Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:36

The MuayThai Premier League is set to kick off on September 2nd and they've recently released a well done teaser trailer to get the word out. The MPL's roster is already looking stacked and there's more names to be added. The promotion is looking great already without having held an event yet. If all goes well, it'll pit some of the world's best against eachother. Watch the trailer and hopefully you'll get as pumped as I am.

Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:36

With July coming to a close, three of the bigger kickboxing promotions in Japan have announced significant fights for August.

After announcing a Girls S-Cup preliminary event for August 19th, the first bout has been announced for the event, a super fight between recently crowned Shootboxing Women's Flyweight Champion Ai Takahashi and teenage sensation, as well as WPMF and WMC World Women's Mini Flyweight Champion Erika Kamimura. Takahashi took place in both Girls S-Cup events, losing in the quarterfinals to MMA fighter Saori Ishioka in 2009 and losing in the extension round of the finals to Shootboxing superstar Rena. In a rematch of the finals back in June for the Shootboxing Women's Flyweight Title, Takahashi pushed Rena for five rounds, eventually exhausting her opponent and claiming her revenge, along with the title. Erika Kamimura has made her name as an 18 year old sensation, taking wins over RISE champion Chiharu and Silvia La Notte and dominating Rena in an exhibition bout all in the past 7 months. Kamimura has an upcoming bout at RISE.80 on the 23rd against Team Souwer's Tiana van Lana, so hopefully Kamimura does not suffer an injury in that bout. Much like the title fight between Takahashi and Rena, this fight is scheduled for 5 three minute rounds.

After what seems to be a successful and entertaining initial event, It's Showtime Japan returns on August 21st in conjunction with the Fujiwara Festival and is headlined by a 61kg #1 contender's bout between former AJKF Featherweight Champion, Krush 2009 Lightweight GP Champion and #3 WPMF Japan ranked Lightweight Masahiro Yamamoto and #2 ranked Arito Tsukahara. Yamamoto challenged for the IS 61kg Championship last December, losing by a 3rd round doctor stoppage to former champion Sergio Wielzen. Wielzen lost a decision to Karim Bennoui in March who was subsequently defeated by current champion Javier Hernandez in a fight of the year contender in June. The winner of this bout will face the winner between Javier Hernandez and Kan Itabashi, who defeated Genki Yamamoto at the first It's Showtime Japan card on the 18th for the right to challenge for the title.

Also announced for the card were two 54.5 kg matches, the first between WPMF Japan Bantamweight Champion and J-NETWORK #1 ranked Super Bantamweight Ichinohe Sota and MA Kick Bantamweight Champion Takuma Ito. The other bout is a matchup between WPMF Japan #1 ranked bantamweight Noro Yuki and #3 ranked NJKF bantamweight Jun Miyoshi.

It's Showtime also announced a women's matchup between NJKF Atom(46.26kg) Champion Chiharu and WPMF Japan Atom Champion Little Tiger. As previously mentioned, Chiharu lost to Erika Kamimura at Sengoku: Soul of Fight.

Krush seems to have brokered some sort of exchange program with ISKA, as the two biggest announcements for their August 14th card pit Krush fighters against ISKA fighters. Krush 55kg participant and RISE Bantamweight Champion Nobuchika Terado will face off against Scotland's Kieran McAskill while the flashy and entertaining Keiji Ozaki will take on France's Thomas Adamandopoulos. Terado lost his quarterfinal bout in the Krush Bantamweight tournament in an extremely exciting affair with future star Ryuya Kusakabe, while Ozaki picked up a win over Toshiki Taniyama on the same card.

via Sports Navi and GBRing: Shootboxing, IS Japan, Krush

Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:36

Brent (Cacti) posted not too long ago a list of top fighters in Thailand. Some names have been mainstays of top level Muay Thai for years (or, in the case of Saenchai, decades). Some are new.

Chokprecha Kor Sakooncher is one of the new ones. His name was building slowly as a knockout artist before he challenged for the title. Since beating Neungthep this year for the 115 lb Lumpini Strap, he’s been attracting a lot more attention.

This bout with Werachai is a good showcase of Chokprecha’s style and a stylistic treat to watch. Their games play right into each other.

Werachai takes a lot of risks when he fights, relying on skill and being more relaxed than his opponents. Remind us of anyone we’ve seen? Distance is his best defense and the movement it generates makes for exciting bouts.

Chokprecha wears red in this bout, Werachai blue. Banana821, a legend, posts this fight for us.

Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:36

Trust me, we all want to see this fight in full, but until then, check this out to watch Petrosyan fighting very aggressively, something he has been heavily criticized about in the past.

Sunday, 19 May 2013 10:36

Some of the downright oddest news I had read in the past few weeks was that Alistair Overeem was no longer in the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP and there were rumors swirling around that he was no longer fighting under the Zuffa banner at all. On Monday Overeem went on the MMA Hour and more or less trashed his new bosses, claiming no one had confirmed him fighting on September 10th with him and revealing that he only had one fight on his contract remaining with Zuffa. The insanity that a fighter involved in a possible three-fight tournament with only two fights remaining on their current contract is disorganized at best. Many had assumed that since Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce that fighters like Overeem would be immediately locked down into newer contracts, but the truth is that Overeem's management team at Golden Glory has been trying to negotiate with Zuffa to secure the future for Overeem and it appears that things have reached a standstill.

With UFC scooping up Strikeforce talent such as Nick Diaz and possibly Gilbert Melendez it would only make sense to scoop up Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem as well, but the Heavyweight Grand Prix has made that difficult. Overeem is apparently nursing a broken toe, which he has decided will keep him out of action until at least October, when he feels like he could fight.

In recent interviews Alistair has made mention of a possible boxing match with Vitali Klitschko in Europe, which for the uninitiated is a reigning boxing world champion and former kickboxer himself and would make for a huge payday for Overeem, possibly more than he could make in his MMA career. Overeem has also noted that K-1 will be returning and that he would love to return to kickboxing action and under his current Strikeforce contract he is able to do so. If you add this to the persistent rumors that K-1 has an upcoming event planned for October in China or Japan and there being no Strikeforce events scheduled for October, it appears like Overeem showing up in a K-1 ring is possible.

Out of all the unlikely scenarios one would have imagined just two months ago, it has once again become a possibility.