Wednesday, July 13, 2011

July 10, 2011 - Henry Tong wins HK Sanda Open!

On Sunday July 10th, TRIQUEST members went to support our MMA teammate Henry Tong WIN his fight at the Hong Kong Sanda Championships in Lei Yue Mun. Henry fought in the Open 56kg division.

He went right in against an opponent who had a distinct reach advantage but proceeded to get take down after take down in the first round, with quite a lot of nice combinations in between. His opponent was bewildered.

In the second round, Henry got a massive KO, but his opponent survived the 8 count and got up, after which the poor guy’s corner threw in the towel. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.

Henry Tong, winner by TKO!

A nice trophy and an even nicer $1,000 check were his prizes.

His daughter was elated! She's only 12, but she has 3 years in Taekwondo, and she spent the afternoon commentating all the fights for me. Look for her in BJJ class during the school summer break! She definitely takes after her father.

Sanda is like extremely handicapped MMA: there is punching (mostly wild roundhouse stuff from what I saw), and kicking (Wunique’s gym – famous for Thai boxing - was in the house), however the most points are awarded for take downs… but in the clinch you can’t do anything but defend or escape. Once a takedown is executed, the fight is stopped and restarted on the feet. I did see one nice takedown where a guy transitioned to a sitting position on his opponent’s chest to crush him. That was a creative move. However, I think they frown on that sort of thing. It was all so very “official”. And the rounds are only 2 minutes so if you decide to go for a beer, you miss half the fights.

Congratulations Henry!!! Now, on to MMA!!!

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