San Shou vs. Boxing

On Saturday, December 11, 1999 Chinese San Shou champions faced boxers from the United States in 9 mixed rules matches. The rules of this event had been arranged almost a year earlier between representatives of the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) and US boxing representatives. The rules for the Chinese fighters were that they were to wear no shoes and be allowed to punch, initiate takedowns and kick above the knee. The rules for the boxers were that they were to wear their boxing shoes and allowed to punch only. Kicking and takedowns were forbidden on the US side, although there was a stipulation that at the moment a Chinese fighter initiated a takedown, the American would be allowed to counter the takedown by attempting a takedown himself. Every fight was scheduled for 5 rounds of 2 minutes each.

The venue of the fight became problematic as the fight was originally scheduled for the Las Vegas Hilton in Nevada, but the venue was switched less than 4 days before the fight to the next state over. The final venue turned out to be the Burns Arena at the Dixie Center Community College in the town of St. George, Utah. The gym was relatively small but the gym was less than half full with all of the ringside seats taken by the flag waving Chinese entourage bussed in from Las Vegas. The rest of the gym was spread with about 300 friends and relatives of the American boxers, American spectators and a small smattering of Chinese fans.

The cheering was relatively unoriginal by either side and fell clearly along nationalistic lines. The dull repetitive thud of "U.S.A....U.S.A....U.S.A." resonating through the half full hall when the Americans scored. The Chinese shouted "Jiayou! Zhongguoren, Jiayou!" and "Hao!" roughly translated as "Go Chinese! Go!" and "Good!" whenever the Chinese smacked the American fighter particularly loudly.

It was difficult to tell what the names of the fighters were as there was no program available, nor was it posted anywhere at the fight, so I am pretty much only going by what I heard the announcer say but the schedule of matches was as follows:

Junior Featherweight - 54 kg Men
Boxer from Guangdong vs. American boxer
Due to the having some directional errors traveling from Las Vegas to St. George we missed the first fight completely, but according to the results from the China Physical Education Paper (Zhongguo Tiyu Bao) the Cantonese guy won.

Featherweight - 58 kg Men
Boxer from Anhui vs. American boxer
We came in halfway into this fight, watching the last two rounds. In the fourth round, the fighter from Anhui was throwing his roundhouse kick at the American boxers head, frequently and missing more often than not. The Anhui fighter was also frequently attempting hip throws even while still 2 feet away from the boxer, which were not working partially due to the poor leverage and partially because the American boxer had adopted a strategy of stopping takedown attempts by dropping to his knees as soon as the Chinese fighter grabbed him.

By the fifth round the Chinese boxer was exhausted from his many vain efforts of lifting the American boxer off his knees and the American was punching at will. In the end the American boxer was even lifting his legs as if he was going to kick and that would still fake out the Chinese guy, even though he knew going into the fight the American could not really kick him. Only the final bell saved the Chinese guy from a knockout. The match went by decision to the American. The cheering was so loud in the gym after the first American victory, that I didn't catch the victor's name.

Junior Lightweight - 60 kg Women
Li Mingfeng vs. Kelly (?)
This fight had a little bit of history to it because the fight was originally billed as a fight between the women's Chinese National Sanshou champion Li Mingfeng and the women's American boxing champion named Mia St.John (now of PLAYBOY fame). Anyway, Mia either came late or bailed out altogether because the American camp threw in this woman named Kelly, a local boxer from Utah into the ring. Cheered on by her husband and three kids she hopped in to face Li Mingfeng. It was a sorry fight as Li was a professional athlete and Kelly may have just come from her last kid's PTA meeting.

By the end of the first round, Li had punched Kelly's nose into a bloody mess. The referee never even called a pause to stop the bleeding and Kelly's face continued to leak blood for the remainder of the fight. The entire fight was a bit ridiculous because although Li was the superior athlete, her techniques were never good enough or strong enough to bring the American down. Kelly just hung around. She didn't punch much but she didn't fall and wasn't out on her feet or anything so the Li just kept hitting her with punches, kick and the occasional takedown. Even though Li's attacks were that strong, it was still kind of depressing to watch this lady get the stuffing get kicked out of her in front of her young children. Li won by decision at the end of five rounds.

