Håkan "Haken" Ozan

On January 21 I had a fight at Chaweng Stadium in Thailand. The biggest difference between this fight and my previous fights in Thailand was that this one was pursued in old-fashioned traditional muaythai – muay boran. Muay Boran is thaiboxing as it originated – “Muay Boran” meaning “Ancient Boxing” in thai.

The rules
The rules are somewhat different in bare knuckle fights. To be perfectly honest, these fights are actually not allowed in Thailand nowadays. This is how thaiboxing was pursued back in the nineteenth century, when gloves did not even exist and fighters used ropes to protect their hands and minimize the risk for cuts. In the 1920:s western influences lead to the introduction of gloves in muaythai and lately it is the only form officially allowed. Yet, muay boran fights are occasionally allowed with special permission from the local police. To reduce the risk of injuries certain restrictions are applied to these fights. Instead of the original 5 round of 3 minutes, muay boran fights are limited to 3 rounds of 2 minutes. Fighters are allowed to use any amount of tape and bandage to their hands as long as the outer part of the hands are covered with bandages. (The tape causes cuts to easily.) All muay boran fights are K.O. fights, meaning that there are no judges present, only the referee. A muay boran fight can NOT be won by points and have to be won by K.O. If both fighters are still standing when the fight is over the fight is automatically declared a draw. The rules are tough, but simple and fair.

The opponent
For this fight I had Mongkorntong as my opponent. To begin with, we had fought twice before. The first time we fought he knocked me out (the only K.O. loss I have in my record). The second time we fought I won by TKO. Technically though, I believe I am better than him, so I was looking forward to the fight. Still, he had 3 bare knuckle fights before this one, out of which one was against WMC champion Simonides which ended with a draw. So in summary, he had fought some good fighters in bare knuckle before and was still undefeated.

The fight
For this fight I had no nervous feelings whatsoever. The preparations were tremendous, with two to three training sessions a day for a month and two fights to get warmed up. To be honest I guess I was even a bit over-prepared, since the fight was only going to last three rounds and I was running hills and miles several times every day.

We had chosen a new strategy for this fight. Since there are no points awarded and the rounds are shorter and fewer, the plan was to disregard his kicks (he has very good right kicks) and just go in for boxing, uppercuts and lowkicks. During the first round I didn´t really get to it, but in the second round the strategy started to pay off. And when he noticed that I used his kicks for reaching him with punches he started clinching instead. Dangerous tactic since from clinch position my elbows are extremely dangerous. But rather than explaining why and how, you can watch it for yourselves in this clip.

The final elbow resulted in six stitches to the head for him. And for me this was my third elbow knock out in a row. It is truly a sense of satisfaction to manage to defeat the thai using their own special weapons.

It was a good fight to have, and I believe it will be hard to get back to fighting with gloves again. But hopefully I can have a new muay boran fight next time I go to Thailand.

New fight arena – Xin City
On January 9, just a week after the fight at Koh Phangan, I got a new fight at the luxurious Xin City Hotel in Chaweng. They have a large open yard in the middle of the complex where they set up a ring for these fighting events. They are new to arranging fight events on Samui, but they are doing it very well!

Victory by elbow shot
I was prepared for a very tough fight as I had been told that my opponent – Mairaew – was a very aggressive fighter. Personally, this is something I prefer, compared to the fight last week, and I was looking forward to it. The fight didn´t turn out the way we expected, though. Since I was even more aggressive than my opponent, he resided to a more passive approach. Yet, he was not as defensively skillful as my previous opponent, so I pretty soon managed to control him quite well. After having landed a few very heavy lowkicks in the first round, and you could already tell that he had been hurt, I ended the fight in the second round by a vicious elbow from clinch position.

This was a perfectly timed fight and I am feeling very confident and eager to fight more. The only setback is that I received a cut in my left shin during the fight which had to have three stitches and will need week´s recovery.

Promotion..

