Tom Lamont WVC XII Superfight Champion and Jonny Burrows

Interview Post WVC XII

SFUKU: Tom, you recently beat Carlson Gracie Black Belt Russo in Brazil, can you give us a brief description of the fight?

Tomas Lamont : the fight went according to plan for the last six months I said I was going to fight my own fight. A lot of times in the past I didn’t fight my own fight I tried to fight the other guys fight and lost basically, I wanted to fight my fight and it went according to plan, you’ll see on the video tape, left jab Right cross…que sera sera after that. Tough guy, didn’t have to go looking for him, he came out fighting hit him with the right cross, he went down I got the mount position and started chain punching. From there he got up, I tried a choke he grabbed my arm and pulled my arm away really quickly, very strong guy he tried a wrist lock or something like that I’m not 100% certain. Then I threw a roundhouse kick he backed off and we went to the floor where I offered him my ankle, I think he thought all his Christmas’s came early but we’ve been practicing in the gym with the guys, Johnny, Andy, Paddy, George and people like that. I went for the ankle I sat up knee across the chest started punching again He offered me the arm and I done a rolling arm bar and he tapped out I think it was just under 3 minutes

SFUKU: Johnny you fought in the eight-man tournament your opponent won the tournament overall didn’t he?

Jonny Burrows : He did indeed that’s correct his name was "Bocca" which apparently is Portuguese for mouth, which isn’t very flattering but there you go, he was a good opponent, a very good opponent.

SFUKU: Okay, the story we’re hearing is that it was a tough fight and that you took him longer than anyone else has taken him previously?

Jonny Burrows : Well I think he’s been taken longer once maybe twice before, but with world class opponents, Sergei Bytckov took him twenty five minutes or something like that I’m not 100% sure about that. I would think he’s probably one of the best lightweights I’ve ever seen. Very hard very tough guy he deserved to win that. He was unlucky to lose WVC11 on a split decision at the end of the tournament so I suppose he was really the favorite. All respect due to the guy was very very good very strong.

SFUKU: Okay, could you just give us a quick description of the fight?

Jonny Burrows : From what I can remember, things tend to happen very very quickly, as I’m sure you appreciate! He came towards me as far as I can remember I had him with two right hands, he sort of clinched I pushed him away hit him with a left elbow then a right elbow, pushed his head to the side head and I head butted him, and he clenched his head into the chest. I thought I had more space than what I actually had I tried to sprawl back and discovered I was kind of up against the cage so I just started dropping elbows down the back of his head and his neck. I’m not sure how long we were actually there for I managed to get a bit of space through a kick and from there as far as I can remember he took me down, scrambled around on the ground for a while again I don’t know for how long. I was constantly trying to hit him strikes, elbows, open hand strikes, punches to the side of his head and his face. He landed a very good head but in my cheek after a while I managed to pass the guard I was trying to roll out I was very tied up against the fence I was trying to walk the fence to get up. I actually at one point sat up hit him and he pulled me back down. He got the mount threw a couple of punches one of them landed it was a good punch and then he threw another punch but from what I can gather he missed with it but as he went down and he caught me with his elbow which split my lower lip open and at this point Paddy decided to throw the towel in because the cut was right through. I suppose I’ll have to live to fight another day, I wasn’t pleased about it at the time but what can you do, Paddy had my own best interests at heart and you know I’m glad he did.

SFUKU: So it was a good stoppage then?

Jonny Burrows : Oh yeah it was a good stoppage I’m hoping very much to get a rematch with him very very much.

Tomas Lamont : I would say we would be very confident o get a super fight with this guy within a year what I personally want to do is go back to the drawing board with Johnny and myself like we do after all the fights you learn from them what I like say to Jonny and he doesn’t really accept this fact but the guy didn’t beat him we threw the towel in.

Jonny Burrows : I was the standing on the inside looking out as it were and I wait until I see the tape. Everybody’s been saying it was a good fight that it was one of the best fights of the night so I’m very pleased about that. His next opponent went twenty-five seconds I think!

