CAPE TOWN - Reaching new levels of achievement and making the country proud, Saldanha Bay’s own Gregory Gans is the new Ring Contact Fighting Arts International (RCFAI) Super Welterweight Low Kick World Champion.
Going up against Belgium's Karim Taquet in the title fight in Cape Town last week, Gans was victorious in four out of five rounds of three minutes each, making him the winner.
The fight, which he trained 7 days a week for and ultimately helped him to gain the title, is his first professional feat.
The 26-year-old UWC Public Administration graduate said: “This win was for the super welterweight 75.8. It was an open title fight, no one held the title. Winning it felt amazing, when you put in the hard work you reap the benefits. He (Taquet) is very experienced because people overseas have a lot more fights than us in South Africa, we were evenly matched in strength but in the end it just came down to who wanted it more. I trained for two or three sessions a day, mostly six or seven days a week, focusing on cardio, technical and strength.
“This is my first professional title in kickboxing. I wanted it more than him, I kept on going forward, it was more mental than physical. Both of us started getting fatigued. My strategy was to work the whole body, not just one punch or kick.
“Previously my major wins were mostly in amateur, I’ve won the World Junior silver medal for kickboxing, low kicks at the World Championships twice, once in Slovakia and another time in Italy. I only turned professional at the age of 18, because of Covid-19 everything was slower so I didn’t get as many fights,” he said.
Gans who is also a kickboxing trainer, has been doing martial arts since he was 13-years-old.
“I started in 2009. While anyone can do it, we prefer people starting from a young age (the preferable age to start is seven or eight) because there are a lot of codes in the sport. We like you to be well rounded, able to do them all. We also have a big karate influence.”
He explained that the sport is much like the strategic game of chess.
“You can think of it as a physical sport, but it is mostly a chess game, anticipating moves before they happen. You don’t prepare for someone, you prepare for every scenario. The sport is about the discipline, the art behind it, it forms your way of thinking and gives you a different perspective of life.”
Cape Times