On 2 January 2011 there was a large event at the exotic island of Koh Phangan and I managed to get a fight there with rather short notice. There were five of us from WMC Camp who were fighting this night and for promotion they rode us around the island on the back of a truck. We felt pretty stupid doing this, but I guess it was for the best. The event was completely sold out at night.

Fight time
The first contact I had with my opponent was that he wanted to perform the fight without elbows. Apparently he was having another fight just two days later(!) and wanted to avoid injuries. My trainers kindly but distinctly turned him down – if we were scheduled for full muaythai rules, full muaythai rules it should be. Once the fight started he had a very defensive (and boring) style. He rarely attacked himself, but just kept waiting for me to do so, and when I did he push-kicked me. Consequently we spent a lot of the fight tactically waiting for each other. This is not my kind of fighting style at all and it was frustrating to me and (from my experience) not enough action for the audience.

The fight went to full time (5×3 minutes) and whenever there is an even fight between two fighters in Thailand, and one of them is thai, the win goes to the thai. And so it did at this time. I must admit that he was a very skilled defensive fighter and that he most excellently prevented my offensive style and skillfully counter attacked with kicks. On my behalf it felt good to have had a fight after simply five days of practice and I was not completely unsatisfied with getting a full five rounds as a warm up for next fight.

Our new fight gym in Stockholm!

This summer we decided to open up a new muaythai gym in Stockholm. The gym is named OneChai Muaythai and will be competing in muaythai and K1-rules primarily. We recently signed a contract for a new place located in the heart of Stockholm just by Odenplan. We are very competition oriented and have very ambitious plans for the future. A thorough business strategy has been developed and we are now fine-tuning the educational plans for the fighters so that the development steps are aligned with national team standards. Even though we have only had the gym for a few months, we are very proud to say that our student are highly competitive and is looking forward to fighting. We have already managed to establish a strong sense of fighting spirit in the gym. This is truly the essence of life.

Some time to travel

This weekend me and Karim went with our fighter Jian to a city called Arvika near the Norwegian border for what was expected to be a rather high level muaythai event. And as it turned out, this was very much the case. Since there is about 5 hours drive from Stockholm to the event, we chose to drive there the day before and spend the night in a comfortable hostel.

A perfect weigh-in

With Jian we had much better control of the weight situation (compared to Christian who didn´t have a scale), much thanks to us traveling together the night before the fight, and our tips and guidelines worked perfectly – Jian weighed in at 74,9 kg in the morning for a -75 kg fight. Our general approach before the weigh-in was that anything above 75,0 was just a big failure, and that anything below -74,8 kg was a mistake from our side meaning he could have eaten or drunk more than he did. Regardless, Jian´s opponent weighed in 0,2 kg overweight and had to start his fight preparations by running up and down local hills while we went to have a steady breakfast.

Suddenly things change..

Once Jian passed the standard medical exam he started winding down. Yet, surprises were to appear. Suddenly people around us started getting anxious, and it turned out that Jian’s opponent had a latent infection in his body hindering him from fighting. Jian was devastated and realized that the trip across Sweden and two weeks of starvation would have been for nothing, when the opponent´s team suggested a fight with another of their fighters. The major difference would be that this was a less experienced fighter, but a guy a weight class above Jian’s and with a serious height advantage. After a few moments of discussion we decided that we shouldn´t have traveled all this way to leave without extended fighting experience. Jians took the fight.

Fourth round K.O.

Due to heavy rain, and this being an outdoor event, the gala started approximately an hour late. But our preparations went like planned and Jian was very well prepared when fight time was up. He went into the fight with his usual “I will not care if it hurts” attitude that I like so much. Before the end of the first round he had already given his opponent two standing counts! One by a powerful body kick and another one by a tremendous right hook. The fight in general was very tough from both sides, with the slight

difference the a few of Jian´s attacks landed harder. The second and third rounds were both very even and the audience loved the full contact action performed by the two fighters. When entering round four the fighters were actually both pretty worn out from damaging each other so badly. But in the middle of the round Jian delivered a shot while being attacked and landed a devastating right hook that took his opponent to a ten-count! Before we knew it, Jian had improved his fight record even more!

