Michelle “Pressure” Preston V Hillary Mack 16th Feb Manchester

New Zealand’s wonder woman in Kick Boxing, and arguably the best Pound for Pound (P4P) female and ROGUE top ten P4P fighter- Michelle Preston will fly over to the United Kingdom to battle Hillary Mack of Scotland come 16th February. This fight will decide the IKF (International Kick Boxing Federation) fly weight, world title at 52Kg.

Having no credible opponent to fight inside New Zealand, this is a smart move and real opportunity for Shell to pick up yet another belt, already boasting so much silver ware- she may have to grow an extra arm to carry it for the photos. An all female pro card, “Lady Killers” have attracted some of the best women stand up assassins around, and will be a treat for the purist when it comes to Kick Boxing. Michelle who fights out of the very elite, ETK (Elite Thai Kick Boxing) gym in Penrose has been on a roll and notched up some impressive wins in the recent past.

Being the only female fighter to make it into our P4P top ten A list, a world title would mean she jumps a couple of notches. Presently in Sydney, she returns to the country this weekend to finalise preparations according to sparring partner Rochelle Stroh. “She’s in great shape, and she’s ready- the title will be hers!” Confidence is never in short supply with this lady killer.

Fresh off a spectacular- Cyclops of a win in pro boxing, where she battled a nasty gash of a third eye, she is all healed and ready for the task. “I feel ready and I want to win this one, great opportunity as it’s hard for me to get fights over here”. Over the last year she was very unlucky not to win against Linda Ooms and Rachel Jones, who some critics argue as charitable decisions, and some went as far to call it the next best thing to a sequel of the Great train robbery.

Preston’s opponent Mack, who shares the first name with US democratic preseidential Hopeful Clinton, is a highly rated fighter out of the Caledonian Muay Thai gym. She has featured in numerous cards all over the world, and not to mention- even grabbing the attention of the main stream press in Scotland. Presently training in Thailand, at Sasipara gym she will bring some top notch form to the table. The soft spoken lady killer had this to say to ROGUE about the fight- “I love Muay Thai, train hard and appreciate all the effort that goes in, especially from the ladies as it can be hard to get fights. I think Michelle is similar to me in taking fights at a wide weight range just to get the experience and ring time.... so it should be a well matched fight. I am really grateful to Tricia McKeary for putting us on her show too”

What’s more Hillary who is a qualified psychologist, Woking with kids in both the US and UK has a surprise or two in store for the fight. I guess we will have to wait and see what it is. Knowing her style, it’s going to be an adrenaline fuelled of dose of Kick Boxing.

Whichever way the fight is too close to call, and in such instances the diplomatic thing to do is sit on the fence. All biases aside, with recent form and statistics included it is still difficult to split them apart. It will be a true case of mayhem and Lady Killers- we will be streaming this fight live on ROGUE, no we are just kidding. If we could we would, it will be worth its weight in gold and possibly platinum.

Hillary Mack picture courtesy of Caledonian gym http://www.caledonianmuaythai.co.uk/hilarymack/