TOMMY BEE

Congradulations: It is always good to see new talent in full contact Kickboxing.

Hey lori, The most effective kick to use if you are doing full contact above the waiste kickboxing is the side sick when fighting A very agressive fighter land it hard with the heal and then move to an angle so that you are able to counter before they reset. It can also be used with low kicks but your foot work is different with low kicks as you will have to be aware of your footing to be outside of there front leg and normally it would work better fighting in the opposite stance than you opponnent when doing low kicks ,When doing above the waiste it is just as effective from either side but you must educate your side kick like A boxer educates his jab and that comes with hard work and timing.

The different styles of kickboxing that are commonly practed today in most of the major organizations are. Full Contact : All punches and kicks above the waiste and boot to boot sweeps in most places are allowed. Int'l Rules: Kickboxing with Low Kicks allowed sometimes with knees as in K1. Sanshou: Chineese Kickboxing , Kickboxing with Low Kicks and throws are also allowed. Mauy- Thai : Kickboxing with Low Kicks,Knees ,Elbows, and clinching is allowed Those are the common kickboxing rules practices Worldwide. Other stand up rules: The Semi -Contact rules are point fighting and is not Kickboxing. Light contact is A stepping stone to Full contact rules as the rules are simular on paper except there is no hard contact allowed at all. So these rules are not Kickboxing ,but sometimes is referred to as Lightcontact kickboxing. _________________ tommybeeatafc@yahoo.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com [ This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on 2001-10-02 06:11 ]

I agree with Angus, A lot of peolpe put down certain techniqes but the truth is they all have there place and with alot of practice and experience most of the things that fighters alsways say do not work do work with experience and timing. I try to use as many different things as possabile and try to improve on all of the all of the time. This way you are not labelled as one kind of fighter and the more toools you have at your disposal the better it is for you.

Lori: Baby Stefanee: Thank you for your concern. "GOD BLESS AMERICA" _________________ tommybeeatafc@yahoo.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com [ This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on 2001-09-14 12:43 ]

This is A terrabile tragedy for NY, Washington, Pennsylvania, America, and the World. This is the worst attack againnst America ever. Many of us know people that are directly affected by this event. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy. The many Firefighters ,EMS, and Police that where running into those buildings and are still there when evryone was running out to safety you are : "AMERICAN HEROES"

Thank you everybody for your kind words, I am printing them and giving them to his family. They very much apreciate the support from the kickboxing World. His funeral was A tribute to his kickboxing career . They had his belts and trophies showcased and showed videos of his fights and people really thought it was nice . Lori: I did not mean to change the subject that you started. Chad had Bronkitas and was on pain killers as he was unable to fight for 1 year due to A car accident that he was in and hurt his feet. He died of complications from the medications and had A cardiac Arrest. You can find the tributes to chad on http://www.uskba.com by going to the current events /news page and you will see them.You can find this by entering there page and scrolling down just A little. Also on the front page of http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com At the top of the page there is A mention of Chad Distefano passing away and then you can click onto A video clip of him ,There will be more added to this page soon. THERE IS ALSO TRIBUTES to him on the message board on that page .

Thank you very much for your kind words.

Hey Lori, Most kickboxers today train in full time kickboxing schools and do not practice forms or Katas at all. There are also alot of fighters that come from traditional schools and become kickboxers later on but they each come from different traditional styles of martial arts. In my school we train all students from children to adults men and women all aspects of full contact fighting with no unifrms,Belts or tests. This method of trainning is becoming much more popular in todays world as the fighters and overall students progress much quicker in there fighting skills since that is all that they are focussing on. For one example today is A sad day as one of my top students Chad Distefano passed away on thursday at 21 years old . He started training with me at 16 years old and made it to be an ameteur World champion and A member of USKBA team USA and travelled to the UKRAINE at 19 years old , This was with no prior martial arts experience. He trained very hard and fought very often and progressed very quickly. He is A perfect example of how quickly you can progress if you focas on achieving your goals. Forms are A good tradition and very nice to see but are not necessary to become A good fighter as Chad and many others have proven . Alot of people do not like to take martial arts becuse they do not like the forms/Katas. But there are also many martial artist worldwide who enjoy doing forms .Me personnally I always enjoyed watching them but hated doing them so that is why I opened A school without those traditions as I believed that there had to be others out there that thought like me. If any one is interested in seeing tributes to this great young talent "BAD CHAD" DISTEFANO you can see them on http://www.uskba.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com

