Gladiators Fight Nights (K1 Kickboxing)
In 2011, a couple of months after I retired from the Armed Forces of Malta and I was working as a Freelance Photographer and a Part-Time Photojournalist a friend of mine called me and told me that he will be starting to organise International K1 (Kickboxing) Fights. He said that I came to his mind to photograph the event so that is why he was calling me.
I had very little idea about this sport but I accepted. The first thing that I did was, I did some research online and even on YouTube. I watched several fights to see what happens and where is best to shoot etc.
On the 28th of June 2011, the first ‘Gladiators Fight Night’ under WKN patronage was held. I went to the venue and as soon as I went in I saw that the light was not so good. Equipment out (Canon 7D with a 17-40mm lens) and I took some exposures, ISO had to be very high around 10,000 or more to have an aperture of F4 and a Shutter Speed of 1/800 or more.
The event went well and the numerous people that attended left happily. I was exhausted and before I drove home I sat in my car for around 15 minutes to relax a bit since I spent the whole event on my feet and with equipment hanging on me.
When I woke up the first thing I did was to download the images onto my hard drives and start editing the 100’s of images that I had. The images were ok for y first time in shooting this sport.
These events continued during the years and they were being held 3 times a year with many countries participating against Maltese Fighters. We had Fighters from Sicily, Italy, France, England, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Holland, Norway, Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Caribbean, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Sardinia.
During these years, Maltese Fighters won a lot of title belts in these categories:
WKN K1 European Semi-Pro
Jesred Piscopo
Brandon Borg
Brandon Spiteri
Daniel ‘The Jet’ Zahra
Ruth Tanti
Reuben Azzopardi
WKN K1 World Title Semi-Pro
Brandon Spiteri
Kieth ‘Speed’ Azzopardi
Reuben Azzopardi
WKN K1 European Pro
Daniel ‘The Jet’ Zahra
Keith ‘Speed’ Azzopardi
Christopher Rotin
WKN K1 World Title Pro
Daniel ‘The Jet’ Zahra Twice
Keith ‘Speed’ Azzopardi
During all these years I have improved a lot and even won Awards Locally and Internationally with some of the images. I am also better equipped with the latest cameras and lenses. I have also seen little kids grow up and win titles. The ‘Gladiators Fight Nights’ have arrived at the 24th edition which was held on the 29th of February 2020 but unfortunately, the events had to stop because of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Hopefully, this will soon be behind us and the Fight Events will start again and with spectators.
Finally, I would like to Thank Noel Mercieca for these opportunities that were given to me. We both come a long way as friends from the Army days and now both retired from the Army.
