A WHIRLWIND wouldn’t even begin to describe the past two years for former Mildura combat sports fighter Kyle Higginbotham.
Being headhunted to become a fight coach in Brisbane in 2022 has led to becoming a Muay Thai stadium champion in Phuket, Thailand, and a mixed martial arts debut years in the making.
The former Australian Taekwon-Do representative and Victorian state champion has been somewhat of a chameleon across the years, also becoming a well respected boxing and martial arts coach in Mildura before his move to Queensland.
Recently Higginbotham was back in his home town leading a striking seminar alongside boxing coach Nick Wakefield at The Boxing Cartel.
“It’s always great to be back in Mildura, catch up with my family and friends and spend some time with old training partners and working with new faces,” he said.
“It’s been hectic (the past two yeas), coming up here was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made for my working career and for my fight career as well.
“My whole career I’ve tried a lot of different gyms and styles. I obviously have my Taekwon-Do background, have training in boxing and kick boxing as well as jiu jitsu.
“It’s a lot of time spent being beaten up by those who are better but just learning as I’m going. Being a hybrid has kind of always been my thing.
“Our gym here is also a Muay Thai gym so a lot of the Thai trainers here have really taken me under their wing.”
Following a five-year absence from fighting due to a number of injuries and COVID restrictions, Higginbotham made his return in a Muay Thai bout in Queensland last year and despite a loss, it lit a fire in him.
It was while chaperoning a group of Olympia gym members on a 10-day training camp in Phuket in February this year that the prospect of a title fight for the Rawai Boxing Stadium championship was put to him.
Initially he said no, mostly as he was recovering from food poisoning at the time.
“My trainer was pretty persistent and kept asking me in the following days, and he mentioned the bout was for the stadium belt, so I thought why not, let’s do it, which was on five days notice,” he said.
“I managed to win that with a second-round knock out via head kick and won the belt which was all kind of like a dream.
“I remember being young when I first got into martial arts, that doing something like this was always on the bucket list, so to go over and win a title was crazy.”
Higginbotham returned for a title defence in June and faced stiffer competition, retaining the belt via decision after the bout went the full rounds.
“I managed to knock him down in the third round which I think helped me to win on points, but it was super close,” he said.
“I didn’t realise until afterwards I’d actually seen video of him KO’ing another opponent, I’m glad that didn’t come to mind before the fight!
“If anyone had told me 10 years ago that I would have been able to do this, I wouldn’t have believed them.”
That has since led to the ultimate goal, fighting in the MMA cage.
Higginbotham, fighting under the renowned Team Compton gym, made waves by winning his amateur debut by TKO in the second round over Irishman Finn Ratigan in September.
“An MMA debut has been the main thing I’ve been pursuing for a while now,” he said.
“It was the debut that maybe felt the most overdue, but it also came at the right time in term of experience and maturity.
“I want to try and pursue this MMA thing as far as I can and see where it takes me.”
Whatever happen the fighting future looks bright for Higginbotham.
