These were the good ol' days!

I came into the sport in 1988, starting the change from my judo career which started in 1976, and trained with Kevin Brewerton and got to mix back then with the legendary lau gar a-team - some incredibly talented fighters, some (eg. Pete Edwards, I remember when he was young!) still tearing up the mats now...

I would read the mags of Howard 'The Hawk' Brown (there are no comebacks!), and dream of being in the ring with the legends...

Getting into the WAKO team in the 90's meant I had the pleasure of fighting alongside some UK legends of the 80's such as Dev Barrett (his coaching took me to WAKO European Title, thanks for the 'step through left!' shout mate!. Chris McNeish shouldn't be forgotten either - hardest kick pound for pound I've ever come across - all from a chamber kick!

Good to hear the Black Dragons mentioned, used to tear up the mats at the FSK's in the early 90's fighting Pele Reid and Wayne Turner, and don't forget the Hylton brothers and Spider Harrison too...

My first introduction to Thai Boxing was around 1985...my judo club did a shared demonstration with a certain 'Woking Thai Boxing Club' led my Mick Murphy, later a big influence in my career, where I met very young top fighters such as Gerry Moriano, former European Champion who still out Thai-boxes all in sparring...I couldn't believe the force they were hitting the pads with! Mick used to regularly train at the legendary 80's training sessions in Thai boxing from the Thai masters in Manchester...

First met Sandy (and Master Sken) in 1991 in Rimini, Italy, where Kev Brewerton took me to the Golden Dragon Cup...I though it was light continuous but turned out to be full contact shootfighting with throws, knees, leg kicks - Sandy did my corner and helped me win the tournament!!

I still have some of the magazines from the late 80's...I'll dig them out and see what I can find...

Funny that we're talking about the era I started as an historical age...I still consider myself young...it just reminds me of how much our sports have moved on! And how much the youth of today need reminding of the people that walked before them...

Smiler