The Central West was left battered and bruised, after the eight fighters from the region lost their West Region Fight Night 2 bouts on Saturday night.
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Overall, the night was not as well received as West Region Fight Night 1 in Lithgow, with a disappointing turn out at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre (BMEC).
Fight night promoter Paul Traish said the night was great, despite a poor crowd.
“We had 600 in Lithgow for the first fight night, so we assumed we would get a similar response in Bathurst, as the town has a bigger population and a better facility,” Traish said.
“But individually, there were some good fights.
“The locals did well, they displayed some good skills and it was good to see them compete locally.”
Joel Noonan was Bathurst’s sole representative, who was defeated by Emil Jerries in a technical knockout (TKO).
Orange was represented by Brad Campbell (lost to Brandon Zielinski on decision), Joe Throup (lost to Billy McNabb on TKO), Kevin Aurisch (lost to Louay Ishak on TKO), Nick Stewart (lost to Anderson Chen on knockout) and Darren Morris (lost to Michael Goufas-Piper on TKO).
Mudgee’s Stefano Burlando lost on submission to Brad McDonald, with Lithgow’s sole fighter losing to Sam Flint on submission.
Traish was impressed with how well the night was run, on top of the quality of the fights.
“All the fighters messaged me to say how success the night was,” he said.
“People missed out on a really good show.”
Traish said he will not be returning the fight night to Bathurst in the foreseeable future and will currently keep his focus on growing the event in Lithgow.
“For now, I will go back to running the fight night annually at Lithgow,” he said.
“We are looking to do one early next year, around February or March and we make look at expanding to two fight nights in Lithgow a year.”
“The local support in Lithgow was pretty special, with so many passionate fans.”
Traish has been involved in mixed martial arts for the last five years and in the last 18 months has turned professional.
The growth of the sport has “gone crazy” in recent times and Traish expects the sport to get bigger and bigger.
While the sport tends to be bigger in the cities, owing to better facilities, he is hopeful for country areas to catch on.
