'The 1999 Battle' was sold out (1300 people) and even though there appeared to be several empty seats in the back of the venue, over 200 people were in standing room only around the ring witnessing the action. As usual, Calgary's audience is very fight intelligent and they were entertained by several full Muay Thai rules bouts. These two bouts were close to being the 'Bouts of the Year' for 1999. The skills demonstrated were very good and of a very high standard.

The semi-main event of the evening featured Team Canada's Nick Ring (Miles National) squaring off against Team Thailand's Tamanoon SaeTan. Ring who weighed 173 lbs. sported a record of 21 wins, 4 losses and 0 draws and to his credit holds the WKA Intercontinental Muay Thai Title as well as having won a Bronze Medal in the IAMTF World Championships in Bangkok during February of the year. The Thai Tamanoon SaeTan, weighed in at 181 lbs. sported a record of 85 wins, 7 losses and 0 draws with the impressive credentials of having won the Gold Medal in his division in the Asian Games, a Gold Medal in the National (Thailand) Championships and a Gold Medal at the 1999 Kazakistan Muay Thai Cup.

The bout started off fairly briskly, with only a few 'feeling out' or probing kicks delivered at each other in the beginning of the first round. Tamanoon looked very strong in the first round and he landed some very hard round kicks to Ring's body but amazingly, Ring just walked through the blows and countered. The Canadian used his kicks and his punches mostly in the first round while the Thai concentrated on the use of the kick and attempted his knee attacks. Tamanoon just smiled through the first and second round with a look that he figured the bout was going to be easy and a walk-over. In the second the Thai dominated in two clinch exchanges by throwing the Canadian to the ground and landing on top. Tamanoon even caught one of Ring's kicks and the Canadian fell to the ground off balance. In round three all of this was to change. Ring's coach gave his athlete advice to use in the clinch and the Thai never again really had his way in the clinch exchanges again. In this round, Ring started working the punches, kicks and knees. For every blow the Thai would attempt, Ring would answer with several very strong and successful counter shots. During the clinch, Ring showed how strong he was with a series of hard knees that caught the Thai in the body that started slowing the Thai down. In round four, Ring stepped up the pace and now was landing punches, kicks, elbows and knees at will. The Thai would expect a knee during the clinches and Ring would deliver strong elbows. When the Thai would cover for the elbows, Ring would deliver strong knees. A beautiful upper elbow (sok hud) caught the Thai and opened a gash on Tamanoon's head above his left eye. The doctor took a look at the wound and allowed the bout to continue. In round five, Ring was full steam ahead but very obviously appeared to back off on the elbow attacks out of respect to the Thai and left the cut alone. The Thai was very tired from the heavy knee attack of Ring. Towards the end of the final round, a successful punch combination had the Thai back pedaling hurt but Ring did not have the time to finish his opponent. The scores were called 49-48, 49-47, and 49-47 for the winner Nick Ring.

In the other Team Canada vs. Team Thailand encounter, Canada's 2 Time World Muay Thai Champion Jason Fenton took on Thailand's Santi Chaisim (Eminent Air Camp in Bangkok). Last year Fenton seemed to be stuck in the starter blocks when he battled and won a very, very close decision against Thailand's Parinya Iapard. It appeared that Fenton was going to be stuck in the same mold for the first two rounds of this bout. Santi delivered strong kicks and kept Fenton at bay in the first two rounds. Fenton blocked these kick attacks with his elbows and countered with successful cut kicks. It was not until close to the end of the second round when the Thai swept Fenton to the ground that the Canadian athlete woke up. The fact that Fenton hit the canvas seemed to have embarrassed him and this woke up his pride. In the third round Fenton started the momentum of the bout in his favor and it was not to end until the end of the fight. In the third round Fenton landed several very strong kicks to the head of the Thai as well as a beautiful spinning elbow flush on the chin of Santi. After these shots the demeanor of the Thai changed and a very serious look dominated his facial expressions. In the fourth round, Fenton pressed and mixed his attacks up again landing some excellent punches and elbows which stunned the Thai again. Fenton again landed a beautiful spinning elbow as well as a jumping elbow to the head of the Thai. In the final round, Fenton's coach told him to work his punches and the Canadian athlete listened. The Thai was having problems kicking after injuring his leg on Fenton's elbow. Fenton pressed forward and landed a right cross followed by a left hook which dropped the Thai and put him to 'sleep'. Fenton won by a fifth round KO. Because of this bout, Fenton won the very prestigious 'Roy Lilley' Award (Fighter of the Year), in memory of the outstanding Muay Thai stylist who passed away tragically in a car mishap in 1993. "Winning the award was worth the fight alone", said Fenton.

In another International Prestige Kickboxing Match, Canada's IAMTF and WKA World Muay Thai Champion Vanessa "La Belle" Bellegarde stepped into the ring with Trinidad's Ria Ramnarine. Ramnarine is preparing for a WAKO World Kickboxing Title shot in Italy in the year 2000. This was an action packed bout. In the first round, Bellegarde drove a cut kick in which Ramnarine blocked and this injured the Canadian girl's leg. Hobbling around the ring, Bellegarde resorted to using her left ball kick and her left roundhouse kick which scored very successfully on her opponent. Ramnarine proved she had great grit and when it came to the punch exchanges stayed close and absorbed some blows but more so delivered back. Bellegarde at times looked like a 'girl' fighter and delivered some very sloppy and unsuccessful punches that Ramnarine either made miss or choked out. In the third round Bellegarde really came alive and delivered at least six left roundhouse kicks which bounced off of Ramnarine's head, who would then attempt to come back with punch combinations. Towards the end of the fourth and final round, Bellegarde had Ramnarine in big trouble but ran out of time to finish up. "I was disappointed with Vanessa's boxing skills here in this bout. She did not use her brain but instead relied on brawn. She did not look herself during this bout", said coach Mike Miles.