Hey kickchick, I think were all A little high strung or we would not love doing this stuff. Anyway you said that you live 2 hours from NYC . If you ever wanted to take A raod trip to Long island I could arrange some good sparring for you with my girls. It is always difficult for girls to get good sparring partners, They usually have to do most of there sparring with guys. keep up the good work.

F-S-K I think that is more than Ok to start out with lightcontact if you do not have many places to get fights in the beginner stages. I put my students, mostly kids that are looking pretty good but are not ready for full contact fighting into light contact to build there confidence. When I strted fighting I went into many lightcontact tournaments as well as Full contact,Low kick ,Sanshou , and even Semi contact. The purpose of doing such A variety of events was to gain experience as quickly as possabile. I always believe that it is best to compete as much as possabile to gain as much experience as possabile. If you go into lightcontact events first you can get A feel for fighting and learn to relax in front of A crowd. You asked if you could get KO'D in A light contact fight. When i did it in Ny there was no insurance for full contact so alot of the light contact events where basically full contact. Recently I have seen many events that where much lighter and it can be used as A stepping stone to full contact as it was designed. Usually you can hit hard to the body and lighter to the head. GOOD LUCK!!

lANABONANA: Marco Seis, is A good trainer and fighter so he will get you some fights in the future.

Where are you from ? If you tell us where you are from it will be easier to help you to find promoters or schools.

Hey Kick chick, RELAX!! You should get some more sparring in. It might help you to calm down a little. Don't take things that people say on these boards so personel . You teach in your program what you found to work for you and if it incorporates A great workout with some good self defense and your students like it then you are doing A good job. Don't worry what people who do not no you say . All that matters is what your students think. By the way I also think that women are great athletes and martial artist . There are many great women Kickboxers in the world today. I trained one female Ameteur World champion , She is retired now and I am curently training an up and coming 19 year old girl that I hope to make into A World champion in the not to distant future. She now has about 10 ameteur fights . When she has about 20 fights I will have her challenge for an ameteur World title. She may be fighting in Greece in the WPKA World championships in 2002, or in Ireland for A world title before that. She will be fighting in November for the USKBA North American Title against A girl from Canada on Long Island NY. _________________ tommybeeatafc@yahoo.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on Aug 7, 2001 7:08pm This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on Aug 7, 2001 7:12pm

Congradulatiopns to your school and good luck to your teamate against Shamrock .

I think it is great that you can get alot of people into your school that otherwise would not be there. Hey if they are having fun and getting in some shape than go for it. I think that if you are getting people in the school and they are leaving happy then you are doing something wright. As long as they are not under the misunderstanding that they are learning real kickboxing and just having A good workout that is cool. It has also put the word Kickboxing into the mainstream and I think that that is Good. So keep on teaching cardio Kickboxing and have A great time with it.

