WILLEMSTAD - The athletes of Immartial - Athlete Centre were very successful on Saturday, June 8, during the fourth edition of the international HONOR Fight League in a sold-out Immartial Fighting Dome with no fewer than 11 wins out of a total of 14 matches.
Promoter Gideon Jonker can look back on a successful evening, because HONOR Fight League was sold out for the second time in a row and was once again a place where Curaçaoan talents could compete against foreign athletes. This time there were a total of 15 matches, of which 8 Thai boxing, 2 Mixed Martial Arts and 5 grappling matches. All Thai boxing and MMA matches had an international character, while grappling was a local get-together.
The evening started with 3 youth Thai boxing matches including a young lady match. The first game and second game were won by the Curaçaoans Cartlon Arvelo and Mia Rumai against the Surinamese Dylan Dewnarain and Miquella Rees respectively. The third match was between Joa Jansen and Chael Main, where Suriname took the win. “Joa is a very talented boy, but he had to compete against a very experienced Surinamese young man who caught him with a good knee,” says promoter and trainer Gideon Jonker. “Joa was there, doing well, but unfortunately the knee was just a bit too much. Joa can look back on a good performance and be proud of himself for fighting this boy from Suriname,” Jonker continues.
The 4th and 5th matches were grappling matches with Baris Namlioglu (Immartial) against Rudmario Martina (pro-fit) and Luca Di Lorenzo (Immartial) against Lennart Prins (Pro-Fit). Both athletes from Immartial – Athlete Centre managed to win this. In games 6 & 7, two Curaçao debutants from Immartial were allowed to compete against the always strong Suriname with Thai boxing. Niurick Leoncio won convincingly in a very attractive match against the Surinamese debutant John Zuiverloon from gym Chavella Lee, whilst the Curaçaoan Edwigis Jansen’ debut was less successful result wise as the win went to his Surinamese opponent Jair Soekhlal from Dreamgift Fight & Fitness.
These two matches were followed by three grappling matches where Chris Soeterboek and Russel Bouthisma both from Immartial and both managed to win the matches with a so-called submission against Jeardymar Baromeo and Tom Verlinden, both from Pro-Fit respectively, which meant that Immartial – Athlete Centre can be crowned as the absolute winner in grappling with a 4-0 win. The final grappling battle of the evening promised to be a true spectacle between Aemil Palm of Medina Grappling and Kevin Maria of Pro-Fit. On paper Palm was the favorite, but the large weight difference and the now very good Maria made it no easy task for Palm. Ultimately, the match was decided on points in favor of Palm.
The last 5 matches of the evening were Mixed Martial Arts and Thai boxing matches. After a very long time, Honor Fight League has finally managed to bring an international MMA party to the island again. It was Chris Woltjer’ from Immartial turn to face the Colombian Juan Ortiz of Motion Fight Club. Ortiz is a solid Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner, where Woltjer should do better standing. The fight went back and forth, with the match being evenly matched, but where Woltjer was more able to score with kicks, punches and good groundwork. Woltjer left the ring as the winner, but he had to work hard for it.
Shermayn Balentien was allowed to return to the ring after years of absence, just like his popular opponent from Suriname Nizaar Ramahi. With one of the most impressive “face-offs” the day before, this fight promised to be a great show. Both fighters started very concentrated, with Ramahi going a little more forward, but Balentien was the one who scored by giving good lowkicks and jabs. The remaining rounds were fairly even, with Balentien executing his kicks and punches with power and Ramahi trying to focus more on precision. This match ended unanimously in favor of Balentien, which meant IMMARTIAL’ s 9th win of the evening.
The last MMA match of the evening was for crowd favorite Keanu Irausquin and he once again showed why he is and will become a crowd favorite. His appearance is already a spectacle, so is his fight this evening against the slightly smaller Julian Mesa from Colombia of Motion Fight Club. The first round was what could be expected in this weight class, fast combinations of kicks, punches and groundwork. Irausquin made good use of his height, especially while standing, and managed to hit Mesa several times with kicks. After Irausquin's previous 1st round victories in MMA, he had to go into the second round this evening, but that was all he needed. With a very impressive triangle he managed to make Mesa tap out and that was Irausquin's 3rd win in MMA this year and he is still undefeated this year.
The co-main event of the evening was between Chris Elliott from Immartial against the strong Surinamese Galliet Pinas from Team Yvel. It was a true co-main event of very technical feats from both fighters, even though they are both still fighting amateurs, it’s clearly to see the potential of both fighters. Elliott got 8 counts in the first round due to a razor-sharp counter from Pinas with his left. Elliott was able to recover in time, for which the audience was grateful, because in the remaining rounds Elliott showed what perseverance is with beautiful Thai boxing. Elliott dominated the remaining rounds but was not enough for the win. This game was the only one of the evenings that was declared a “draw”, which in many eyes was also the right result.
The main event of the evening was a professional Thai boxing match between IMMARTIAL’ s John Granville against Colombia's Luis Garcia of Motion Fight Club. The face-off between the two was heated and the crowd couldn't wait. Garcia was the entertainer in the ring, while Granville kept it businesslike and continued to score points with hard low kicks. Granville started to increase the pace and after a nice combination he finished with a knee to the face of Garcia who, after 8 counts, according to the referee, did not show quickly enough that he could continue. Granville secured Immartial – Athlete Centre's 11th win of the evening, allowing Immartial to declare itself the winner of the evening. Afterwards, Irausquin and Main were presented with a trophy by former Miss Curacao Kim Rossen, Irausquin with “Submission of the evening” and Main as “Fighter of the evening”.
Promoter Jonker indicates with satisfaction: “It always remains a challenge to find the right opponents. Just like the previous editions, there are last-minute cancellations and there are too few options locally to accommodate this, but this time we succeeded again. The feedback from the crowd was once again phenomenal and despite having 11 wins as head coach of Immartial, I believe the crowd was the real winner. The games were all fantastic,” concludes Jonker.