Orange Muay Thai fighter Charlie Bubb demands a challenge after cruising to second round TKO

The Orange fighter easily maintained his position as the number one challenger for a shot at international light-heavyweight glory on Saturday night when he put paid to Will Chope in their WBC Muay Thai Gold Coast bout.

The fight was part of the Infliction series, with Bubb originally expecting to fight German Kay Tschann before the latter withdrew with illness.

Bubb admits he was frustrated with the German's no show, and while Chope showed heart, the American went to the canvas twice before being dropped with a kick by Bubb in just the second of five rounds.

Following the win, Bubb made his wishes clear after a frustrating run which started with the cancellation of an overseas trip when COVID struck and continued with Tschann being the second quality opponent to withdraw days before a fight.

"Considering I'm ranked number one in the world, I'm at the point where we have to get internationals and if promoters want a good fight they have to spend the money," Bubb said.

"That's all I said on the mic after the fight, I just want to fight the best in the world.

"I'm sick of people pulling out and having late replacements."

While Bubb respected Chope, he admitted he had thought about skipping the Gold Coast trip.

"I think the German guy would have been a more formidable opponent," he said saying his research pointed to a real test.

"I think so. I was looking forward to fighting him but he got sick and Will stepped in. [Chope] had done a lot of fighting, he'd had 128 fights. He was no mug but it wasn't the quality I wanted. Especially being a late pull out, he didn't have the full [training] camp so I'm not overly pleased with the win but a fight's a fight.

"It's good to keep active but hopefully I'll get better opponents in the coming months."

It seems the better you get the harder it is to gain a quality opponents. Bubb is ranked number one challenger in the WBC Muay Thai's 79kg class (light heavyweight) but the title holders are European and he may have look overseas.

"That's what we're looking at at the moment but plane tickets are expensive. Hopefully in the next couple of months all that settles down a bit because there are some good fighters over in England, France, I want to take on the best in the world, that's what we've got to do."

Wise counsel by trainers Danny Maksacheff and Andrew Abbott led to Bubb fulfilling his commitment on Saturday night but he admitted it was hard to stay motivated.

"Yes, especially with this fight. I was really looking forward to it and then you get the call. It's hard to get out of bed, it's hard to go to training, it's annoying. It took my trainers to convince me to still fight, at the end of the day, you put in six weeks of work, you should still get a fight at the end of it."

Bubb said he pulled up well from Saturday's fight and will take a week's break before getting back to training.

"Hopefully we can finish the year with two or three more fights," he said adding there had been a few chats with promoters and he is hoping to announce another fight soon.

"Whoever gets the opponent and the contract written up first," he said.

To read more stories, download the Central Western Daily news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Send a letter to the editor using the form below