On Saturday night at Roar Fight Night 3, Iggy Phillips and Mike Makatea-Leylander went to war over five rounds of full Thai action, before it ended with a front kick knockdown by Phillips right on the final bell.

The fight was chaos from the get-go, with both men swinging for the fences. Makatea-Leylander initiated the clinch often and worked the body, while Phillips’ teeps and sweeps sent his opponent to the canvas several times during the fight.

At the end of the fifth round, the two fighters were in a wild exchange. Mike was coming forward slinging punches from the hip, while Iggy backed up, leading him into empty space to set up a right front snap-kick which blasted Makatea-Leylander on the jaw and sent him down to the canvas.

Even though it occurred after the final bell, Mike answered the referee’s count, so the result was not a TKO for Phillips. However, the knockdown put the stamp on the victory for Phillips, who is now the WKA Full Thai New Zealand 82kg Champion by majority decision.

Iggy Phillips is 26 years old and trains at He Toa Muay Thai in Petone, under head coach Dan Stirling. Fight News’ Harry Greenfield caught up with Iggy to ask him a few questions after becoming a New Zealand champion.

Hi Iggy. How long have you been training for, did you start with Dan at He Toa Muay Thai?

“Hey bro. I’ve done a little bit of training in a small dojo that doesn’t exist anymore out of Waipuk, But I did start training with Dan a complete beginner. So, yeah I do count it as my start.

"I've had six amateur fights now, after Saturday's title fight."

Did the fight go to plan?

“The fight did not go to plan, haha. The plan was to win faster, but due to a rib injury a week-and-a-half before the fight I couldn’t train, and I lost a lot of my cardio.

“After the first round I was tired as. I was actually in hospital the for that rib because I thought it was broken.

“My Mrs was worried, and a few people thought I shouldn’t do the fight, but I still believed I could get it done.”

Was there anything that Mike did which surprised you?

“Mike didn’t surprise me at all. The lack of cardio did. That sucked.”

Is this your first title fight? What is next for you in 2020?

“Yeah it was my first title shot.

“What’s next, we shall see. This was more of a hobby, you know. My trainer asks if I wanna fight and when I’m feeling it, I’ll say yes and go to training.

“But usually I’m just focused on work and family. Now that I have a title, things are getting real haha.”

Do you practise that front snap kick to the chin in the gym?

“I haven’t practised that front kick much. Funny story about that; my supervisor from work was coming to the fight and all he asked me was ‘Bro I wanna see an Anderson Silva - Vitor Belfort finish’

“I said ‘ok bro I’ll do that for ya’. I just thought of that in the last second and bam!

"I didn't even hear the bell at the time. I thought I had to keep fighting. I had to ask my trainer if it was over haha. And the new!”

Thanks for the interview, Iggy. Looking forward to the next one!

You can check out He Toa Muay Thai at their Facebook page. Fight News will keep you posted about Iggy Phillips’ next fight.