Lennox Chance wins WKA Pro USA title
By Tommy "Bee" Bottone
World Kickboxing Champion

"I feel that I have seen the future and the future is great for the sport".

Congratulations to Lennox Chance's win over Bobby Campbel for the WKA USA PRO full contact rules title. This fight was highly anticipated for a long time and was no dissapointment for the fans of kickboxing. The fight was the co-main main event at sports / Plus in lake Grove, NY on Dec. 3, 2004 and was promoted by Joe Pulieo.

These 2 fighters fought a few years ago with Lennox catching Bobby with an uppercut in rd 1 and ending the fight. That was an amtaeur fight but since then, Bobby has gone on to win many pro fights and beat World Champion Devon Cormack 2 times, gaining the respect of the kickboxing fans. Lennox Chance stayed amateur going on to win the World title that became vacant when Bobby Campbell went Pro.

Both fighters have grown into great pros now. It was time for them to settle who is the top 126lb Pro full contact rules fighter at this time, so they did battle and it was awesome. Lennox came on strong early taking control, but Bobby was not giving in. He was knocked down a few times in the fight but kept coming back. This was an action packed 6 rd fight with the crowd on their feet with great excitement through out.

In the end, Lennox Chance won a unanimous decision but the sport was the real winner here as the fans got to see 2 top fighters at the top of their game in their prime go at it for the US title while fighting hard and using great boxing and kicking techniques in the process.

Other results:

Chris Algeri wins by head kick KO against Edwin Montero from Dominican Republic. Chris Algeri is a great young talent as I think he is the best up and coming full contact fighter in the weltereight division. He had a hard match with the same guy not long ago and showed he knows how to adjust and learn to get better with each fight. It is only a matter of time and experience before he will be the next World champion.

Kadir Kadri wins decisive victory against game fighter from Puerto Rico. This fight was of special interest to me as I have had the opportunity to work with Kadir for the last few months and he asked me to help in his corner for this match. Kadir has been working hard on ring generalship and using his natural skill with his experience . Well in this fight, Kadir demonstrated many of those new skills that he was working on. These 2 fighters where going at it early and the guy was tough so it was no easy task for Kadir. Kadir started to use his reach and used his side kick and jabs to gain control by the 3rd round and by rd 4, he had total control and was landing many spinning kicks and some great combinations. The crowd was thrilled to see him using many different kicks as well as fighting very hard to win this match with multiple kick knockdowns and getting a unanimous decission.

Amateur: John Gilliam has been training with me at AFC Kickboxing for almost 8 years and is 18 yrs old now. He has proved in his last 2 fights that he is all grown up now. John fought against A 21 yr old Russian fighter and had control early with an amazing "Don Wilson Type" side kick and using spinning kicks at will . This was a tough fighter that was not giving in but John kept his composure and used so many different combinations with punches and kicks and showed that the new generation of fighters is at an entire new level. Just when you think that it can not get better, it does.

I am very glad to see that the new fighters have the drive to keep getting better as was demonstraed on this event. The old school that 1 style is beter than another or that fancy kicks do not work is just that, and old school . The new generation is proving every day that all we need to do is train to be better and we can do anything we put our minds to succeed.

Out of all of the fighters that I mention above, with the exception of Chris Algeri and Bobby Campbel, have fought and won in many different styles and are amazing to watch. I have known all of these fighters since their start and they are all very similar - great athletes with great skill and most importantly, great heart. These athletes all have great skill but more important they all have great respect for the sport overall and show great sportsmanship. I feel as I have seen the future and the future is great in this sport.

For other results, go to:
http://www.uskba.com
http://www.wkausa.com
http://www.ringoffirewkickboxing.com

If you would like to contact Tommy "Bee" Bottone, you can email him at: Bee@worldblackbelt.com