Friday, 24 May 2013 12:33

The first Shootboxing event of the year kicked off last night in Tokyo, Japan at Korakuen Hall. The show featured a variety of good fights with a few of the normal Shootboxing faces, headlined by a match between Yoshihiro Sato and the 2012 S-Cup runner-up, Henri Van Opstal. 

In the main event event Sato emerged victorious, defeating Van Opstal by decision with scores of 30-29, 30-29, and 29-29. It was a desperately needed win for Sato, who had already dropped his last three fights to Shemsi Beqiri, Sanny Dahlbeck, and Kenta, respectively. A win over Van Opstal puts him back into the ranks of contender. However, as close as the scores were we may need to hold out until a video surfaces before we claim that the Infinity Sniper is back in full form.

In the other big fight on the card Warren Stevelmans beat Bovy Sor Udomson by decision with scores of 29-29, 29-28, and 30-28. This will be Stevelmans' third consecutive victory, coming off wins over Dzhabar Askerov and Hinata. Stevelmans is set to face Johann Fauveau at GLORY 5 London. 

Also on the card, Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen won his first Shootboxing match against Kenji Kanai, after being defeated in his debut by Hiroaki Suzuki. It's good to see Hansen taking Shootboxing seriously, and hopefully we'll see him in more events in the future. 

Full Results

Yoshihiro Sato def. Henri Van Opstal by Decision 

Warrens Stevelmans def. Bovy Sor Udomson by Decision

Akifumi Utigawa def. Kazuki Tamakawa by Decision

Imrock def. Masahiro Fujimoto by Decision 

Joachim Hansen def. Kenji Kanai by Decision 

Hinata def. Masatoshi Hyakutake by Decision 

Kizaemon Saiga def. Masato Sannai by Decision 

Friday, 24 May 2013 12:33

Today on K-1 Global's new site we saw K-1 release what looks like a fairly packed schedule of events for the 2013 calendar year, directly after canceling the event scheduled for the end of the month in Ohio due to financial concerns. One has to expect that the qualifying tournaments in Europe will have the aid of local promoters, which will help soften the blow. You can view the schedule here.

Friday, 24 May 2013 12:33

The Tatneft Cup continues this Saturday, February 13 with the final qualification fights, with the winners joining previous Tatneft Cup 2013 winners in the quarter finals. As usual, two fights will take place at each Tatneft weight category, 70kg, 80kg and heavyweight respectively.

At 70kg is Tatneft veteran Enriko Gogokhia, who won the Tatneft Cup tournament in 2012. Gogokhia fights Bruno Gazani, who qualified by winning three fights in one night at the Tatneft Cup Brazil. The other 70kg fight sees Maxim Smirnov, who lost to Gogokhia in the Tatneft finals last year, against Belgium's Rachid Boumalek.

At 80kg, last year's Tatneft Cup finalist Hicham El Gaoui is back against Brazil's Anderson Arcanjo, who also qualified by winning the Tatneft Cup Brazil tournament. The other 80kg fight sees Ukraine's Sergei Papusha fight Belarus' Peter Romankevich.

At heavyweight, the final Tatneft Cup Brazil qualifier Vitor Miranda will fight last year's Tatneft heavyweight winner, Tsotne Rogava. Closing out the card, the final heavyweight bout sees Jan Siersema fight Hakim Abdi.

70kg: Enriko Gogokhia vs. Bruno Gazani

70kg: Maxim SMirnov vs. Rachid Boumalek

80kg: Hicham El Gaoui vs. Anderson Arcanjo

80kg: Sergei Papusha vs. Peter Romankevich

HW: Vitor Miranda vs. Tsotne Rogava

HW: Jan Siersema vs. Hakim Abdi

Friday, 24 May 2013 12:33

Our friends at Yokkao do a lot for Muay Thai and are committed to not only helping move forward their brands and fighters, but the sport of Muay Thai as well. That is the kind of stuff that we need to see more of with Kickboxing and Muay Thai for them to truly grow and become more than fringe spots with enthusiastic fans and great athletes.

Yokkao Extreme promoter Stefania Picelli stated that Yokkao Boxing is one of the premier and most popular brands in all of Muay Thai and that they regularly receive messages from fans and fighters asking for advice on training and healthy living. One of the easiest ways to ensure better health is to avoid smoking, which damages your lungs and creates a whole slew of health problems as well as limits one's ability to perform.

She also urges to look forward for Yokkao Boxing to speak about more social issues in the future and encourages everyone to "Share" and "Like" this photo on Facebook.

Friday, 24 May 2013 12:33

It was recently announced by Steve Fossum, President and CEO of International Fight Sports, that the K-1 event scheduled for February 28 in Ohio has been canceled due to financial reasons. 

According to Fossum, he was directly contacted by the Ohio Athletic Comission, who confirmed that the event, slated to take place during Arnold Classic Sports Festival next week, would not be happening. They cited "financial matters associated with the K-1 HQ" as the primary motivation behind the cancellation. 

For weeks we've wondered exactly what was going on with K-1 Ohio. We had heard only rumors of a fight card, and although a line-up was posted to the K-1 website late last week, all information about the event was taken down within a few hours. It really comes as no surprise that the event is cancelled, as there was word going around of it all being a complete mess dating back to last month. What's strange is that as of yesterday contracts were being written up and fighters were still being recruited for the card.

So what does this mean in the long run? Because Fossum cites monetary issues as the reason for the card being canceled, at the very least we can assume K-1 struggled to financially support this particular event. This is a little off-putting considering they were not working independently and had the assistance of the Arnold Classic Sports Festival. What this implies about the rest of their 2013 schedule is negative, at best.