Kirk, I think I know the fight that you are talking about that fight was on ESPN2 and was about 3 years ago at the Vanderbuilt I was the feature fight that night and one by 1 st round KO against A biker guy . As you saw in that fight Ruben can be very dangerous as he ko'd that guy with one body shot. He is not an easy guy to fight by any means he has very good legs and some hard punches I do not know what you do not like about his style but he is somebody that any fighter should respect as he has fought for many years and fought many good opponents. No fighter looks good all of the time and nobody has A style that will please everyone but if you can be sucessful fighting as A pro for many years you must be doing something right. And one thing that I should mention is that he is A real humble guy and A class act. I really have never seen Craig fight but have heard some very good things about him and saw an interview with him on A mauy thai site on line site. He is the IKKC World Mauy Thai champion and he fought one of Sandy Holt's guys recently and won by A decission. If we agree to fight as I think will happen then they will send me A video of some of his fights as I would demand and I normally send the promoter my tape to give to the fighter. I hope that the fight happens but wright now I am focussed on my title defense on september 21 st at the WWF center in NYC. I try to take one fight at A time as the fight in NYC is not going to be an easy one.

Havoc/Kirk I have known Ruben for many years and he is like alot of fighters he has A really good day or A bad day. Sometimes I have seen him look unstopable and other times he did not look that good . I heard that he fought cruiserweight in Boston and lost A decission and did not look that good. I have also seen him fight alot of World class fighters and look very good and win. He fought in the Ukraine and looked awesome and he just rcently won a 12 round fight in Atlantic city and I heard he looked awesome. There are times ,I think when he does not come in the best of shape for fights but he was in great shape for his fight with Dan. Prodigy: I do not know if I will be at the WPKA event in Florida because I might be figting in California on October 27 th for Dennis Warner against Craig Buchannon for his World Title in a 12 round low kick fight so I will be trainning for that fight. _________________ tommybeeatafc@yahoo.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on Aug 3, 2001 11:21am

I know that Maz is the coach of team Canada as I stated I met him in Greece as well as Kyle and Brian Douglas . Maz is A great fighter and has nothing to be ashamed of in loosing to A World Champion such as Randy Pouge. As far as the Judges are concerned with the Kyle fight that was A really good action packed fight with both foghters landing some good techniches with no knockdowns and when you are watching your friend fight you only focus on him and not on what the other guy is doing. To be honest with you I was the closest guy to the fight as the referee and I was not sure who should have won the fight. I believe that it was A split decission meaning that one judge called it for Kyle and I think that the other 2 judges had it by 1 point for Frank. Whenever you have A very close fight like that it will usually go to the hometown guy. I don't recall the other fighter that you mentioned , It may have been when I left to prepare Dan for his fight. Overall the 2 teams that where there from Canada showed some great talent and I believe won most of there fights. Canada always has great fighters and it is always A pleasure to have them on our shows in NY. By the way Team Canada that Maz brought to Greece for the WPKA World championships was the largest team there and they all did very good. So do not think because I started this thread by congradulating some of the fighters that that takes away from Team Canada in any way.

You are right as I stated earlier that (maz) had A great fight and he showed how tough he was. I never saw him fight before and I was very impressed with him. I met him in Greece and arranged the fight between him and uskba world champ Randy Pouge. As far as the Kyle fergasun fight . I was the referee for that fight and I stated earlier that it was A great fight with both fighters showing great skill especially with there experience. I did not Judge the fight but I know that it would have been A hard one to judge. It was A very close fight and usually in A close fight the judges will call it for the hometown guy. Kyle is A great young fighter and has A bright future in this sport.

Hey dannyboy, I think you would really like the shows that we have here.There is some really good young talent coming up now. I should know by next week weather we will be bringing in fighters from Australia or not. We are supposed to be partners with another promoter on this show so it is not totally up to me. Thanks for the good luck for my fight ,It should be A good one I fought him 3 years ago and it went the distance and was A great fight. I won A unanimous decission.

That is what I am working to get some fighters here from Australia for my November show . This is something that I have been working on for some time now. Stan will always be remambered as A legend in this sport. As you said sometimes it is time to get out , I Hope I still have some time left in the sport Fighting I am 34 now but feel better now than I ever have before.

Hey Dannyboy, Of course I know who Mark Hunt,Grahm,Longanitis are and in the future I hope that my fighter will be able to meet up with them in the K1. At this point on our promotions we are unable to pay the purses to have these fighters on our shows yet but we are woking on changing that. I also think that Stan is A great fighter and heard that he was retiring.

