Melton IKKU Ronin Kyokushin toast Scottish Open success

IKKU Ronin Kyokushin took four fighters to the 2019 Scottish Open where entrants from 14 organisations and seven countries were pitched against each other in a knockout tournament.

The club, run by head instructor Tom Cunnington, has been established for less than a year, but all four returned home with silverware, including a newly-crowned champion.

Chris Parsons had a tough route to the final in the Novice Lightweight category with three fights culminating in a battle against an experienced opponent.

Despite dominating his earlier fights, Parsons was just beaten in the final after a barrage of kicks to the leg from the eventual Irish winner.

Matt Bunn made his tournament debut at Veteran Heavyweight, and after a convincing win against an experienced opponent, he came up against tricky former international fighter, Malcolm Scott, in the final.

Completely unfazed, the fight was a close battle with Bunn’s usual pressure causing problems for the vastly more experienced fighter, but despite the high output, the judges awarded Scott the win.

Still an excellent performance from the Melton fighter.

In the Novice Heavyweight category, a round robin of three fighters meant Chris McAllister needed two dominant performances to come out on top.

He opened against a much larger and heavier opponent, but again the pressure from the debutant caused serious problems, outworking his opponent with much cleaner strikes for a dominant win.

In his second and final fight, McAllister took on a smaller, but athletic fighter, and kept his nerve, using the guidance of his coach to dominate the fight in all aspects and win a unanimous decision to earn gold.

It was then the turn of coach Cunnington who faced off against Andras Grof, a decorated Hungarian veteran.

Grof started fast and soon had Cunnington on the back foot, but while trying to assert some dominance, he was caught with a strong hooked punch to the kidney and was stopped for a couple of moments.

In this time the judges had awarded a half-point to Grof, meaning Cunnington needed to finish the fight, but time ran out and the judges awarded the win to the Hungarian.

* The club trains in Asfordby on Wednesday evenings and at Jubilee Sports, in Melton, on Sunday mornings.

For more details, visit the IKKU Ronin or Jubilee Sports facebook pages.