Upon arrival at the premier martial arts tournament for Cardiff University, nobody could have guessed that in the days preceding the event, there were concerns that it wouldn’t sell enough tickets to break even. Y Plas heaved and roared from every direction. There was a palpable feeling of anticipation in the air, as if the entire building was poised and ready.
Participating were the Cardiff Kickboxing and Taekwondo societies, with fighters having travelled from Bath, Warwick, East Anglia and Swansea. Against regulation, I had adopted a rather flexible approach to the black-tie dress code, marking something of an informal departure from the crowd around me. Given the recent academic and financial pressures, I felt that a white shirt, black dress shoes, and black trousers would suffice.
The half-time salsa show, courtesy of Cardiff University Dancesport, granted some relief from the tension before the brawling resumed for the second half. Far and away the highlight of my night was the final fight between Kennedy Ribeiro, representing Cardiff, and James Driffield, representing East Anglia. By now, the ring had almost been swamped by the impenetrable crowd in the stands.
Amidst the excited furore, I spotted a break in the crowd from my upraised position and caught a glimpse of the ring. Kennedy arced his foot in a crescent motion and reared it down from above his head, delivering a perfect heel kick to his opponent’s thigh. His footwork was faultless, and James’s timing was slightly off.
James buckled for a brief second before hopping back into a defensive stance, his concentration clearly scattered. I muscled my way to the front of the audience and, from there, I had a much better view of the rest of the brawl. Once the fight resumed, it was more a relentless war of attrition than a display of technical prowess as they both wore each other into a state of exhaustion.
It was at this crucial point in every match that the suspense reached its peak. For all attendees, it was difficult not to be struck and engrossed by how quickly such a physical sport takes a toll on all its combatants. Red-faced and now heavily sweating, the contest resumed until Kennedy clinched a symbolic victory for Cardiff.
By the end, each jab, reverse and side kick was laboured and sluggish, and the crowd was virtually deafening. It marked the final performance in what had been a thoroughly enjoyable evening of spectatorship. Of the matches I watched in full, the results were as follows: Thomas Wood def.
Roland Irabor, Will Sagar def. Jacob Ho, Nupi Haradini def. Rhiannon Thomas, Ciara Algar def.
Kae Jones and Jose Patino Minan def. Adison Amano. For anyone contemplating attendance at next year’s annual fight night, it’s an experience that I would highly recommend and would happily repeat.