Queenstown fighter Rob Horrocks has had plenty of career highlights over the past couple of years.
Fair to say, none come close to his most recent Muay Thai fight, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok last month.
Horrocks, 33, Fight Science’s head coach, says ever since he started Muay Thai when he was 12 he’s wanted to get into that ring.
‘‘Fighting at Lumpinee Stadium is every Muay Thai fighter’s dream.
‘‘As a kid, it seems like a dream, [like] I’m going to go to space.’’
He reckons it’s the boxing equivalent of fighting at Madison Square Garden, or the MGM Grand.
‘‘In terms of prestige, it’s huge.’’
Horrocks spent a couple of months before his March 11 LWC Super Champ fight training at Phuket’s Bangtao Muay Thai and MMA gym.
The team there helped get the New Zealand kickboxing and Muay Thai title-holder on the Super Champ promoter’s radar, and soon after he was invited to take on a Thai fighter in a best-of-three-rounds battle, broadcast live and on YouTube.
Horrocks knocked him down in the first and landed good shots in the second before standing his ground in the third to take the win.
Horrocks says he’s had a lot of good feedback from the fight, which may open some more doors.
While he’s now eyeing up some potential fights, his immediate focus is organising the Invictus fight night at the Queenstown Memorial Centre on April 29.
It’ll boast a full undercard as well as the NZ middleweight title fight between former Queenstowner Diego Beneduzzi and John Anderson (Wellington), a pro kickboxing fight between Fight Science’s Rishon Harris and Kate O’Neill (Christchurch), a battle between Reid Miller
(Christchurch) and Cody Sione (Hamilton) and the main amateur event, a rematch between local Aoife Whelan and Melanie Berg (Wellington).