The Main Event bout of the evening was Canada's Chad Sawyer making his professional boxing debut stepping into the ring with journeyman Mike Lewars. Unfortunately, this bout followed the action packed Ring-Tamanoon encounter and lacked any drama or excitement during the match. There were great expectations for Sawyer in this bout and he did not live up to them. He appeared to be lacking any power in his punches and instead of using angles like he normally does when he fights under Muay Thai or Kickboxing rules, appeared very flat footed at times. Lewars was also a very awkward fighter and though he absorbed a lot of punches from Sawyer, he was never in any trouble at any time. Sawyer aced the win, but looked very unimpressive from an athlete that normally looks very impressive when he uses all of his weapons (punches, kicks, elbows and knees). "I would like to get him fighting under Kickboxing or Muay Thai rules", said coach and promoter Mike Miles.

The undercard featured the following results:

Modified Muay Thai (allowing punches, kicks and knees (to the body). No elbow attacks or knees to the head were allowed.

- Gord Anderson (National) vs. Mark Durant (Sik Tai). These two rematched each other under modified Muay Thai rules. Their first encounter was ruled a No Contest by the PAKA organization because Durant resorted to holding throughout their entire bout without any warnings from the referee. This was during a Full Contact rules bout. This time Durant resorted to the same tactics of hitting and running in and holding. Durant would tie up and frustrate Anderson who pressed the bout. The decision was split for Durant. "I was more frustrated than Anderson", said his coach Mike Miles, "Durant looks like a fighter with what I feel is passive tactics (because his clinches were not of the Muay Thai variety) and though he won this match I feel Anderson's skills outweigh Durant's. Congratulations to Durant because the judges gave it to him but Anderson has nothing to hang his head about."

- Jeremy Rempel (National) stepped into the ring with Toronto's Ryan Thompson (Tiger). Rempel returned from a year's absence from the ring and stepped up two divisions in this bout. Rempel's ring rust was obvious but do not let this take away from the skill of Thompson. Rempel appeared to be lacking any power and though he was catching his foe fairly evenly with a lot lighter strikes, Thompson set up and caught Rempel with a beautiful left uppercut. This dropped Rempel and at the end of the count he was still having problems regaining his senses. Thompson won by second round KO and looked good in the process.

- Ashley Odd (National) undertook his first Muay Thai match against Joe Zychowka (Sik Tai). Odd has a lot more fights than his foe but under the Muay Thai rules, Zychowka fought very smart. Odd was banging away looking for the big KO with his hands and whenever Zychowka would get in trouble he would counter with scoring knees and kicks. Zychowka showed his ring smarts and took the bout with his skills (and his brains).

- Trish Kingsford (National) stepped into the ring with Nada Gasparik (Tiger). In the first round both athletes were pushing their strikes and falling into clinches. In the second Kingsford took immediate advantage of the clinch and started delivering long extended deliveries of successful knees which finally resulted in the bout being stopped. Kingsford took the bout by second round TKO with her kneeing tactics.

- Yuki Tatsuno (National) stepped into the ring with Gus Denatale (Sik Tai). Tatsuno looked very tired during this bout from the get go. Denatale delivered strong kicks and knees while Tatsuno tried to punch. The first two rounds were won hands down by Denatale. The Sik Tai athlete looked like he was going to have a shut out when Tatsuno landed a very strong right which crumpled Denatale to the canvas. No disputing this shot. Denatale tried to battle back but Tatsuno won the round. The result of the bout was a draw. Denatale won the award for the "Best Out of Town Athlete". This athlete has a good future in front of him.

Kickboxing (allowing kicks to the legs)

- Scott Clark (National) stepped into the ring with Jason Scheillenberg (Chin-Na). Clark looked better in this bout than his last few, holding his ground and landing strong punches and kicks. Scheillenberg fought back with great heart but was finally stopped in the second round. Clark won by second round TKO.

- Erin Linley (National) battled with Laura Wiebe (Chin-Na) in a women's flyweight bout. Linley is still developing her strength but her skills were evident during this match. She moved straight forward with clean punches and kicks. By the middle of the second round, the referee had felt that Wiebe had enough, and he stopped the bout with Linley winning by second round TKO.

- Masa Kakizaki (National) fought against Brian Vaccaro (Victory). Both athletes made their debut's in the ring. Vaccaro fought back with great heart but Kakizaki's awkward style of punching and kicking proved to be too much and Kakizaki won an unanimous decision.

- Julio Flores (National) lost his bout against Jeremy Bergthorsen (Chin-Na). Flores appeared consistently off balance and stumbled all over during this bout. Bergthorsen won the bout.

- Dave Zuniga (Sik Tai) won his bout against Dave Herceg (Victory). Zuniga used clean combinations to keep the smaller Herceg at bay. Zuniga is a very good athlete with a great future in front of him.

Submission bouts

- Joe Bossenberry (Regina Jiu-Jitsu) forced Mark Jones (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) to tap out early in their bout.

- Richard Martens (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) took Kevin Fair (Dynamic Martial Arts) to the distance and the bout was called a draw.

The 2000 Battle will be held at Max Bell Arena. Promoter Mike Miles plans to bring over 5 Thai athletes to battle Team Canada. The athletes representing Team Canada will include: Nick "Scorpion" Ring, Jason Fenton, Trevor "T.N.T." Smandych, Sokhim "The Machine" Or, and Vanessa "La Belle" Bellegarde.