By DAWN ARNEACH
ONE FEATHER CONTRIBUTOR
James Kanott, an EBCI tribal member, fought and won his first Amateur Mixed Martials Arts fight at the Warriors Challenge held in Lancaster, Pa. on Friday, June 3.
James Kanott, shown with trainer Clyde Dull, holds a trophy he received for winning his first amateur MMA fight. (DAWN ARNEACH/One Feather contributor)
James, his trainer Clyde Dull, father Dennie Kanott and one of his training partner Jen Johnson traveled Thursday, June 2 to Pennsylvania. Thursday night, James weighed himself and came in 10 pounds over his fighting weight. But, at weigh-in on Friday morning he was dead-on at 155lbs. He thinks the first scale was wrong.
The day of the fights, with the help of Clyde and his father, James went over directions with the fight referee, how to make sure he would know when to stop fighting for each round, or if there was an illegal move. James was ready.
On fight night, James (age 29, 6’, 155lbs.) was matched up with Micah Palmatier ( age 24, 5’ 11”, 155lbs.). In looking at the fight card, James was scheduled to fight eighth, but ended up being the third fight of the night.
Amateur fights are three 3-minute rounds with a minute rest in between. The three rounds blurred together for Coach Dull, as he retold the highlights of James’ fight.
“It was either at the end of the 1st round or the beginning of the second round, James threw a front kick, coming down with a right punch, which staggered the other guy. His opponent kept trying to take James down to the mat, James went down maybe twice, one time he ended up in guard, looked at his opponent, like I will punch you, but he just got up, waited on Micah to get up and continue fighting.”
It was an exciting and well fought fight for both guys. When the bell rang at the end of the third round, it was left to the judge’s decision. Coming in with a Unanimous Decision, the fight belonged to James.
Micah made the comment he did not expect James to be that strong, “He looks lanky, but he was strong as an ox.”
When asked about the fight Clyde said, “James was there to fight and he did!”
While at the fights, James was able to buy his first pair of MMA shorts with a bulldog face on them, for his bulldog at home. He was at another vendor’s booth looking at hand wraps, when the lady gave him a set of wraps for winning his first fight.
It is in the works for James to continue his amateur standing, and he is looking to line up his next fight this September, hopefully a little closer to home.
To view James Ranking page visit online at –
https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/f/2D0994DB4F0A0C78/James-Kanott/
