to my room,wich i was gonna share with Driton,a fighter from Kristianstad,he was already in the room when i got there,and it turned out the hotel had given us a double bed,instead of 2 small beds:)
All of the fighters had to check wheight and do a medical check up before 19.00 o clock,so i went down right away,everything was alright,but when i saw the other fighters in my wheight class,i was a little dazzled,they were huge!!
I have always been heavy for my size,and most of my opponents have been taller than me,but some of these guys were just ridicolus big..but then everybody intend to look so big and dangerous when u are checking your wheight and u are tired and hungry and worn out from cutting wheight.
Then in the night,it was time for the matchmaking lottery,to see who is fighting who..In tournaments like this it is crucial to get lucky in the first draw,u need an easy opponent in the first fight,to win and come out of it with a little or no injuries at all.
Then u hope yor next opponent had a tough fight,so u have some advantage,many people got lucky and their opponent didnt show up,they had won their previous fight,but taken damage and couldnt continue in the tournament.One ,Swedish fighter won his fight easily,but took some damage in the last round,he had to operate his leg and his nose,he looked lik hannibal lector when he came back from the hospital 2 days later.
ok,back to the lottery,i got Uzbekistan in my first fight,its a real tough opponent,but it could have been worse,i had Russia,Ucraine,Belarus in my pool and this is the countries that always get the most medals,they are in a leauge of their own,some in russias team have won this
competition for the last 6 years,and many of them are proffesional worldchampions already,and they have nothing to do here,but the thing is that the Russian Goverment pay their fighters a lot of money if they come home with a gold,and they even get salary for training.One in their team is a personal favourite of mine,Artem Levine,he is really good and ive seen him live in Stockholm twice.So there is no suprise that Russia always get the most medals,infact i think that the only countries that gets the gold in A class(the hardest class in this competition)is Russia,belarus,ucraine and ofcourse Thailand.
Next day we went to the fighting venue,its funny,because the fighting takes place on the 4th floor of a shopping mall,but it was a nice opening ceremony,all the national teams walked in with flags and stuff.
When i got back to the hotel,i heard that there had been a misstake in the lottery and that they had to do it again,and this time i got...yes u guessed it.RUSSIA...fucked up.
I had to wait 5 days for my fight,so i got tired and i just wanted to fight,We knew that Russians are really strong boxers,so my gameplan was to move in close to him,so he couldnt use his heightadvantage and boxing,and i would use my clinching skills and win the fight this way,i saw a australian do the same the day before,and i felt pretty good when i stepped inside the ring.
The first round i lost,i didnt get in the fight at all,but in the second round,i turned the fight to my advantage,scoring with kicks and catching his legs and throwing him down,even caught him with some punches,but he hit me aswell,so i started my plan and moved in close for the clinch,but once i got inside,the referee stopped us,again and again,and i was getting really frustrated..In muay thai the clinch is a big part of the fight,some fights the fighters stay in clinch the hole fight,but this referee was european and used with european style of fighting,and each time i got inside he stopped me,i was getting angry,and throw some knees anyway,but then i got a warning from the referee,evrytime he stopped me ,he pulled us apart and i was once again in my opponents boxing range,In the end of the third round he hit me with a big right hook and i went down,i was shaken by the punch,but i was ok,i thought i get up by his 8 count,but he stopped the fight.
at the time i didnt care so much,i was upset by the rules system and the way the referee had handled the fight,but i was sad,because i knew i was the better THAIboxer in the ring,but i didnt show it,and i really wanted to show all the peopla there my style.
But now a coupla of days after evrything feels good,and it was a amazing experience,its a special feeling to fight for your country and to represent Sweden.
Now i just want to fight again,its gonna be so nice to fight at a real Arena,with real Muay thai rules!!
But first i have some days of from training,im spending the days at the beach now and eating what i want,when i want;)
My mum is here aswell so im a reislaiter aswell:)
have a nice one!!!!!!!
henke