Kick Boxing

Elite School of Thai Kick-Boxing

The Elite School of Thai Kick-Boxing on the Canning Road Industrial Estate is run by Phil Barton. Phil is a First Degree in both Go-Ju-Ryu karate and Thai kickboxing.

Phil started training at the age of 18 under Peter McDowell and Steve Forster (both 4th Dans) and states his karate training helped to build his confidence, stamina and knowledge of self-defence.

He started Thai kickboxing with Keen Crowley, then was a junior instructor to Jeff bullock. As Phil advanced Jeff took over his training and he won 3 Gold medals in the amateur British championships.

As a pro Phil had 38 fights and 29 wins and won both the WKA North West boxing-Boxing and the WKA British kickboxing championships, and has appeared on Sky TV.

Phil was also involved in European and commonwealth title challenges against Eugene Valerio and Richard Smith, losing both these contests.

Phil is a Qualified Thai-boxing instructor and is available for personal training, Fitness, self-defense and Thai and kickboxing classes.

Classes are as follows:

Phil can be contacted on 07909 666750

Also please feel free to email Phil at philbarton@southport.gb.com. You can also talk to Phil at Talk Sport with Phil Barton. This is a special chat message forum on Southport.gb.com and you can talk about any sport related matter here.  If you want to ask Phil a question, please do. Phil will also raise various subjects as well here for discussion.

Elite Schools of Thai Kick Boxing 

The Elite Schools of Thai & Kickboxing were first opened by Jeff Bullock in 1978. The original name given was the Bushido Arts Council. The group also included Ju-Jitsu clubs at the time. Initially there were just 2 clubs, Ormskirk & Skelmersdale Lancashire. In 1981 the 3rd club opened in Bootle Liverpool.

The Famous Elite 5 back left: Jeff Bullock Euro Champion, back right Gary Sandland World Champion, front left Phil Barton British Champion, front centre Aicha Lahsen World Champion, front right John Castellain World Champion.

Report by Phil Barton. Click here for full set of pictures (44 pics)

For those of you who saw the show most would agree that it was a success as far as value for money with 22 fights on the night with the former World Heavyweight Champion Shaun Johnson topping the bill.

And on the under card I had 3 fighters fighting one of which making her debut in the ring as a fighter Emma Ogden.

The Evening started with Junior bouts and as every effort is made to make this a confidence building experience as well as safe as is humanly possible so the kids enjoy their fight and not get hurt very strict rules are followed and as a result not one of the juniors received any injury and treated their audience to a glimpse of the stars of the future.

Dan Buckby aged 7 is my tip for the future.

I will start with Emma Ogden the first of our local senior fighters on the bill Emma 19 who has been training with me just under 12 months Emma trained very hard for this her first fight. Her opponent was Diane Fletcher from Skelmersdale over 3x2 min rounds. Emma has got great kicking ability and used it to her advantage in this fight her boxing was good and she showed the composer of a more experienced fighter. Emma dominated the fight and of course took the fight on a unanimous decision.

Next out was Dereck Robinson who should have been fighting Roy Fletcher. A repeat of the British Junior WAKO final, which Dereck won, but their fight had to be rearranged so Dereck took on Joey Graham from Kirby. Over 3x2 min. Joey proved to be quite a handful somewhat shorter than Derrick but stocky and strong he kept coming forward and was at times a threat but Derrick listened to instructions using his reach advantage kicking and punching on the counter Derrick won the fight on a unanimous decision making his record 4 wins out of 4 fights.

Steve Jones was next out fighting his 3rd fight he was matched against Dave McKencie from the tornado gym in Hull over 3x2 min rounds. We had some information on Steve's opponent and a little in sight on how the fight might go I instructed Steve to use good straight punches and kick round kicks to attack and use front kicks to defend he has natural boxing ability and punches very heavy for his 12 stone so if we stuck to our game plan I thought Steve would stop his opponent. In the first 2 rounds Steve's kicking was better than I have seen him kick he boxed cleverly not wasting anything he threw and to be fair if it wasn't for the durability and fitness of his opponent Steve would have stopped him before he did in the 3rd round this was a great win for Steve.

So it was 3 out of 3 for my gym and unfortunately I had 2 fighters pull out through illness Ian Edwards and Mike Settle both of them good fighters with a lot of talent.

We also had a glimpse at the Former World Heavy Weight Champion Shaun Johnson who proved to be every bit as awesome as his 16 and a half frame looked Shaun British Heavy weight Champion from Wigan fought Irish Champion from Belfast Stephen Boyd Shaun ko'd the Irishman with a kick to the head inside 60 seconds.

After the fight I spoke with Shaun he told me he didn't want to loose this fight because he wants to regain his World Title so he was taking no chances. The Southport crowd seemed to take to Shaun and will be pleased to know that he will be back fighting in Southport in the New Year!

Finally can I take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors personally for their help without it these events just wouldn't go ahead. The Prince of Wales for the use of their venue which we hope to use again in the future. Also the fighters would like to thank all who supported them it means a lot to them.

Anybody interested in sponsoring forthcoming events or information on my Kickboxing classes can contact me on 07909 666 750 philbarton@southport.gb.com

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