John Orchard: Our One & Only Statement Regarding This Contest.

There has been much communication in private between Marlon & myself and he is aware of our strong feelings. Anything I say here has already been discussed privately and all points of view established. I have no wish for tit for tat mud slinging on Ax so will not respond to any posts unless forced to do so.

* We are disappointed that Marlon has taken this decision.

* We feel that regardless of "Knowing the full story", none of this has anything to do with John Orchard and is not relevent to the staging of the contest.

* Whilst we all seem to argue all the time about who should be fighting whom, in this case the contest was set in stone, persued by Marlon and was generally considered a landmark contest. Regardless of any feelings towards the sport or leanings towards another we feel that the right thing to do was see out the commitment and then move on.

* With regards to a replacement fighter. Whilst not actually offered this (the communication ended before we got that far - and I was an instigator in that)John Orchard was never interested in the title, it was Marlon who chased and stipulated that. Orchard was interested in the contest against Marlon and would have fought for no title. As a promotional group we are able to get opponents anytime for Orchard on our own events. Therefore this was in no way considered a gesture of good will and it is unlikely - having been let down by the promoter himself that we would choose to then support the event (would anyone)?

* The majority of opinion here reflects our feelings and the knowledge of the "full story" would not alter that. Therefore there would be no real point in dragging this scenario out with the mass of points that could be made regarding the many aspects of this withdrawal and the various rumours that persist on the outside regarding any "real reasons" for this contest not being staged. What you see is what it is. Anything else is not relevent to John Orchard V Marlon Hunt.

* There is little else to say on the matter. Marlon feels he has acted correctly - we do not. Therefore there is no common ground and no way forward in this direction. As for suggestions of a "re-schedule", to save anyone even thinking that would be possible - it will never ever be considered.

* To finalise I would just like to answer a couple of questions that Marlon has posed.

"I had to sit down and think am I still enjoying this sport"?: If not, see out the committment and move on

"Is this sport going in the right direction"?: Yes, slowly, in a difficult fashion (for many reasons) but yes.

"Is the politics and badmouthing behind closed doors going to stop"?: No. Not here and not from Macdonalds to Microsoft. And especially not in K1. That's business, thats the world and thats what we all have to navigate on a daily basis.

"Is it going to be as mainstream as other sports"?: No, it's never been likely.

"Is this sport going to provide for my family"?: No and neither will K1. Any competitive income in this industry will always be secondary. It would be short sighted to rely on it.

"If people don't like that then it's not my problem. I have been in this sport for too long trying to keep everybody happy apart from myself": Seems a lot of people have had to keep you happy too, and many have now been let down.

Thank you for the information. Time to move on.

Regards
Carl Sams (On behalf of John Orchard)