Mike Doherty wins Muay Thai Kickboxing Tournament

Dohjo Muay Thai owner Mike Doherty shows off the World Kickboxing Federation

provincial four-man tournament title belt he won Saturday night in Mattawa. Doherty stopped hometown boy Justin Condie in the third round.

Practicing what he preaches has paid off for Mike Doherty in the form of a provincial muay thai kickboxing title belt.

Since opening Dohjo Muay Thai three years ago, Doherty, 26, has focused more on coaching youngsters than his own competitive career. He renewed his commitment to training recently and Saturday night in Mattawa he won the World Kickboxing Federation’s provincial four-man tournament belt at 165 pounds.

Doherty, from Ennismore, got a bye in the first-round because his opponent, Kitchener’s Justin Holden, was unable to fight due to suffering a knockout loss a week earlier. Coincidentally, it was Doherty who knocked out Holden in the first round July 18 at a card at Toronto’s Woodbine Casino. In the final, Doherty stopped Mattawa’s Justin Condie in the third round. He dropped Condie twice in the second round and the referee stopped the bout after a series of unanswered kicks and body blows by Doherty before 500 fans.

“It means a lot to me because it’s my first big wins with my new gym,” said Doherty, a veteran of more than 30 bouts. “I’ve only had a couple of fights since I opened the gym because I’ve been focusing more on my fighters. Now that the gym is starting to get going I can begin to compete myself.”

Doherty said he’s been inspired by his students including at Bowmanville’s Redemption Muay Thai.

“It’s shown me how many people support me in this. Last week at the Toronto fight at Woodbine 30 people from my gym came up,” he said.

Since May, Doherty has focused his efforts full-time on his gym located upstairs at 304 George St. N in a shared space with Kerry Hendren’s Scrapyard Boxing Gym.

After a close first round, Doherty said he began to pick up the pace.

“I found my range in the second round and started landing a lot of body kicks which I don’t usually do,” he said. “I dropped him once with body kicks and once with knees in the corner.”

The success has Doherty thinking about bigger goals.

“There are more tournaments coming up and they’re bare shins, no head gear fights which is kind of the next step before pro,” he said. “I want to do a few more of those before I turn pro. In the next couple of years I’d like to do some pro fights.”

On Saturday, Dohjo Muay Thai will be putting on a demonstration throughout the day at the Peter Robinson Festival at Morrow Park. He will also be running a youth camp from Aug. 10-14.