July Smoker: Huge Success!

Fight and Fitness had its best smoker yet this past Saturday. The turnout of fighters and fans was amazing. We had 18 fights and many different schools participating. The match-ups were exciting and the crowd seemed very pleased with the show.

The fights started promptly at 1:30pm with our junior fighters. Bunkerd was the referee for every fight, keeping all fighters safe and the action going! Jeremiah Quevedo from Fight and Fitness (9 years old) faced a tough opponent from Fairtex, Paul Pavototsu (8 years old.) The two showed off a fine display of muay thai skills and it was an exciting way to start the day. We had an incredible amount of our students who participated: Jeremiah Quevedo, Carlos Chavez, Stephen Lee, Doreen Wong, Gordon Chen (his opponent forfeited at the last minute), Bubba Holland, Tim Chau, Julius Mendoza, James Sakkis, Mark Quevado, and Suli Hansin.

We were also extremely pleased with the variety of schools that came to participate. It made the day all the more exciting to see the many different up and coming fighters from around the Bay. Among the schools in attendance were: Fairtex, Pacific Martial Arts, Team U.S.A., Cheetah Muay Thai, Physique Magnifique, Pacific Boxing Club, World Gym, Oakland P.A.L., Pacific Kickboxing, Thongsai Muay Thai, and Elliot’s Muay Thai. We feel very fortunate to have such a great community of muay thai and boxing schools surrounding us and making our event so successful. We send a very heartfelt thank-you to each and every team!

The fights wrapped up around 5pm and then the B.B.Q. began. Chris Cariaso cooked hundreds of burgers, chicken wings, and veggie burgers. The line was long but everyone was patient and we had a great time socializing with the fighters and fans—all and all a terrific (and hot!) day. We owe all the gratitude in the world to our friends that volunteered and help pull off this event: Alicia Simi (door person), Ra Karma Young (announcer), Chito Agsalud (time keeper), and Sixto Ponce (gear.) Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!!! Our next Smoker is tentatively scheduled for September 3 2004—we hope to see you all there again.