KICKBOXING king Dave Newbrook could take on the ultimate challenge in 2008 – cage fighting.
The WPKC world welterweight Muay Thai champion from Chester must defend his title at least twice this year. But he also intends to begin training this month in a bid to try his hand at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
The UFC is a Multiple Martial Arts competition, where fighters enter a cage together and employ the skills of various martial arts to defeat their opponent.
Newbrook said: “Nothing is signed and sealed yet, but it is something I will be looking at.
“I will do some training this month to see what it is like. The challenge is that you could come up against anyone with any skills. They are bringing in a 65kg weight category which suits me perfectly.”
But Newbrook said he was not turning his back on kickboxing and pledged to defend his Muay Thai crown in his home city again.
“I want to defend the title in Chester again,” he said. “The atmosphere is always brilliant. I would like to make three defences in Chester. The racecourse is building a permanent pavilion to hold 1,500 which should be ready by March so hopefully I can hold a defence there later in the year, probably against a Russian mandatory challenger.
“When the building opens I am holding a show, although I won’t be fighting, where two of my fighters will put English and North West titles on the line.”
Newbrook, who beat Thailand’s Rung Nakorn at Chester Racecourse last November to claim his WPKC title, expects 2008 to be a busy year.
He added: “I will be travelling to Thailand and Japan to train and fight. I have no plans to go up or down in weight because welterweight suits me fine but I will travel, perhaps with some of my fighters as I have before, and we will pick up new skills and improve our technique.”