His opponent was a very nice fellow and the competition was very well arranged. All and all, the conclusion is that even if we have to travel across Sweden to participate in these competitions, it was (and will be) well worth it!

The heat is on…

In the heat of early July we went to the south of Sweden to participate in the kickboxing contest “Summer Battle”. I was there with two purposes – to work as a referee and to coach our fighter Christian. This day was immensely warm and since the contest was outdoors under the bare sun, my referee shirts was almost transparent after the first two fights. Christian, who has only had five or six fights and who is not very experienced yet, showed up at the weigh-in at 1,4 kg overweight. He immediately put on a sweat suit and took a run, and thanks to the crushing heat he took off about 2 kg in a 30 min run. First mission accomplished.

Fight

When it was Christians turn to fight he was exemplary cool for a guy who hasn’t had that many fights. The strategy in this fight was to let the opponent wear him self out in the first round and then to accelerate throughout the fight. The goal was to equal the first round (10-10) and then to collect the last two rounds with ease. Unfortunately Christian took it a little too mellow in the first round and probably lost it by 10-9. According to plan Christian’s opponent was looking very tired in the end of the first round and now we were going to heat things up even more. The second round went very well, just as we had planned. But during the third round Christian was getting very tired as well. Having lost 2 kg in water just before the fight and then fighting in boiling heat really drained him. He had all the opportunities in the world to finish the fight in the third round, but he just didn´t have the energy in him. Instead the judges scorecards showed 1 for Christian and 2 in favor of his opponent. Tough to lose on a split decision under such circumstances. But Christian was rather satisfied with the fight experience anyway and was happy to go to enjoy a thai meal and a beer after the fight.

Night of Champions 2010

On May 8th I went to Denmark to challenge the reigning Scandinavian champion for his belt. Now being ranked no1 in the super welterweight division I was finally entitled to do so. After having had a period of  being over-trained, bored of dieting and frustrated of my weight not dropping regardless of the miles and miles on the treadmill, I was finally getting to fight – the part of martial arts that I truly love. And after being dehydrated like a mummy on my way down to Copenhagen, where Jill met me and escorted me to the weigh-in, I managed to weigh in at 69,2 kg, 0,3 kg beneath the official weight class. This was less than my expected weight, even though I have been dropping to 67 kg regularly the last year. (Which I can reveal is not a terrific preparation for a fight, since I weigh around 76 kg off-season..)

Fight time

Since my fight was one of the intercontinental title fights of the evening it was the second last fight on the fight card. The final fight was a European Pro Champion fight in Full Contact starring a very talented and experienced young fighter from the arranging gym and an opponent from Hungary. Even though my fight was a pro full contact fight without protection I did not manage to muster up any nervousness.. I am well aware that being at least a little nervous helps getting the adrenaline flowing and hence help fighters to get better prepared for battle. Yet, with all the fights I have in my backpack, I still do not react whatsoever even to this sort of challenge. I am not saying that this is a bad thing only, since being nervous consumes a lot of energy and many times it inhibits fighters to perform at the top of their level. I’m just saying that I didn’t feel a thing, even when going through the smoke towards the ring with Prodigy’s “Smack my bitch up” ringing in my ears. Many times routine is a good thing. But after a while – especially in such sports as K1 – it may become an inhibitor, when it becomes an adrenaline-drainer. Fortunately, adrenaline is not my main fuel. I am more of a focused, technical fighter, just looking for shots and exploding when those opportunities appear in the fight.