Tomas Lamont : Yeah to put it into perspective on the record Jonny knows this anyway but for the general public out there. I’m very proud of Johnny Burrows, the achievement he has made here I don’t think he realises what he has actually done here actually I don’t think we realise what we have actually done here! He’s gone across there with a world class opponent took him seven minutes bare knuckled in a cage no holds barred in Brazil. Basically as far as I’m concerned we went in to the Lions Den and beat the Lion. We have now opened the door for some of the excellent fighters that there is in Britain and Ireland and its up to them to take this opportunity the same as we did.

SFUKU: The fights out of the way, how was the show itself, did you have a good time in Brazil?

Tomas Lamont : I thought that when we went to Sweden to the Frank Shamrock invitational the standard and the way you were treated was superb, until we got to Brazil. Basically we were picked up at the airport and we were lifted and lead every step of the way from that, it was such an exceptional experience that it’s hard to put into words. I don’t think that we put our hands in our pocket once except for Drink, (Everyone Laughs, Ah the Irish!!!)

Jonny Burrows : That was it, Mr. Lapenda was absolutely fantastic, can’t praise the guy enough he was a true gentleman, as Tom says we were lifted and Laid (Freudian slip, don’t tell Jonnys wife) Lead around, free food, hotel was phenomenal, Chauffeur the whole 9 yards. The show itself, I think…

Tomas Lamont : Butts in..It was a very very impressive show, right from the press conference right the whole way through I was actually a bit in awe, when we arrived at the stadium on the night of the fights, by the amount of people that was there and the standard of the fights. I think I actually asked myself, at one stage, what the hell was I doing here after the first fight. You’ll see when the video tape comes out, a lot of blood guts and what have you in the first fight, a challenge match…basically the standard was pretty damn amazing to be honest with you.

SFUKU: There has been little or no coverage of the event so far, even on the internet, we know that there is going to be a video but it will be a while before that comes out, Can you just set the scene a little? Give a quick description of the arena itself, the amount of people that were in the crowd and so on?

Jonny Burrows : it was a football stadium with a roof basically, it was big, very very big! The cage was in the middle, there was a walkway of about thirty yards about 6’ off the ground (turnsto Tom) yeah?

Tomas Lamont : The only way I can describe it, without being derogatory to anybody, it was very WWF it was a show of entertainment that was put on as entertainment for the crowd…Mr Lapenda obviously knows what he’s doing cause the match making was done very very well. I mean I myself was impressed at how he matched them up, most of the guys were on a level pegging with each other. He knew what he was doing and it showed, definitely I wanna go back quite soon,. I think in one of the interviews I said that it was my swan song because the reason why I was doing it was because this gentleman sitting on my left (Jonny) he wanted to do it and my attitude is I’m not going to let any of my students do anything that I haven’t done. So it was his fault that I was in the cage, and I’d like to thank him personally for that because it was because of him that I ended up going and, lucky enough this time around I won the title. Thanks very much Jonny.

SFUKU: So the obvious question now is What’s next for yourselves, for Chum Sut and for Unavoidable promotions?

Jonny Burrows : at this moment in time as far as Chum Sut is concerned, I think what’s basically gonna happen is, as Tom said, after every single fight we go back to the drawing board. He is my trainer, he will, on a personal level he’ll start working on programs for me and start getting me stronger and better (Jonny can squat 250kgs for 64 reps in sets of 10 and 8) I think Chum Sut is an all encompassing thing, we will be training hard, we’re hoping to get people over to train with. We’d like to roll with as many people as we can, make as many contacts as humanly possible, hopefully get more fights for the people who want to fight within our own organisation. That’s the main goal at the moment as far as I’m concerned. I would like to have another 4 fights before the end of the year, that’s my goal, I don’t know what Toms goal is, it’s gonna be slightly different. As far as unavoidable promotions at the moment, we have plans for the future we’re looking into various different aspects and avenues. There will be hopefully at least 1-maybe 2 events before the end of the year

