The first competition day became a warm up before the final rounds for ones and tough rivalry for the others.
IFMA athletes finally got to action after long flights, and registration, and the pee muay music broke the silence at the Huam Gymnasyum marking the beginning of the Muaythai competition.

An exciting bout took place between Juan Esteban Vasquez (COL) and Dimos Asimakopoulos (GRE) where both athletes were equal after the send round and it was the Greek who claimed the victory. Dimos is moving to the semifinal whereas Juan had a great experience worth the travel all the way from Cordova, Colombia.

The Turkish representative Enis Yunusoğlu (TUR) who is only 20 years old is making his reputation in IFMA sweeping his opponent from Thailand in a great style. Enis proved that his great performance against Jimmy Vienot in Bangkok was not accidental and he is now one of the contenders for the medals in Korea.

Viktorie Bulinova (CZE) got to bringing her plan to action disappointing the Turkish audience leaving Merve Saglam (TUR) out of competition on the first round. Viktorie in her turn is going further fighting for the medals for the Czech Republic.


Itai Gayer (ISR) is one of the stars in Chungju together with his fellow athlete Nili Block. Itai went strong against his opponent from the USA Matt Zilch knowing how strong the American Muaythai school. He used all his weapons and power to ensure the victory which was a surprise for Matt as he couldn’t find the way to defend himself against the elbows of the Israeli. As a result first victory of Gershon.
The opening ceremony will conclude the day and tomorrow the second round of the competition will give the public amazing spectacle of Muaythai.