The fight

The first two rounds went pretty much like I wanted, even though he was much better at boxing than I expected (which sort of ruined my game plan, since I usually dominate in traditional boxing). I changed tactics and went much more into clinch. Even though my clinching worked fine, as this was a K1 fight, only one knee during clinching was allowed. So, each time I got into my game, we were separated and put back into his distance again. My lowkicks worked great and I devastated his front leg early in the fight, but after a few kicks over his arms my right shin started to feel really numb. Technically I felt like I had the upper hand, but on stamina he was superior to me. Even in the fifth round he did not pause to breathe even once and this finally wore me down. I train stamina extensively so I was surprised to find someone actually more perseverant than myself. And there was (unfortunately) no doubt that he was the stronger of the two of us during the final two rounds of the fight.

The result

Well, we had a very hard and entertaining fight, with few pauses and continuous battle. But in the end, much thanks to his incredible stamina, he ended up with more points in the score cards than I did. And it was well-deserved on his part. He did a very strong fight and righteously earned to keep the belt until his next defense.

From working hard to training hard

I just had my last fast-food meal for a long time. I ferociously consumed a giant-size garlic kebab knowing it will be the last time in a long time that my stomach will be truly full. The last three weeks I have been extraordinarily busy with work and new assignments, but since there´s only five weeks until my title fight in Denmark I have to re-prioritize. Lately, I have been working 12-16 hours a day, meaning there has been little time for serious training. At the same time it has been an extremely good period for building up the hunger for new victories. Training as hard as I did kind of made me feel fed up with training. Having rested for a couple of weeks has given me my ambitions back.

The train-down starts in a little while

As soon as my belly has calmed down from the giant lump of meat I just ate, I am going down to the gym again. And I am really looking forward to it. I used to be best friends with the treadmill, but lately we haven´t seen as much of each other as we used to. This is about to change again.

Tomorrow morning I am weighing in (for my own tracking-system) to find out how much weight I have gained the last weeks and to see how much weight I will be forced to lose. I am not particularly worried about my stamina. I have been training so hard for so long, that a few weeks rest will most likely just do it good. Next fight is in May and I am fighting in 69.5 kg, weighing in on May 7th. My ambition is to be steadily at around 72 kg the days before that. And after the weigh-in tomorrow we will see how many kilos I have left to take off..

I need to start taking small fights more seriously..

I just lost my second fight in a short time against an opponent that I would usually defeat at any given time. Me and one of my trainers had a very thorough discussion about this a few days ago, and he does not sense that I care enough whether I win or lose my fights. And the truth is – he’s right. I have reached many of the goals that I set up and to be honest I care more about fighting than winning. I still enjoy a good fight, but when there is not much as stake – like in a title fight – I really don’t care much about the outcome, even though I care a lot about having a good fight and learning as much as possible. Of course, I have always been this way. I prefer having a good fight against a good opponent and lose, than having an easy fight against a newcomer and win. Sure I like winning just as much as the next guy, but I prefer learning and becoming a better, more experienced fighter.

I will probably cut down on the amount of fights

Since I have started feeling this way I think it might be a good idea not to fight at every possible event, like I have been doing in the past, but rather stick to the fights that count such as championships and title fights. And since I am treating smaller fights just like sparring, I might as well tune up the amount of sparring instead. I do have a pretty good network of sparring partners, so I might as well make the best of it.

My next fight at the moment is at the Night of Champions in Copenhagen, where I am the challenger for the ISKA Scandinavian Pro title in K1-rules. I am looking forward to it, and there is little hesitation that I will come extremely well prepared. That’s the kind of person I am.

After having driven for over five hours I got a phone call from the captain of the national team. Apparently my opponent’s trainer had received word that it was me he was going to fight and pulled him out of the competition. This is the second fighter in just a few days who has refused to fight me..

So with no hesitation we pulled into the nearest Burger King where I stuffed myself with 1400 kcal in a single meal. (This is forty per cent more energy than I usually consume during an entire day.) The feeling was awesome, and instead of fighting we will now have a few beers in Malmoe tonight and then leave early tomorrow to go visit Jill’s parents in Småland. At least we managed to get something positive out of this last minute cancellation! And burgers can be delicious when not consumed to frequently..