Antony Rea: Ready for Guillet and Spotlight
Guillet and Spotlight
Pedro Wrobel Apr 29, 2005
Despite his excellent record as an amateur and a professional,
Antony Rea is far from a
household name, shooting to prominence only recently, at Cage Rage
10, when the 28-year-old dismantled the powerful and intimidating
Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos.
It was not so much a fight as a demonstration of how an aggressive, technical fighter can pick apart a rage-driven brawler. The strange thing, in Rea's case, is that he has not subsequently received the attention that all of those present felt that he deserved.
Never one to shirk a chance of an exclusive, Sherdog.com took the
opportunity to speak to the Frenchman ahead of his Cage Rage 11
showdown against Pierre
Guillet on April 30.
Rea is a quiet, focused figure whose career as a professional fighter owes much to luck and circumstance. An unashamed country boy, Rea's first experience with martial arts came at the age of 8, when he got involved with the local Judo club. At the time, the slow pace of children's Judo did not interest him much, and it was not until 1993 that Rea really got hooked.
"Kenpo Kan is a hard style, like Kyokushin karate, and it incorporates aspects of striking, throwing and submissions,” he continued. “In competition there is no time limit and no points. Victory only comes by KO, TKO or submission. The rules are softer than MMA because the striking was like Kyokushin, which allows punches to the body but only open hands to the face. Kicks were allowed all over. Initially we fought with a gi and no gloves, but later they adapted to use MMA-style gloves."
From the age of 17 to 24, Rea collected a stellar 35-2 record under what were effectively amateur MMA rules, moving from the Kenpo Kan umbrella to compete in an organization called Pankido. It was during this period of his life that Rea made a number of friendships that would prove vital in shaping his future career.
"I met Kristof Midoux at one of my Pankido fights,” he recalled. “It was actually the last fight I had as an amateur and he was there as a spectator. We spoke afterwards and we just got on very well. We spoke about fighting and he told me that if he could help me to get fights, he would do so."
Pankido not only introduced Rea to his future training partner and friend, but also led to him being spotted by one of the organizers of a big martial arts event that was to be held in Bercy in March 2001. This was to be Rea’s professional debut and it was certainly a daunting one.
"It was a bit of a strange situation,” Rea said. “There was this big martial arts festival in Bercy, in Paris. Masa Funaki was there, in order to demonstrate and promote Pancrase to the French people. There were about 14,000 people there in total and Funaki wanted to hold two MMA bouts to demonstrate what Pancrase was all about. The organization that was running the festival agreed and so two fights were made. I was chosen to be one of the fighters."
This was as far from a gentle introduction as possible. Rea was pitted against Daisuke Watanabe, who at that point was already an experienced and respected professional fighter. The fight took place on a tatame rather than a ring or a cage, and a massive crowd was in attendance.
"It was not easy," Rea agreed. "Well, the crowd was not a problem. I didn't really acknowledge them because I was really concentrating on the fight. But I was very nervous of fighting someone like Watanabe because he was so much more experienced than me.
"The fight itself was OK though. He took me down at the beginning of the fight but nothing really happened there. Once we were back up, I relaxed a bit more and managed to start sprawling on him and countering with punching techniques. And then I managed to put him on his back and I forced the TKO by ground and pound. He had a big cut on his forehead."
Although the fighters had obviously been notified in advance, the fights were not actually publicly announced until the day of the event. MMA is a matter of much controversy in France, and the "hard" style of professional MMA is now illegal.
"It is the punches on the ground that they object to," explains fellow French fighter, Jess Liaudin. "The sporting regulators are very strong in France, and the show in Bercy was pretty much a one-off. There were a lot of problems with the authorities after that show and that's basically been it for professional MMA in France."
With things as they were in France, Rea was forced to look abroad for his next fight. This came seven months later in UCC, the Canadian organization now known as TKO.
"I was supposed to be flying out to Canada to train with Kristof Midoux, Stephan Potvin and some others, but Midoux called me to say that instead of training, I could come to fight,” Rea remembered. “I said OK, why not? I was signed to fight against Jeromie Sills, but I did not know much about him. I had about 10 days of good training and I was shown a few clips of Sills fighting, including his win over Stephan Potvin at UCC 3.