The funny thing was that after the fights between the Chinese and US fighters, Mia St. John did show up and boxed with another US woman whom she knocked out in a minute and forty seconds. Subsequently, a beat up Kelly jumped out of the stands to scream at Mia and challenge her to fight. It was weird because if Kelly fought the Li Mingfeng with half of the enthusiasm with which she charged down to challenge Mia, the fight would have been a different story.

Junior Welterweight - 62 kg Men
Geriletu, Inner Mongolia vs. Golden Johnson
This was the fight of the vicious roundhouse kick. The Mongolian boxer consistently threw low roundhouse kicks to the thighs of Johnson. These kicks were hitting so loudly, that the impact could be heard throughout the hall. In the first round, Geriletu hit Johnson with these kicks about three times which slowed Johnson down and put him on the defensive for the entire round. Evidently, the Chinese coach noted the power of this kick and in the opening minutes of the second round the Mongolian was like a Muay Thai kickboxer hammering away at the back of the American's thighs, just above the knee. The boxer took about five more shots to the leg and then fell to the ground writhing in agony, clutching his left knee. Much to the anguish of the American fans, help was not admitted into the ring until the 10-second count was completed to give the Chinese fighter a victory with a knockout. Then, Johnson's trainer (who was incredibly strong) scooped up Johnson with one hand and opened the ropes with the other to get him medical attention.

What was shameful about the fight was that while the American trainer was taking the injured fighter out, the Sanshou fighter was jumping up and down in the middle of the ring doing back flips to celebrate his victory which came the expense of someone else's injury.

Junior Middleweight - 66 kg Men
Yu Banming, Zhejiang vs. Steven Martinez
This was the same fight as previously with different faces. Evidently the Chinese thoroughly enjoyed their previous victory and maintained the course with the same tactics. This resulted in almost 10 attempts at roundhouse kicks by Yu Banming just in the opening minute of the fight. He connected just two or three times but it was enough to injure Martinez who was able to crawl back to his corner but unable to fight anymore resulting in a TKO victory for Yu Banming. Yu Banming followed Geriletu's celebrate over your wounded colleague, entertaining the Chinese crowd with jump inside kicks.

At this point the American crowd was almost ready to riot and all the officials on both sides were arguing vehemently at the judges table. Evidently, there was some agreement that the Chinese side would no longer use the roundkick'em-'til-their-knee-falls-off stratagy because the Chinese did change tactics after this fight?? (WHY? Who knows? Event was strange enough).

Middleweight - 71 kg Men
Ke Rongliang, Sichuan vs. Shane Blake
In the next fight, the Chinese switched strategy back to their original plan. Ke would keep the Blake at bay with sidekicks to the waist and high roundhouse kicks, while waiting for Blake to make a straightforward charge at which time, the Chinese fighter would grab him and throw him.

It is curious to note that the Americans who used a different coach for each fighter did not pay attention to the previous successful American boxer and hence did not employ the kneeling defense nor any of the legs raises to feign kicking. Ke had almost all of the points, being hit only by Blake's glancing blows or a lucky random punch to the head or body. Thus, Ke Rongliang won by decision at the end of five rounds.

Super Middleweight - 76 kg Men
Liu Hao, Shandong vs. David Boo
In this fight Liu used the same techniques as Ke and enjoyed the same level of success for the first three rounds. Liu would throw sidekicks and roundhouse kicks to keep Boo from closing in too fast and when Boo would come in Liu would attempt a takedown. Liu was only taking minor damage from the occasional punch to the body. It looked like another easy Chinese win.

