Mike, I think I will have to stand with everyone else as far as the health of the sport goes. I've been blown away by the quality of some of the fights I have seen lately with only 1st or 2nd time fighters. Jake Sole vs James Brown, Paulo Rafei vs Joo Hyeong Hahm, Dane Keoghan vs Dion Reid, Papa Gabriel vs Dave Crooke - these were all recent fights with 1st or 2nd time fighters and you would have thought that you were watching guys with 5x as many. Good checking, grappling, sharp high and low kicks, crisp combinations - it was all there! further up the food chain we have fighters like hardcore, sefa fue, Sone Vanathy right through to the likes of the k-1 and k-1 Max fighters. I think the fact that we dont have guys going pro early is because they no longer have to due to the fact that the general standard of fighters has risen and the number of fighters as well. I think that we have heaps of potential world beaters out there.

What I do agree with is that we have an increasing gap between our top tier of pro fighters and our top amatuers. I think that the situation Richie described is dangerous - once you get to a certain level in NZ it is hard to make the transition to the next. I dont know how we can do it but I think that we need to find a way to get our boys some international experience. Who will Lance fight in NZ once he has fought in the K-1 Max? Few people would put money on anyone except Jason,Andrew, and Ron in the K-1 Max - how do we get the other guys who qualify up to that level? I dont think it is a question of talent - I think there is a question of opportunity. We need to find a way to help our fighters build up to that level - probably by bringing international fighters out here but who pays? I dont know. Hopefully the increased exposure of kiwi fighters in IK will attract promoters in Oz.

In Mikes defence I would like to make a couple of points (just to make an incredibly long post even longer)
1. IK is an Australian magazine and our articles get edited for the Australian market, sometimes with significant changes. If you read my report of the Boyes vs Johnson fight in IK it sounds a lot closer than if you read what I wrote for fight times. Editing. Compare what is said about the Richie vs Suk Bong fight, same thing.
2. It was a preview and contained Mike's opinions. Some I agreed with and some I didn't, but I believe he tried to be balanced. He is a commentator and that's what commentators do - provide comment as they see it. Next issue will have a report with the results (probably also written by Mike). If Mike got it wrong what will readers pay most attention to - the preview or the results? The only one whose reputation will be damaged will be Mike. The fun of a preview is to see how wrong (or right) the previewer got it. At the end of the day - its what happens in the ring that counts, not what Mike writes
3. Agree with his opinions or not - we just got a 4 page article in International Kickboxer about a New Zealand event that hasn't even happened yet! We've put the names of all of those kiwi fighters in front of Aussie fans, but more importantly, Aussie promoters. In the same issue was 3 pages on Ray Sefo, a fight report for Art of War, profiles on 5 kiwi fighters and 3 pages worth of comments from kiwis about Mike Tyson's signing. Pick up a copy from a year ago and compare the difference. Mike was the 1st one to write about the NZ scene in IK and now look where we are.