Hey Danny boy, I agree that you want to fight the fighters with the best reputatipns to get the most exposure. The problem in the U.S. is that you can never get those superfights unless you get titles in many of the top organizations because the organizations are very regional based and of course have there favorites. So normally you work your way up in one organization that is strongest in your area and once you are World ranked in many orgainzations you start to challenge for other titles otherwise nobody takes your offers seriously. At least this is the formula that I work on for myself and for my fighters and we have done very well with it so far. We work with all promoters and all sanctioning bodies but in the whole north eastern USA the USKBA is on all of the shows and very few are sanstioned by the ISKA and the IKF . These are the 3 largest organizations in the U.S. today. My top fighters are world ranked in all 3 but they don't get much oportunity to fight for the others 2 until they become World class fighters. This is not the fault of the fighters it is just the way it is here so we try to work with all of them whenever we can. If it was the WKA or Wacko that were the most common in the Northeast USA than my fighters would be champions in those organizations but they do not hardly exist in the U.S. We go where the action is. Believe me when I tell you there are many great young fighters coming up in The U.S. that fight in all styles of fighting as there are all over the world . Hopefully we will have Kickboxing on worldwide Tv soon and people will be able to see all of the great talent that is out there worldwide. Thank you for the gyms. Many of my fighters have fought outside of the U.S as Ameteurs and as PROS. Most recently I took A team to Greece for the WPKA WORLD Champioships which had over 50 countries and 1,000 competitors in it. That was A great event and A great experience for the young fighters that I brought there . They got to meet alot of nice people from all over the world that love to do the same sport as they do. It was A vaery possative trip for them as well as for me.

Hey Dannyboy, I am glad that you do notice some of my post and some of the discussions that have been started due to them. The fighters that I mention that have fought for World titles are very experienced fighters that have fought abroad .They are the top contenders in the organization , When A promoter tries to make A fight and wants his ranked fighter to fight for A world title and it is vacant it is not the fighter or the promoter that chooses the opponent but it is the sanctioning body . When I asked for the fighter that I manage to fight for the title we did not ask for any opponent but for A title shot because he was the north American champ and we would have fought anyone that the organization said to fight. The USKBA chose Ruben Colon which is world ranked by the ISKA,KICK,WWKA,WPKA,WPKO and the USKBA those are the ones that I know of and he has fought in south America, Kazekstan,Ukraine,China that I know of. As Dan Lucas Has fought in the Ukraine against A WACKO World champion. Dan Lucas is also ranked in ISKA,WPKA,KICK,and the USKBA. These are fighters that have over 20 Pro fights each and have very few losses on there records and both have International Experience. They both put on A great fight and are both class acts so to try to put A negative spin on there fight does nothing for the sport. I manage and train Dan Lucas and he is willing to fight anywhere that he gets an offer and I know it is the same for Ruben Colon or any of the fighters that I have mentioned. Yes some fighters are more known than others ,So does that mean that they are not as good ,Well we know that is not true.Not evrery fighter gets the press that some of the others do. I am friends with most of the fighters that you mentioned and they are all great fighters but they are not the only talented fighters from the U.S There are many "especially "the young fighters that are coming up now. I am now trainning for my next fight and take the time out of my day to discuss these issues so that we can make people aware of some of the things that are going on that they may not be aware of. As far as bringing in some Aussies I am currently working on just that for my next event in November that I am promoting. There are many fighters that come to fight in NY from all over the World on A regular basis. So to think that the local fighters do not get any international experience is upsurd. Hopefully we can all learn to be more possative and work to help the sport grow teogether. _________________ tommybeeatafc@yahoo.com http://www.ringoffirekickboxing.com This Message was edited by: TOMMY BEE on Jul 31, 2001 5:38pm