NETHERLANDS— St Maarten kickboxer Omar Marsham won the WFCA world title kickboxing by unanimous decision in The Hague June 10. He defeated Melvin van Sijdam.
Marsham left for the Netherlands to prepare for his World title bout May 26. He trained at the Sityodtong training camp in Amsterdam where several experienced champions are training for their respective titles.
Among them Regian Eersel who recently became the “One Superseries Championship” world lightweight world champion in Singapore. This was Marsham’s third visit to the Dutch training camp and every time the bar is raised on him.
Marsham was trained by the coaches Paul and Vincent Pengel who have prepared many champions on their road to victory.
A few days before the fight a change in opponent took place and Marsham was told that his opponent is much more experienced than him, as that he is a MMA pro fighter in Europe and that he would have to fight hard and work more with the knees in this fight. Marsham had to go through a daily regime of pad works, running, conditioning and sparring against some of the world best fighters.
Marsham has a record of 15 fights with 12 wins and 3 loses in kickboxing. He is the reigning Caribbean champion in kickboxing. Marsham’s opponent Melvin van Sijdam is a seasoned fighter from Almere Holland. He has a pro record in MMA of 7 wins and 4 losses and has fought in several international events. In kickboxing he is a semi-Pro which has allowed him to challenge Omar Marsham for the vacant WFCA Amateur world title.
The event was scheduled for June 10th in The Hague by Fight Club Den Haag who is an organizer of many high level events. Also for June 10th there was a very high level fight card in which several professional and semi-professional bouts were scheduled in both Kickboxing and MMA.
Since both disciplines were scheduled to fight on one night all fights were taking place in an Octagon/cage similar to what is used in the UFC. This was a new experience for Marsham and an advantage for his opponent who is very familiar with the octagon due to his MMA experience.
At the weigh in both fighters weighed in at 79 kilo but van Sijdam seemed to have cut a lot of weight and seemed a naturally much stronger and heavier fighter.
The fight was scheduled for 5 rounds of 2 minutes. During the fight the plan was to work on his opponent on the short range him with the knees but it didn’t go as planned. Van Sijdam with his MMA experience was able to ward off the knees and would put in a clinch when at close range. Marsham decided to just focus on winning the fight on points instead of forcing a knock out and started attacking with several kicks to the head and body at long range. This worked well and at one point one of the kicks landed flush on Sijdams head. Sijdam somehow managed and stood strong after that kick and kept fighting back. The fight lasted the full five rounds.
At the end of the fight Marsham was declared the winner and the World title belt was placed around his waist.
Marsham is delighted with his new title and is very thankful to the team that prepared him here in St Maarten, The club in Amsterdam who did his final preparation and made arrangements for Marsham to fight on the card in The Hague and the organization of Fight Club Den Haag who invited Marsham.
