The U.S. Muay Thai Association held it’s first ever amateur Muay Thai tournament over the weekend in Phoenix, Arizona and one of the competitors in the Adult Men’s 71kg (156.5 lb) division was The Cellar Gym’s Ryan Sternberg. Ryan made the journey with Coach Justin Whiley.

Ryan was competing in the open division against some of the best fighters in the country. He received a bye in the first round of the tournament and in the second round he faced Connecticut based fighter, Daniel Dubuque. Ryan defeated Dubuque by split decision after 3 rounds of action and advanced to the tournament finals against Art Harris.

The tournament called for all championship fights to be scheduled for 4 rounds compared to the preliminary fights that only did 3. After 4 rounds of back-and-forth action between Ryan and Art, the judges had the bout scored as a draw and called for a 5th overtime round. The fifth round was just a close as the first four as Art clearly won the start of the round and Ryan clearly won the end of it. In the end, the fight was back in the judges hand to determine a winner and the judges called Art’s name.

It was a devastating loss for Ryan as he had trained very hard for this tournament, but it was a great learning experience as well. Ryan fought very well over the weekend and it was his first time going 5 rounds. This experience will only make Ryan stronger as he continues his journey to become the best fighter he can be.

Congratulations on an excellent performance Ryan!