The
following World, European and British Champions have
been trained by Pele:
Frankie Hudders,
Kevin Harper, Warren Brown, Ashley Guishard, Mary Hart,
Lisa Howarth, Jonny Roye, Trisha McKeary, Gavin Sterritt,
Steve Holt, The Riley Twins, Charlotte Thompkinson, Amy
Thompkinson, Rebecca Maxwell, Pete Dwan, Richard Jones,
Steven Jones, Richard Weston, Ewart Liburd, Leroy
Atkinson, Morris Riley, Glen Skellhorn
Ronnie Green, Pele's
friend, got him into Thaiboxing. He used to play a lot of football,
he was football mad, that’s where he got his nickname 'Pele'. He
actually did a trial for Manchester City. He was always getting
injured and being kicked and bruised. Ronnie said, ‘look at me I’m
fighting in the ring and I’m not getting as injured as you are’ Why
don’t you come and train with me in Muay Thai. This was at Master
Toddy’s gym in Manchester. At first he actually went to the gym to
teach Judo because he did a lot of Judo at the time, but Judo went
out of the window when Pele fell in love with Thai boxing. When he
first saw it he loved it.
Pele has had a long and prestigious career originally trained by
Master Toddy in Manchester, he then went on to train with Master
Chana in Preston. Early in his career Pele met dutch stars
Andre Brillerman, Fred Royers and Orlando Weit, Then Thailands Fanta
and Sitisat, Pele's fist major title success was in 1991 when he
challenged for the IMF (International Muay Thai Federation) World
Title. He faced Thailands Kitisak under full muay thai rules which
allows kness and elbows to the head. The match was staged in London
and was broadcast live to Thailand by Thai TV and later aired on Sky
Sports. Pele defended kitisak by a unnanimus points decision to win
the championship belt. In 1994 pele was invited to Moscow in Russia
to challenge Russian Hardman Valery kulubaba for the WKA World
Thaiboxing title. In front of 15,000 spectators at the Moscow
Olympic Stadium Pele battered Kulubala stopping him in the third
round. The fight was broadcast bu Russian national TV to an audience
of millions. later the Russian promoters called pele a bone-crushing
machine and added "We won't be inviting him back to Moscow".
After his third world title he decided to stop. He already had a
club running at Sale West Thai-boxing club (in Cheshire) whilst he
was still fighting and ran it for fifteen years, it was a very
successful club and produced a lot of champions
The name Beastmaster came from one of his students from Leeds. He
used to get lots and lots of people knocking on the gym door asking
him to train them. They’d been training in Thai-boxing elsewhere and
wanted Pele to polish them up and finish them off, then he would
turn them out as better fighters who even if they got beat, always
looked good, they were defeated in style, no tempers and no
tantrums, so hence the name ‘Beastmaster’. 6 years ago Pele decided
to go full-time with it, before then it had only been part-time, He
decided to be a full-time martial arts instructor. He got a New
place in Altrincham, (in Cheshire) opened up there, and called the
gym ‘Beastmaster Gym’ from the nick-name that had been given to him.
He had a new gym with a new name in a new town, Pele looked upon it
as a blank sheet of paper to start again doing it my way, in my
style.”
Pele has trained many fighters who have go on to become champions in
their own right, One of his first would be Mary Hart she became the
world W.P.K.L. Thai-boxing champion, that’s World Professional
Kickboxing League. She’s still fighting, she has a W.K.A. European
title now as well. Amy Tomkinson has been with Pele since she was
six years old, she’s now fourteen and has thirteen championship
belts so far, nearly a decade down the line she still has the hunger
for it. Warren Brown was already a world champion when he came to
Pele's gym, but recognised that Pele's skills could improve him
further, that says a lot for his character. He came to Pele's as a
W.A.K.O. Pro World Champion and he’s achieved another World title
since joining me.
Pele's also trained Frankie Udders, who’s recently won an I.S.K.A.
World title, Also Kevin Harper who won the W.K.A. World title.
Rebecca Maxwell, she won a junior world title at a young age which
she kept, she’s never been beaten, she’s nearly sixteen now. Then
there’s Gavin Sterritt who’s a European champion and also Patricia
McCarey who is the British and Commonwealth champion, in Kickboxing
and Thaiboxing
