Team USA Kickboxing traveled to Burlington, Ontario over the weekend for a team event against members of the Canadian National Team.  The Cellar’s Chris Cichon won his bout against Ontario’s Marco Capobianco by judges decision and became the new CASK North American Champion.

Cichon traveled to Ontario along with Cellar Fight Team trainer and Team USA Assistant Coach, Justin Whiley.  Also making the trip as part of Team USA was Aaron “Speedy” Swenson (Chicago, IL), Patrick George (San Jose, CA), Tony Lester (Augusta, GA), Myra Ramirez (Crystal Lake, IL), and Team USA Head Coach Rob Zbilski.

After arriving in Burlington, Ontario on Thursday the team was shuttled to the Bay Area Athletic Club to shoot video footage of pre-fight interviews and clips of the fighters shadow boxing and hitting mitts.  The fights were held Saturday at the Burlington Soccer Dome.  It was a first rate event sanctioned by the Council of Amateur Sport Kickboxing and all 5 USA vs Canada bouts were for CASK North American Title Belts.

The evening didn’t start off well for the U.S. Team.  With a beautiful team challenge trophy on the line, the Canadian team was pitching a 4-0 shutout before the main event between The Cellar’s Chris Cichon and Canada’s Marco Capobianco.  The two talented fighters put on an exciting back and forth fight.  Cichon got off to a great start using his movement to create openings, but Capobianco held strong and his constant pressure began to wear Cichon down in the later rounds.  In the end, the Canadian judges gave the nod to Cichon by split decision and Chris Cichon became the new CASK North American Champion.

Before the team traveled home we had a chance to do a little sight seeing and visited the Niagara Falls (pictures below). A big thank you goes out to Muzammal Nawaz and all of Team Canada and Team BAC. So many people went out of their way on this trip to make sure we were taken care of and comfortable. We look forward to hosting the Canadian team soon and having a chance to show our appreciation.

The two teams will rematch August 7th in Minneapolis, MN with different weight classes and different fighters.  Look for Team USA to take the lead in the border battle.