Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:58

For months it had been speculated that Gokhan Saki would be taking on Sergei Lascenko in the mai event on June 18 in Rotterdam. We now have confirmation that Saki is injured and stepping in for him is fellow Golden Glory teammeate, Errol Zimmerman.

Fresh off a dominant win over Mourad Bouzidi, Zimmerman makes a quick turn-around. Zimmerman dominated Bouzidi, knocking him down twice over the course of 3 rounds to win a unanimous decision. Zimmerman will look to add to the current momentum he has and make it a 3 fight win streak for himself.

Sergei Lascenko recently won the SuperKombat World Grand Prix I Heavyweight Tournament, knocking out Dzevad Poturak and Roman Kleibl in the process. Lascenko recently made the move to Mike's Gym and it looks like so far it's paid off for him. In his K-1 fights, Lascenko looked to be out of shape, having unneeded fat around the waste and lackluster cardio. On May 21st for Super Kombat, he looked much leaner and more crisp with his technique.

Many will be quick to pick a Zimmerman win here, but don't write off Lascenko. The move to Mike's Gym has seemed to rejuvinate his career. Zimmerman also isn't exactly the most in-shape guy either. I expect this to be a pretty competitive fight with cardio being a big factor in who wins.

Also on the card is an 8 man Heavyweight Tournament. Featured in it are names like Anderson "Braddock" Silva, Wendell Roche and recent Mark Miller opponent, Nicolaj Falin. The tournament will be fought under K-1 rules with 3x3 rounds. To win the tournament, a fighter will have to win 3 fights to claim the crown. The quarter final matchups haven't been determined but here are the participants:

Anderson “Braddock” Silva
Wendell Roche
Utley Mariana
Dennis Stolzenbach
Tommy van Wijngaarden
Philip van der Linde
Nicolaj Falin
TBA

Stay tuned for more news here on Liverkick.com, including quarterfinal matchups.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:58

Originally, Buakaw Por. Pramuk was supposed to fight over the summer in the United States for Stand Up Promotions, something that excited U.S. fans, giving them a possible opportunity to see one of the world's top kickboxers and most popular thai fighters live in person. Sadly that fell through due to Buakaw's links to the Thai Fight series at the time. It looks like the foundation of the new Muay Thai Premier League has secured Buakaw Por. Pramuk to fight for them as well though, and the kicker? They announced yesterday that their first show in their new series will take place in Los Angeles, California.

That really doesn't come as a shock, though, as California plays host to a lot of modern Muay Thai shows over the past few years, being one of the hot spots for United States Muay Thai next to New York City and Las Vegas.

Buakaw Por. Pramuk is set to square off with Dzabar Askerov on September 2nd. On top of that, there will be a rematch between Baxter Humby and John Wayne Parr as a part of JWP's impressive world tour that he is doing in 2011 for his retirement. [source]

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:58

Former runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter's eighth season and UFC fighter Phillipe Nover has been quiet of late. His UFC record of 0-3 made him think long and hard about where his career is going and what to do. Nover returned to nursing full time while training part time, and it looks like Nover has aspirations to return to the ring and fight, but not what you'd think. Instead of returning to MMA immediately, Nover is looking to fight in some Muay Thai fights in his home of New York first. MuayThaiAuthority.com has the story.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:58

On June 11 in Rome, Italy, KickBoxing International and Oktagon present a card main evented by Giorgio Petrosyan's brother, Armen Petrosyan vs. Warren Stevelmans.

Armen Petrosyan is coming off the biggest win of his career over Yoshihiro Sato and he'll look to continue his recent success when he takes on Warren Stevelmans. Stevelmans is coming off a win over Mohammed Medhar on March 6th for It's Showtime. He'll look to start a winning streak with a win over Armen.

Armen Petrosyan is the younger brother of Giorgio Petrosyan. He fights much more aggressively than his older brother. While not as good as Giorgio (Who is?), Armen is a very good fighter and Dave Walsh and myself had him just right outside the Middleweight top 10 at #11. Giorgio has fought and beaten Stevelmans before so Armen should be well prepared.

Warren Stevelmans trains out of the Vos Gym under Ivan Hippolyte. Despite being around kickboxing for a long time now, Stevelmans is still only 28. One of the toughest fighters around, Stevelmans is incredibly hard to stop having been stopped only once by Chahid Oulad El Hadj.

This should be a great fight and it adds to the list of big fights on June 11. It's Showtime will be in Poland on the same day and Jerome Le Banner will be taking on Stefan Leko also. It'll be another good weekend of kickboxing.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:58

While there are debates ongoing in the United States MMA world about the state of female fighters now that Zuffa owns Strikeforce, in Japan ShootBoxing is committed to bringing women's fights to the masses. In just a few days, ShootBoxing's third card of the year will take place and one of the feature fights is a rematch from last year between RENA and Ai Takahashi. The photo below if from that bout, as there is recent talk in the press about the two women getting into a war of words, with Takahashi bringing up RENA's recent loss to a high school student.

If you are wondering who supports RENA, look no further as a group of Junior High students have shown their love for RENA, from RENA's official blog.