In the fourth round however, Boo got off another lucky shot, this time connecting with Liu's head. At that moment Liu just stood there looking for all the world like a stunned sheep. Boo stared at him for about a second, probably because he was surprised at not being taken down for the umpteenth time, but quickly recovered and started a barrage of punches that were landing about 80% of the time. Liu continued to leave his hands where they were frozen after being hit the first time, neither protecting his body nor his head rather leaving both hands around the level of his neck. (The now notorious lack of heart by the government sponsored San Shou fighters. A sad state of affairs!).

It got so bad that the referee pulled them apart took Liu to a corner and ran some tests to see if he was out on his feet. The referee asked him to raise both fists over his head; Liu could only raise one. The referee then asked him to put both hands together; Liu just stood there. At that point the Chinese coach signaled that the Chinese side retired the match.

It would have been okay if the fight just ended like that but it did not. After having walked back to his corner to exit the ring, "Glass-jaw" Liu seemed to finally have regained his facilities and now was pissed off at his corner for throwing in the towel. The Chinese doctor tried to examine him and Liu pushed him away. His trainer put Liu's robe on him and Liu threw it on the floor in a huff.

On the other side, as the American fans were near pandemonium at the unexpected American victory, the winner David Boo ran up to a Chinese TV cameraman, assumed a poorly mimicked a white crane kicking posture ala "Karate Kid" and then flipped off the cameraman and the Chinese people sitting below. It was not a good evening for sportsmanship. (Classic American sportsmanship!).

Light Heavyweight - 81 kg Men
Narigeridong, Inner Mongolia vs. Reggie Ruthers
The next fight was much more cordial. And Narigeridong seemed to be the most likeable of the Chinese boxers, actually shaking hands and smiling and Ruthers before the match. Well, okay the first round did start off with two warnings to Narigeridong for hitting Ruthers in the crotch but they did seem accidental.

Narigeridong followed the same strategy as his preceding Chinese fighters and while Ruthers did get some good head shots in, Narigeridong would tap his head and nod slightly to Ruthers acknowledging a good shot, but Narigeridong never lost control of the fight, winning on a decision after five rounds.

I was pleased with this fight for two reasons. First, both fighters seemed so gentleman-like after the previous fighters' display. Second, I finally got my digital camera's burst shot to go off at the exact time Narigeridong took down Ruthers!

Cruiserweight - 85 kg Men
Li Dongmin, Shandong vs. American boxer
This was supposed to be the title fight with a big boxer from Las Vegas against Li Dongmin. The fight started with Li throwing about three kicks and two takedowns. Each attack made the American boxer and his staff more and more furious. Evidently, the American boxer had not anticipated either kicks or takedowns (the classic lack of organizational skills of those in the IWUF, getting fighters to fight without them even know what the rules are!).

So, after taking down the American, Li pushed ahead with a punch at which time the furious American kneed Li in the groin. Li went down, the referee disqualified the American, the Chinese fans went crazy over the foul, the American fans went crazy over the disqualification, and the match was over before the end of the first round.

In a way it was fitting that the last fight end with so much confusion because it more or less summarized the night. The rules were unclear and worse yet were very dangerous for the fighters. The fighters were not particularly well prepared for the match. The crowd was not educated on either who was fighting or even what the rules were.

If this match was to foster good relations between the two cultures, it was an abysmal failure. If some of these fighters had their druthers, they would have started World War 3 right then and there. The Chinese did win the evening 7 (4 decisions, 1 knock out, 1 technical knock out, 1 disqualification) to 2 (1 decision, 1 retirement), however the wins were not all that convincing as two came off of injuries and many of the others came off of multiple takedowns to which there were not many defenses for the Americans as set forth by the rules. So if this match was to prove the superiority of one sport over the other, then it failed as the models of fighting and rules proved too different.

Nonetheless, the evening was fun and educational and hopefully, the promoters on both sides will learn from this experience and try it again with rules that are the same on both sides at a venue that someone has actually heard of with high caliber fighters.