This weekend, DEC 20th, our club's own Luke Forelle (savatefighter02) will be fighting in the World Savate (Championships of Ille-de-France in a huge gala event in Paris. He will be kickboxing one of France's top young fighters (from Savate Club Clichy, one of the toughest in the country).
He is the first American to ever fight in this championship and at this level. Working his corner will be my close friend Jose Rossete, of Savate Club Choisy-le-Roi (our sister club in Paris) who was also my coach when I fought in France.
We know we have prepared him for this night and when he enters the ring he'll have everyone from our club in the corner with him.
Armando
BASULTO ACADEMY OF DEFENSE
New Jersey Savate Federation
www.wayofnoway.com
Yup...shoes and all.
Yes GOOD LUCK!
Getting kicked in the face with shoes must be pretty painful I imagine.
Lost a majority decision. Pretty disappointed that I lost, but it was one of the coolest experiences of my life!
The fights were between selected international champions(Beligium, Tunisia, Italy, and US)and the champions from Ile de France which is the region surrounding Paris. I was the only US fighter and definently the least seasoned fighter with only 1 previous combat in Boxe Francaise. It was a very nice event complete with all sorts of pomp and signs of international goodwill (we got to do a flag presentation with each national anthem). Big crowd too. Made me a bit sad to have lost representing my country.
To the fight: my opponent was typically rangy and tall and had SICK kicks. Overwhelmed me with push kicks (chasses) and roundkicks (fouettes) to my head and front leg. The first two rounds were all him and I didn't think I was going to survive because I was having difficulty getting past the legs. At the end of the second round I started to find the low kick, though and got inside to work my hands.
By the fourth round I had him against the ropes and was throwing everything I had into my hooks and low kicks because I knew I had to make up some points. Last round was all me: walked through his kicks and punches and landed hooks to head and body. I took a shitload of punishment (face and leg are pretty swollen up, headaches right now) but gave a lot back and came to fight. I think by the end the whole place really wanted me to win (even booed the ref when he stopped the fight in the middle one of my combinations to seperate us).
It was such a rare oppurtunity: the French really want to get more notoriety for their sport, especially over here. They have an incredible national system for producing fighters and treat their competitors very well. Treated me well too, gave me a bunch of stuff (warmups, shorts, shirts, gloves) and paid my airfare plus a couple hundred dollars.
Invited me back for next June. Going to train really hard and hopefully we'll have the first US champion!
By the way, there is a fighter who is beating the shit out of everyone right now at middleweight. His name is Frederick Bellonie (started out with Clichy, Bobigny now I think) and I am giving everyone the heads up that this guy is going to blow up internationally. I got to watch some more tapes of him over there and the only guy who gave him a fight was the top guy M'hamed Abdeloui from our associated club Choisy le Roi.
You heard it here first, the guy is insane. When he starts fighting in other styles that have more notoriety he is going to be huge.