We got to witness this first hand ourselves as in November 2011, Sidekick sponsored a world championship bout between the 13x professional world kickboxing champion Marlon “The Game” Hunt vs Jamie Bates from County Durham.

So, who is Jamie Bates?

Fighter stats

Name: Jamie Bates

Born: 14th September 1989

Height: 6ft 1

Weight: 76.4kg

Style: Full contact/K1

Fight record: Wins-26, Losses – 7

Jamie Bates is an English kickboxer from County Durham and was born 14th September 1989. He has fought in the welterweight and cruiserweight divisions and became a WKF full contact world champion and signed to Glory Kickboxing.

Sponsoring Jamie Bates

As Sidekick were the main sponsors for the title fight between Bates vs Hunt the Sidekick family traveled from Brighton to Newcastle to watch this historic moment in kickboxing ringside and watched Jamie Bates become victorious and become the new world full contact kickboxing champion.

As Sidekick were in search for our first athlete to represent the brand, Bates ticked all the boxes and in 2012, Bates was our signed fighter. He held the brand extremely high, demonstrating his skills on an international level, travelling to various countries.

Daniel Knight from Sidekick said ” I first met Jamie face to face in his changing room just hours before his big fight as we were giving him his pair of our Sidekick professional boxing gloves. He was very calm, relaxing listing to his music, and it is not something I expected to see going in for such a big fight.”

Nowadays, for his fans,  it is a lot harder to come and support him as he now fights on one of the biggest global promotions of kickboxing, Glory. His career is a result of someone who is so dedicated and passionate about the sport and knows exactly what they would like to achieve.

We got to catch up with Jamie Bates to ask him a few questions about his kickboxing career:

Dan: How did you get into kickboxing?

Jamie: I got into kickboxing growing up in my Dad’s gym. I took part in various martial arts but always felt drawn to kickboxing.

My dad was asking the other kids in the club if they wanted to fight and didn’t ask myself so I got jealous and said I wanted to fight. I had no idea what I was getting myself into I’d never even seen a fight before that moment.

Dan: What is it you love most about kickboxing?

Jamie: I love the simplicity of kickboxing. It’s violence in a non-restricted punching, kickboxing, and knees with no clinch just all action.

Dan: What is your most memorable fight?

Jamie: My most memorable fight probably has to be against Hardy Grigorian. Former world champion, world number 2, he hit me with a cheap shot pretty much knocked me out in round 2 and we still managed to win the fight outright!

Dan: What is your best achievement in kickboxing?

Jamie: My best achievement has to be signing with Glory. It’s the A league in kickboxing!

Dan: Thank you, Jamie.

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The post Jamie Bates | Kickboxing To Glory first appeared on Sidekick Boxing.