ALIVE and kicking and in the rudest health – that’s the strength of youngsters’ kick-boxing in York.

Evidence of the rapid growth in toddlers to teenagers taking up the sport of kick-boxing was provided at the inaugural Ring Series show.

Held at York’s Energise Centre in Cornlands Road, the event featured 11 adult fights in the varying disciplines of kick-boxing, Thai-boxing, mixed martial arts and K1 contests.

But before that juniors from the age of eight to mid-teens competed in 18 bouts on a bill that attracted more than 300 spectators to four hours-plus of young all-out battling.

The Ring Series was promoted by the United Masters Promotions axis of Gaz Watkinson and Tony Dias, who previously had brought cage-fighting to York, running no fewer than five Cage Confrontation shows.

And while the debut ring show did not draw as big a crowd as for the Cage Confrontation events, co-promoter Watkinson declared the “marathon day” an absolute success.

“The atmosphere was electric from the kids through to the adults, and both Tony and myself would like to thank the likes of Craig Long and Luke Birks from York Mixed Martial Arts Academy, and Dave Phillips and Al Chambers at Legions Club, for providing a lot of the fighters, including the youngsters.”

He explained that while the adult ring warriors can attempt a variety of martial arts, for the youngsters the prime focus is on kick-boxing – and it is a discipline on the up and up across the city.

“There are so many kids who want to come along to the various gyms and try it,” said Watkinson, who, with Dias, now runs the re-christened United Masters Martial Arts gym in Layerthorpe.

“We originally started out as mainly mixed martial arts but the kick-boxing among the kids has really taken hold and when you have got someone like Tony – a two-time world kick-boxing champion to learn from – then it’s no surprise how well it is growing.”