Day two was opening with a bout between the host of the Arafura Games Lee Fook  who made appearance at the Asian Championships last year in Macau together with his teammate Yolanda Schmidt. The Darwin Convention Center was again filled with spectators from the first to the last bout showing how Australians can support their team.
Last year in Macau against Thai Ronnacha Nadtayai Lee was fighting strong equalizing in the second round but giving the Thai the third one and the overall victory. This time it was a Vietnamese Nhat Nguyen Tran Duy in 63.5 kg division who was coming to ring against Lee. Lee has been going forward with all his power leaving no chances for the Nhat in the first round with the crowd сheering to their countryman. The second and third round went in favour of the Vietnamese athlete after he could adjust to Lee’s attacks and pulled out the victory.

One of the highlights of the day was the fight between the French Lorenzo Sammartino and Singaporean Kaiquan Chai. In the age of only 19 Lorenzo has a record of 10 bouts in IFMA events travelling from Cancun to Prague and Antalya to compete in muaythai competitions. Arafura Games is a special event for Lorenzo as it his first appearing in the Elite Class division. Lorenzo started it with an amazing victory and whoever did not watch the live streaming from today should definitely get to the recorded video and enjoy this amazing performance of muaythai by both athletes.

The heavy weaponry of the Ukrainian muaythai came to action today as one of the legends of the 63.5 kg division Igor Liubchenko stepped in the ring against Ryan Jakiri from the Philippines. Ryan tried to surprise Igor with his speed and made couple of effective attacks making Igor use his defense experience. Still Igor did not let Ryan feel comfortable in the ring for a long time and the bout ended up in a confident victory for Ukraine.

Another athlete who starts his steps in the Elite division is Zoltan Nardelotti  from Hungary who has a good record of 8 victories and one loss. He appeared in the Elite class in Vilnius at the Baltic Muaythai Open winning the final against no other than the current European Champion Dmitry Filipau from Belarus. The draw for the 75 kg division of the Arafura Games put him in the ring with the UAE athlete Amine El Moatassime who had a tremendous will to win but Zoltan’s experience played its part and decided this bout in favour of Hungary.

 

Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) became one of the leaders of Kazakhstan muaythai featuring at the World Championships in Mexico and Asian Championships in Macau. His Mexican campaign finished with the Thai Wiwat Khamta who has many renowned athletes wishing to take a rematch. This time Almaz competed against Quyen Tang Nguyen in 57 kg. Almaz used his arsenal of punches and knees bringing each round to a referees’ decision in his favour.

The last but definitely not least bout of the day was between Vladyslav Mykytas (UKR) and Phillip Delarmino (PHI). Vladislav was the only athlete who started this day having one fight the day before which he won against the French Quentin Alhamdou. Vladislav passed the test even failing the first round of the whole bout. Vladislav came back strong in the second and third claiming the semifinal spot. He will be meeting Chotichanin Kokkrachai (THA).
Day two gave a lot of emotional moments, disappointments for one, celebration for others, and tomorrow’s bout list will have must watch fights with two Australians on it. Tune in to the live streaming to be in the center of action together with the spectators at the Darwin Convention Center.