Still can’t get on Ax on my PC, so posting this on my phone, so going to be as brief as I can, but will probably be another essay.

Many thanks to everyone involved in the show and everyone who attended, I didn’t get to see much, but everyone I spoke to had great things to say about it, so I’m proud of that! There were loads of people who done great jobs on and around the day and I really appreciate it, couldn’t do it without you all, even the ones that had travelled to watch it were chipping in, so really, many thanks! Have to give a special mention to Claire Louise, she is an absolute rock and since POS2, put herself through ridiculous stress and work. After the event I popped round to Kilty Kilty for an hour to the afterparty to make arrangements etc., whilst she stayed to finish everything off! We then got to bed at 5am and up at 8am to take everyone to the airport, she’s a wee star and took significant weight of my shoulders!

Just to address some of the other posts. First of all the officials, the majority of the officials were relatively inexperienced, and although I didn’t see the majority of the show, I don’t think their was any bad decisions. A few close ones that could have went either way, but I’m confident in the way they were scoring the fights as they do their best to use Thai criteria and its not easy for any official to judge fights on a show like this. As for Frank, I know he needs to develop and if I’m honest he does need a bit more confidence when making a decision wither someone needs an 8count or if its just a slip etc., but (and this may surprise people), I will use him again when Tony can’t do it. He has done smaller shows here for a long time and overall has done a decent job of what is a nightmare and important role in the sport. Look at the problems you see in professional referring like football, Frank does it for his love of the sport and tries his best, so give him a break, woud you do it? With exception of Tony, I always here complaints about the refereeing at shows throughout the UK. He does need more experience on the big high-pressure fights, but until he gets a chance to gain experience, he’ll never be able to develop. I wouldn’t do it. On a side note, he didn’t judge the MMA fight.

As for the MMA fight being a poor match, Nathan’s coach told me he had around 24 kickboxing fights, only had his first Pro MMA fight a few months ago, which I saw and he impressively in the first minute with ease, so didn’t seem that one sided. He had also found some footage of John and was up for it. However, John Cullen is a very talented fighter and a great lad. He had around 10 fights in Muay Thai and although better than his record would suggest, he only won about 3 of them. Since starting MMA, he’s had about 10 fights in total and only 2 of these being Pro, he lost his first ever MMA fight and been unbeaten since. So again, sounded ok on paper. But like many MMA fights I see outwith the likes of UFC etc., they often end quickly. I really didn’t intend to put any MMA fights on anyway, but John asked if I would match him to fight MMA so wanted to accommodate him.

I didn’t see much of the fights, but thought the 8to1 lived up to the hype. The tournament is all about drama and is like a little story of the event, everyone that comes to POS seems to really empathise with the fighters as they progress through the show and I hope it benefits the careers of all involved. You’ve got to give Ocana a lot of credit, he was regarded as far too small and old for this tournament and overlooked by everyone, but his heart was so impressive! The only fight I really saw entirely was Ritchie and John. This was a rematch with both lads improving significantly since last year. We had seen John in recent fights with very aggressive hand and low kick combo’s and Ritchie knew it was going to be full on from the start. But he showed a lot of maturity, especially for a 16 yrs old, and as stated earlier, he soaked up the initial pressure in the first and then turned the fight from the 2nd onwards. The change in this lad over the last year or so is brilliant and looking forward to him progressing further. The other fight I seen most of was John and Liam’s. I also thought it was close and that the 8 count in the 4th was what tipped it. Apart from that, I thought it was as expected, a very technical and nice fight. I thought Liam was kicking to the body a bit more, however, John done so with much more effect IMO, which is perhaps why the differing options, or maybe we’re all just a little bias on what was a close fight.

But best display of the night was definitely CBBT’s flossing! Still not sure why I agreed to let them do it, but hey, it was pretty funny!

Thanks again for all the support guys, everyone was asking when POS5 was gong to be. To be honest, I’m not sure of the date, was thinking around Oct / Nov, but will need to try and avoid clashing with other shows and also depends on securing the right fighters etc. To be honest, I also wanted to get away to Thailand for a little bit for some time off. My last full day off was New Years Day, so looking forward to this weekend and doing nothing! I will definitely be back to the Lagoon though, I know a lot of people thought I was wrong to move away from Braehead, but glad I took the chance on it. Think we’ve found a new home for the event just now, it looked packed, but we also have some scope to let it grow a bit, so ideal really. The lighting looked good as well, a lot different from last year, which was another gamble, but if I don’t change things it won’t improve. Anyway, I’m off to bed, also got a busy week ahead of me but I will post more towards the end of the week. Again thanks to everyone involved. As normal, if anyone has any constructive feedback for me, please get in touch.