Club History

V.U.W. kick boxing club was started in 1988 by Master Tan who had previously trained Champions in the U.K and Europe and learned to fight in Thailand. During his time at the club Master Tan produced many Regional and National champions and contenders including; Mark Norton, Jim Herries, Warren Sutton, Steve Elliot, Steve Anthony, Richard Rust and Justin Forsell.

Jim Herries went on to form the Otago University Kick boxing Club. Steve Elliot opened the Kapiti Kick boxing Club and Justin Forsell created the Freestyle Thai boxing Academy.

VUW Kickboxing Fighters 1992

In 1992 Mark Norton NZ Welterweight took over the club as Tan went to work in Singapore. Mark furthered the clubs reputation producing champions and trained Mike Cope (who recently won a world title in Australia), Steve Ross- N.Z. Champions. Sonny Steel and Daniel Brooks -N.Z. Champions Before leaving for Australia in 1998.

Jim Herries then took the helm after returning from Thailand where he trained and fought. So rare are Western fighters in Thailand that he was known by the Thai as "Jim New Zealand" after returning to N.Z. Jim continued to train and started to run the club in 1997. During that time he took Steve Hamilton to a N.Z. title, Peter Bailey to a North Island Title as well as winning the New Zealand Light Heavyweight Title.

Mark Hampton and Jon Williams became the coaching team in 2000 and have gone to produce more champions including Dan '3rd Degree' Burns, Ben 'The Virus' Ruck, Tom 'Jones' deGroen and Vince'the Blade' Betham.

Read related article: 15 years strong

Contact: e-mail us or Phone: Ben (04) 463 5089 ex 8710 during the day.
Jon 021 128 1113 or Mark on 021 386 739 after hours.