Tuesday, 21 May 2013 17:53

This past weekend TaKe On Productions returned to New York City putting on a big casino show and dazzling fans as always. The main event saw Wayne Barrett put a beating on Stahinja Ivonovic from DC and show everyone what NYC's Muay Thai scene is made of. He scored the stoppage in Round 2 after Ivonovic called it quits after being outclassed. The other big fight of the evening saw New York Muay Thai's Sean Fagan take on Sitan's Omar Estevez for Fagan's TKO 145lbs Championship. They had a back-and-forth five round war before Fagan was declared the winner and retained the title in a tough battle.

The WKA 155lbs Title was up for grabs as well with Stoney Morales taking a battering in round three which led to the stoppage, leaving Rich Brattole standing strong with the title in his grasp.

For full results check out Cory Braiterman's full write up here.

There was also a big announcement from TaKe-On that Rami Ibrahim of Sitan Gym will be headlining the next TaKe-On event on April 26th.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 17:53

Among kickboxing fans, no name will ever be more associated with Kyokushin Karate than Andy Hug's.

Hug had a truly legendary career in K-1, scoring victories over Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, and Mike Bernardo to name just a few of his high profile wins. He is one of the most famous Kyokushin practitioners of all time, and for good reason. 

Before entering the K-1 ring, Andy Hug was already a popular karate fighter in his own right. He had several famous battles with Shokei Matsui, World Tournament winner Kenji Midori, World tournament winner Francisco Filho, Maasaki Satake, and others. A well known name in Japan long before 1993 and his K-1 debut on the world stage, Hug was reknowned for his technical skills, surprisingly devastating ax kick, and his unique spinning hook kick to the leg dubbed the "Hug tornado."

There's not much I can say about Andy Hug that hasn't already been said. He was one of the founding fighters of K-1, and a big part of the reason this sport became what it is today.

Nobuaki Kakuda will probably best be remembered as the only kickboxer to lose to sumo wrestler Akebono. This is sad, because at the time of that fight he was nearly 45 years old and had already been around the block. In his match with Hug, Kakuda was much closer to his prime and in far better athletic shape. While he was never the most talented kickboxer, Kakuda was always very game to fight (typically against much larger opponents) and packed some serious power in his hands. (Highlight) He is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Seidokaikan Karate Association, founded by Kazuyoshi Ishii.

This fight takes place in 1993 during the second ever K-1 event, and the first ever Grand Prix won by Branko Cikatic. Take note that this is a special Kyokushin match that served as Hug's introduction to the international kickboxing audience. It's a testament to how invested Kazuyoshi Ishii was in Kyokushin, Seidokaikan, and the warrior spirit of karate fighters.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 17:53

Kickboxing and Muay Thai fans are typically cut from the same sort of cloth. While there are notable exceptions, both kickboxing enthusiasts and muay thai fanatics have a mutual respect for what the other side is doing. This is most evident in the bond that the two sports share in international competition- it's not uncommon for kickboxers to take a fight in muay thai and do well (See Karim Ghajji vs. Aikpracha) or vice versa (Too many examples to name, but Buakaw, Kem, and Artem Levin are MT practioners that have often competed at the highest level of kickboxing). 

It goes without saying that Muay Thai has a larger and more technically gifted talent pool than most of kickboxing, especially at lower weights. However, kickboxing is still one of the most exciting sports in the world and when two skilled athletes are trying to punch each other in the face, just about anything can happen. This is my very subjective list of 6 Thai Fighters that would make a seamless transition into the kickboxing ring. A few disclaimers to keep in mind before I start the countdown...

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1. This list is not in order of talent. It is numbered by who I would personally most like to see in a kickboxing promotion.

2. Thai's are hands down the best combat sports athletes on the planet. That being said, most of them probably won't make the transition over to kickboxing in the immediate future. If there's no reason to believe they'll switch sports, they won't be included on this list. 

3. I'm not including any Thai fighters that have extensively fought kickboxing in the past.

Ok, that's it! Let's go ahead and get right down to our first entry...

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#6- Simon Marcus

Chance of seeing him in kickboxing: Likely

Simon Marcus is what most people would call "on fire" right now. After going 6-0 in 2012 to add to his already unbeaten record, Marcus made an impression on American muay thai fans when he dispatched the always abrasive Joe Schilling twice in one year. If that wasn't enough, most recently Marcus competed in China where he scored two KO victories in the same night. Let's just be honest, the guy looks like a Greek God. He's terrifying. If Simon Marcus ever wanted to mug me all he'd need to do is glance in my general direction and my wallet would leave my pocket, sensing the prescence of an alpha male. 

Marcus was originally scheduled to make his kickboxing debut at GLORY 5 London against fellow Muay Thai practioner Steven Wakeling. However, he opted for a long awaited dream match-up with Artem Levin instead. While we may not see the Bwad Boy move to kickboxing as planned, there is a very high chance he'll make the transition sometime in the future. 

 Read More for the full list

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 17:53

GLORY 5 London is just under a month away on March 23 from the ExCel Arena in London, England. There are still a few fights left to be confirmed but today a change to one of the fights was announced.

Steve Wakeling now fights Eddie Walker, who replaces Simon Marcus. Marcus was known to be out of the fight for some time now. The match-up remains an 85kg contest.

This will be Wakeling's first fight since July, where he went to a very controversial draw with Artem Levin. Walker comes off making it to the finals of the Road to GLORY USA tournament in Los Angeles on February 9, where he made knocked out both of his opponents before being stopped with low kicks by tournament winner Mike Lemaire.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 17:53

Today SuperKombat announced their event schedule for 2013, which features six SuperKombat World Grand Prix events, six SuperKombat New Heroes qualification events as well as the World Tryout series.

Like last year, four of the SuperKombat World Grand Prix events will feature qualifying tournaments, with the winners going to the Final Elimination. Then the winners from the Final Elimination will fight in the final tournament at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix Final.

This year SuperKombat has brought in a new system to get fighters for it's tournaments with SuperKombat New Heroes, a series of six qualification events. The winners of the SuperKombat New Heroes tournaments will all qualify for spots in one of the four SuperKombat World Grand Prix qualifying tournaments. So far, one SuperKombat New Heroes event has already taken place this past weekend on February 23 in Opatija, Croatia, where Muamer Tufekcic, Ante Verunica, Uros Velicevic and Dino Belosevic won qualifying super fights at the event, which was put on in part with Opatija Fight Night. The next SuperKombat New Heroes event is scheduled for March 23 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"As you know, in january we started the World Tryouts series because I’m sure that may be heroes undiscovered. Until now we had tryouts events in Greece, Germany and Great Britain and the future sounds good. Superkombat will became a complete fighting championship with tryouts events and after that with qualification events for the World Grand Prix series. The global format will be the same as in football. You must promote from a division to another. To be in the World Grand Prix series, you must get your ticket from the World Tryouts series and New Heroes series,” said Eduard Irimia.

Full schedule of the World Grand Prix series:

SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 1 (April 6, 2013)
SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 2 (May 18, 2013)
SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 3 (September 28, 2013)
SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 4 (October 12, 2013)
SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 5 Final Elimination (November 9, 2013)
SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 6 Final (December 21, 2013)

Full information can be found on SuperKombat's website, here.