Tomas Lamont : Hopefully there will be another of our very successful Amateur trials events with both participation from North and South and hopefully we can get some people from across the water to compete. Then we’ve got the Irish Championships in November, but we’d like to get an event in before that for Unavoidable Promotions. We haven’t stopped running the shows, things have just taken a bit of a back seat. If you wanna play mens games you have to train like men during the day, you can’t be doing2 or 3 different things at once. We’ve had to put that to one side, we had to become warriors. Warriors train to fight so that’s what we had to do

Jonny Burrows : You can not promote and fight Successfully, anybody who does this, you know… Lee has done it, how he does it I have no idea. So we had to put it on the back burner, you have to have your blinkers on, it’s as simple as that, you have to have your blinkers on

SFUKU: I know you’ve got a lot to say and a lot of people that you want to thank so I’m just going to give you the floor so to speak

Note: Please make a point of reading this, this isn’t just an endless list of thank yous, there is a lot said right here that I think people should read

Tomas Lamont : I’d like to start by thanking a few people, I’d like to take this opportunity to do so. I’d like to thank Darragh, yourself, for all the interviews and help that you’ve given us over the months and for taking an interest in us and having a bit of belief in us when possibly a few others didn’t.

I’d also like to thank everyone for their help, if I leave anyone out I apologise for that but I’m only human. I’d like to thank all fighters, cause all the fighters know that there’s a whole lot of people behind the scenes who never receive the recognition they deserve, so I’ll give my thanks now and Jonny can sort his out after.

Firstly I’d like to thank my inspiration, this may seem silly to some people but my inspiration is my wife Rosemary. Nothing would be possible without her. I’d like to thank my instructors Dave Finlay (wrestling Legend) Charlie Brown and my strength and conditioning advisor Neil Potts and all the instructors and students of Chum Sut All my friends. A big thank you to Paddy Mooney, my manager and business Guru, if Paddy can’t make it happen it aint gonna happen. I’d like to thank the Burrow brothers Jonny and Andrew. Andrew went from being Marvellous Andy at the Sweden trip to Miracle boy, he was absolutely unbelievable on the Brazil trip and the experience he got from that will hold him in good stead, that’s a future champion, I’ll stake my reputation on that one.

Every other instructor or friend who may teach or practice a different system or style from me have helped me and also inspired me to train harder. Sean, Paul Devaney, Paul Waters, Mark, philip, Paul Whitrod, Jason Frank, Rick Young, Fred Rado, Lee Hasdell, more about Lee Hasdell in a minute, Mark Montgomery, Graham Keys, Niall and all the other lads from the door. Lastly but not least I’d like to thank SFUK, people have gotta realise that without SFUK nobody’s gonna hear any sort of news so can I just say Thanks Guys

About Mr Hasdell, it’s my belief that Lee Hasdell is responsible for bringing NHB type events into the UK. He’s also responsible for giving me, and people like me a chance to compete and get involved in Mixed Martial Arts competition. Lee to me is the unsung hero of the British Martial Arts scene and I’d personally like to thank him for the opportunities that he has given myself and others. It’s also thanks to him and his contacts that Paddy got us to Brazil in the first place. Lee is a personal friend of mine, and I personally think it’s time that he got the credit and recognition that he deserves. Also SFUK, this organisation is the best PR thing to happen in the British Martial Arts scene. Bringing all of the news etc right to us, please remember that it supports all the British and Irish fighters and not just one or two. Jonny do you want to add anything to that?

Jonny Burrows : Tom has basically covered virtually everything, I’d like to thank all the people in the various different organisations that have taken part in our trials events,everyone from Gracie Barra, to the TaiJutsu and anyone who has come up from down South, John Kavanagh Andy Ryan, it’s great to have them, Hopefully we’ll be able to do more together in the future.