"The fight itself was a difficult experience. Sills got some good shots on me on the ground, landing those elbows and knees, but I managed to stand up and ten seconds later I knocked him out with a left hook. The most important lesson I took from that was that I needed more experience and skill on the ground. So I worked on that before the next fight."
It was not so much a fight as a demonstration of how an aggressive, technical fighter can pick apart a rage-driven brawler. The strange thing, in Rea's case, is that he has not subsequently received the attention that all of those present felt that he deserved.
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Rea is a quiet, focused figure whose career as a professional fighter owes much to luck and circumstance. An unashamed country boy, Rea's first experience with martial arts came at the age of 8, when he got involved with the local Judo club. At the time, the slow pace of children's Judo did not interest him much, and it was not until 1993 that Rea really got hooked.
"I actually wanted to do Muay Thai," Rea explained. "My family had
just moved to a new town and I thought it would be a good time for
a new beginning. I couldn't find a Muay Thai school but I found a
school that taught Kenpo Kan and I was hooked."
"Kenpo Kan is a hard style, like Kyokushin karate, and it incorporates aspects of striking, throwing and submissions,” he continued. “In competition there is no time limit and no points. Victory only comes by KO, TKO or submission. The rules are softer than MMA because the striking was like Kyokushin, which allows punches to the body but only open hands to the face. Kicks were allowed all over. Initially we fought with a gi and no gloves, but later they adapted to use MMA-style gloves."
From the age of 17 to 24, Rea collected a stellar 35-2 record under what were effectively amateur MMA rules, moving from the Kenpo Kan umbrella to compete in an organization called Pankido. It was during this period of his life that Rea made a number of friendships that would prove vital in shaping his future career.
"I met Kristof Midoux at one of my Pankido fights,” he recalled. “It was actually the last fight I had as an amateur and he was there as a spectator. We spoke afterwards and we just got on very well. We spoke about fighting and he told me that if he could help me to get fights, he would do so."
Pankido not only introduced Rea to his future training partner and friend, but also led to him being spotted by one of the organizers of a big martial arts event that was to be held in Bercy in March 2001. This was to be Rea’s professional debut and it was certainly a daunting one.
"It was a bit of a strange situation,” Rea said. “There was this big martial arts festival in Bercy, in Paris. Masa Funaki was there, in order to demonstrate and promote Pancrase to the French people. There were about 14,000 people there in total and Funaki wanted to hold two MMA bouts to demonstrate what Pancrase was all about. The organization that was running the festival agreed and so two fights were made. I was chosen to be one of the fighters."
This was as far from a gentle introduction as possible. Rea was pitted against Daisuke Watanabe, who at that point was already an experienced and respected professional fighter. The fight took place on a tatame rather than a ring or a cage, and a massive crowd was in attendance.
"It was not easy," Rea agreed. "Well, the crowd was not a problem. I didn't really acknowledge them because I was really concentrating on the fight. But I was very nervous of fighting someone like Watanabe because he was so much more experienced than me.
"The fight itself was OK though. He took me down at the beginning of the fight but nothing really happened there. Once we were back up, I relaxed a bit more and managed to start sprawling on him and countering with punching techniques. And then I managed to put him on his back and I forced the TKO by ground and pound. He had a big cut on his forehead."
Although the fighters had obviously been notified in advance, the fights were not actually publicly announced until the day of the event. MMA is a matter of much controversy in France, and the "hard" style of professional MMA is now illegal.
"It is the punches on the ground that they object to," explains fellow French fighter, Jess Liaudin. "The sporting regulators are very strong in France, and the show in Bercy was pretty much a one-off. There were a lot of problems with the authorities after that show and that's basically been it for professional MMA in France."
With things as they were in France, Rea was forced to look abroad for his next fight. This came seven months later in UCC, the Canadian organization now known as TKO.
"I was supposed to be flying out to Canada to train with Kristof Midoux, Stephan Potvin and some others, but Midoux called me to say that instead of training, I could come to fight,” Rea remembered. “I said OK, why not? I was signed to fight against Jeromie Sills, but I did not know much about him. I had about 10 days of good training and I was shown a few clips of Sills fighting, including his win over Stephan Potvin at UCC 3.
"The fight itself was a difficult experience. Sills got some good shots on me on the ground, landing those elbows and knees, but I managed to stand up and ten seconds later I knocked him out with a left hook. The most important lesson I took from that was that I needed more experience and skill on the ground. So I worked on that before the next fight."
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