Brock a hit on world stage

Young Goldfields Muay Thai fighter Brock Landers officially joined the ranks of the sport’s very best with his bronze medal performance at this month’s junior world championships.

The 15-year-old, who had contested the 2016 championships also in Bangkok, enjoyed the spoils of a maiden international placing in the 51kg-54kg division.

He was, however, also keen to use the lessons of a brutal last fight at the championships — when he was stopped by a knee to the head — to improve his overall game.

“Having a bit of experience (a year earlier) helped me to realise what I was getting myself into,” he said.

“The winner was from Russia and the dude who beat me was from Belarus.

“It wasn’t a close fight, although when I was out of his range I hurt him.

“But he knew when to wrap me up because I was never great with my grappling.

“He threw me around and cut my eye with that knee.

“But it was a learning curve — I’ve got to work on strengthening my neck muscles and also my grappling.”

Brock had won the Australian title six months earlier at 48kg-51kg, but was comfortable moving up in a bid to offset the effects of making weight.

“A week before the fight, you have to cut out all the carbs, so no bread, no pasta — nothing at all like that,” he said.

“Then on the day of a fight, you can’t have anything because it goes straight on as weight.

“But even a full month before a fight, you have to cut out all the unhealthy stuff.”

The championships were held over a week, with Thailand the overall medal leaders from Russia and Australia.

Brock chases a third consecutive national title on the Gold Coast in February.

He took up Muay Thai at eight years of age and regularly sparred adults as a member of the Kanchana Thai Boxing stable.

Brock had originally wanted to play cricket, but got a taste of the sport after being booked into a free kickboxing lesson by his mother.