I’d like to give a big thank you to Tom, without Tom I wouldn’t even be sitting here. Without him it just wouldn’t happen, he’s my trainer, he’s my strength and fitness coach he’s also a very good friend. People that Tom has mentioned before, Paul Devaney, Niall McTaggart Brian ‘Big Bird’ and of course my Brother Andrew (Belfasts No1 Gay Icon) who is my main training partner and a really good fried, George Duncan who is silly strong (Tom Agrees.) Dave Finlay our Wrestling coach and Charlie Brown our boxing coach. Jason Kelly who has helped us with the Thai, Sean Connolly who has helped us with Boxing and a lot of other things too. All these people deserve all the credit I can give them and hopefully with all our contacts and all our friends we’ll be able to do something in Ireland to get as many fighters to come through that we can and hopefully what we’ve done is we’ve opened a few doors for a few more of the really great fighters in the UK to go to Brazil and go to different shows. We know they’re out there and hopefully what’ll happen is that other people will get a shot at it now and we’ll have a good crack at it and people will be able to make a bit of a living at this game. That’s the main thing, if it doesn’t cost them anything that’s the main thing.

I’d also like to thank Harry Magavock, a very good friend of mine, he has helped us out a lot, helped us incredibly. Everybody from Milk, Jay Kay one of the DJs who’s helping us with the video editing, Conor MvGoverick and Milk night club in Belfast, they’ve helped me out a lot. Thank you very much

SFUKU : Tom you have said a mouthful, you’ve given a lot of thanks and I agree with pretty much all that you’ve said, except maybe you’ve given SFUK a little too much credit. It’s time maybe for a little constructive criticism, What, in your opinion, is wrong with Britain and Ireland and the attitude toward fighters.?

Tomas Lamont : A good question Darragh, Basically, Chum Sut means Seek Truth and the truth is that anyone who steps up to the mark in combat, be it ring mat or cage, they’ve got a lot of balls and they should get the respect they deserve, win lose or draw. As opposed to the Armchair critics sitting watching the fight. Have you ever noticed how all the best fighters are in the crowd?

Instead of spectators and such having a go at fighters, they should stand up and get behind every last one of us. I don’t care what style, system or part of the country we come from. We all, like it or not, represent the British and Irish Martial Arts scene and I believe that we could put together one of the strongest no Holds Barred teams in the world if we put politics to one side.

SFUKU : Have you anything to add to that Jonny?

Jonny Burrows :I think that’s pretty much said it all, there are great fighters out there, everyone’s an individual but at the end of the day there are opportunities for everyone and it’s better to have everyone working together trying to make the scene better in Britain. When you go to places like Brazil, and the other people who have gone to America and other places will tell you, you just realise how small you actually are when it’s almost like a lifestyle people can make money at it, can improve their lifestyle. People appreciate the fighters and appreciate everything, win lose or draw it doesn’t really matter.

Tomas Lamont : I think that the sooner the fighters treat all the fights as an experience rather than a Win Lose or Draw situation the better they’re gonna make themselves. From my own personal experience I fought Dexter Casey, it was my first NHB experience. I wanna thank Dexter, I also wanna thank Kamal Lock because the two of them showed me, they beat me physically but they didn’t beat me mentally, that I had to go back to the Drawing board and work on my Submission, work on my Ground fighting Skills. Thanks very much guys because thanks to you I’m WVCXII Superfight Champion. Because I went back, put my head down and got the skills that I needed. To anyone out there who’s missed me for the last few months it’s because I’ve had my head down training. I’d like to say to SFUK, if you’ll have me I’d like to post some information up and lets all work together and make this scene work and lets stop fighting amongst ourselves.

I’d also like to say that I hope Jonny and I did the SFUK shorts justice because I think I have a nicer bum that him and we’d like a general consensus vote on that from all the SFUK readers

SFUKU: Thanks a lot guys for the interview

 

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