Friday, 24 May 2013 18:20

Another major win for Lion Fight came this week as they announced that they have retained the exclusive services of one Malaipet Sasiprapa, one of the most famous Thais living in the United States today. His next fight is at Lion Fight 10 where he squares off against Hakeem Dawodu on July 26th. The contract with Malaipet Sasiprapa has been announced as an exclusive, multi-fight deal, which means that Lion Fight is now Malaipet's home for the time being.

This is a big win for Lion Fight, who have been signing up a lot of the United States' best Thai fighters to their promotion, which now airs live on AXS TV. The next event is Lion Fight 10 on July 26th.

Friday, 24 May 2013 18:20

K-1 has seen some tumultuous times over the past few years, as we saw the FEG era come to an end in 2011 and saw former EMCOM/Jaleco bigwig Mike Kim step in and purchase the assets to K-1, creating K-1 Global. It has been an interesting ride since then, as we’ve seen the formation of GLORY, the absorption of It’s Showtime into GLORY and seen regional promoters like Eduard Irimia try to break through with brands like SuperKombat. In a way, the market is wide open while still living in the shadows of K-1’s past.

K-1 Global is probably the one who has the most work to do when it comes to overcoming the shadow of K-1’s past, as they are carrying the torch for the K-1 brand and for the sport in general after there were some major issues with K-1’s former management. Then, to top it all off, K-1 Global has seen a revolving door of failed partnerships, which shows how unstable the Kickboxing world can be as well as how K-1 Global boss Mike Kim is not looking to accept subpar deals or excuses, he just wants to put on good shows.

We sat down with a guy whose name you might not know -- but you should -- in Ned Kuruc, who serves as the Director of Regional Development & Fighter Acquisition for K-1 Global, which is a fancy title for saying that Ned works on developing events and signing fighters. If you stop to think about what goes on with the fight world, that is a pretty hefty job. Who better to talk about K-1 Global and where things are headed?

Friday, 24 May 2013 18:20

We all know by now that these things can change at the drop of a hat. Injuries, visa troubles, contract disputes are all very real things in the fight world, but with that being said, here is the card that GLORY have put together for GLORY 9 NYC, which goes down on June 22nd. It features the GLORY Light Heavyweight Slam Tournament, which is a one-night, eight-man tournament. To top it off, there are also a few huge super fights featuring some pretty big names.

So here is the rundown;

Light Heavyweight Tournament

Danyo Ilunga vs. Mourad Bouzidi

Brian Collette vs. Dustin Jacoby

Filip Verlinden vs. Steve McKinnon

Tyrone Spong vs. Michael Duut

Super Fights

Daniel Ghita vs. Brice Guidon

Rico Verhoeven vs. Errol Zimmerman

Joseph Valtellini vs. Francois Ambang

Brett Hlavcek vs. Paul Marfort

Daniel Sam vs. Anderson "Braddock" Silva

Wayne Barrett vs. Mike LeMaire

Friday, 24 May 2013 18:20

When I saw this bad boy hit my inbox I was a bit stymied at first, as a quick read while walking the dog led me to believe that Rick Roufus and Evander Holyfield were going to be fighting. Both men are accomplished in their own ways, but Evander Holyfield is very much a household name for his Boxing career while Rick Roufus was without a doubt one of the best American Kickboxers in history, but Kickboxing never saw the level of success that Boxing did here in the United States.

It turns out that Rick Roufus is challenging Evander Holyfield to a fight, as both men are getting older and Roufus believes that the fight could be a huge draw between two "classy gentlemen."

The fight is being assembled by the folks at Push Kick Promotions right now, who claim to be in talks with people within Holyfield's camp, but nothing is set in stone yet. The plan would be for it to go down in Las Vegas around the time of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Olympia.

Friday, 24 May 2013 18:20

The question that has been hanging over the upcoming GLORY 9 NYC event has been who will Tyrone Spong fight? Spong, a fighter who began his career fighting under 66kg, has over the years moved himself up to Heavyweight where he was almost always undersized against the big boys of the Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight divisions. Even so, he has held his own and become a huge fan favorite across the world. But this was under K-1 rules, where there were only two weight classes and you were either MAX or Heavyweight, things have changed since then. Spong has seen the opportunity and will drop down in weight for the GLORY 9 NYC Light Heavyweight tournament, Glory announced today.

On top of that, the rest of the 8-man field has been completed in impressive fashion. The tournament looks as follows;

Tyrone Spong

Brian Collette

Mourad Bouzidi

Michael Duut

Dustin Jacoby

Danyo Ilunga

Steve McKinnon

Filip Verlinden

This makes for a very interesting tournament with some of the smaller Heavyweights like Boudizi and Duut dropping down in weight to 95kg along with Tyrone Spong and should make for an interesting tournament. No official word yet on the matchups, but according to our friends at Staredown.nl, the tournament will look like this;

Danyo Ilunga vs. Mourad Bouzidi

Brian Collette vs. Dustin Jacoby

Filip Verlinden vs. Steve McKinnon

Tyrone Spong vs. Michael Duut

Also a side note, but Eddie Walker made a statement on his Facebook this morning that he would NOT be fighting in June, but instead in July.