Saturday, 25 May 2013 01:05

Welcome back to the LiverKick.com rankings. These rankings are an attempt to break down the top 10 fighters in three different weight classes - Heavyweight, for fighters above the 85kg limit, Middleweight, for fighters at the 70-72.5kg limit, and Light Heavyweight, for fighters at the 77-84kg limit. Our rankings are based on in-ring accomplishments and recent wins and loses. We hope they reflect where these fighters currently stand, although we recognize that all rankings are inherently subjective.

May 2011

We've decided to take a different approach to the rankings, in the past Fraser Coffeen handled them, but as many are aware, Fraser has since had to step down from his responsibilities at LiverKick.com and has since moved on to other ventures. Our Top 10 list a while back moved on to being a top 25 to reflect a uniformity with our then home of SBNation. We've decided to move back to only including the Top 10 and to opt for the inclusion of Light Heavyweight (77kg - 84kg) to reflect the depth of talent in that weight class.

As this serves as our first foray into the Light Heavyweight division, feel free to speak out if you feel anything is out of place, but we did spend a considerable amount of time tweaking these rankings to make sure they were the best possible representation for this weight class. #1 Artem Levin was a no-brainer. In 2010 he won the IFMA European Muay Thai 75kg tournament, won the SportAccord Muay Thai 75kg tournament, became the WBC World Muay Thai Light Heavyweight Champion and won the It's Showtime 77kg MAX Championship. Then in 2011 he moved up to 81kg in the IFMA European Muay Thai tournament and won that as well. He has pretty much beaten a who's-who in the division and is easily reigning at the top.

The clear cut #2 is Yodsanklai, a Muay Thai fighter who also fights world class kickboxers in his down time. While Yods does hop between weight classes sometimes, he mainly fights at 77kg, with only a few kickboxing losses to Viyisile Colossa, John Wayne Parr and Artem Levin. Wins over Viyisile, the UK's Jordan Watson (I know, Fletch, I know) were still within the 70-73kg class, but a win over #3 Cosmo Alexandre propels him into the top of the division.

Cosmo is an interesting case, as he is among one of the top fighters in the world, and was at one time It's Showtime 77kg MAX Champion, until he decided to participate in Thai Fight without alerting It's Showtime as well as rejecting a lower offer for a fight and severed ties with It's Showtime. After a few tough losses he got back on track at Lion Fights in the United States a few weeks ago. #4 L'houcine "Aussie" Ouzgni is a fighter that can be frustrating at times. Aussie is clearly a 77kg fighter; he is tall, lean and powerful, but he still insists at times to drop down to 70kg where he looks a bit rough around the edges. A few losses can't derail forward movement for him, though, as he continues to forge ahead.

#5 Nieky Holzken is in action this weekend, fighting someone from his past home of 70kg in Artur Kyshenko at a catchweight of 74kg (technically within the -77kg division) at the Glory World Series. Since committing to 77kg Holzken has been on a roll, with only one loss to Aussie last year. If you don't know #6 Dmitry Shakuta you will soon enough. Shok is the former It's Showtime 77kg MAX Champion before losing the title to Cosmo, he also holds a rare win over Artem Levin and could at any time make a run at the top again. #7 Vladimir Moravcik has kept himself incredibly busy over the last few years against top competition and is still only walking around with 3 losses, he fights at 73 - 74kg usually, making him too big for 70kg and too small for 77kg, but a perfect fit for It's Showtime's 73kg MAX title.

#8 Alexander Stretsurenko is a fighter whose name you'll see on a lot of the top fighter's records as a (W), but still holds very impressive victories as well as holds his own with the very top fighters in the division. #9 Sem Braan falls into the same category as a fighter who is working his way up and ready to breakout. #10 Khalid Bourdif is a fighter that we honestly do not know a ton about, but every time we've seen him he was incredible impressive and holds some very good victories over big names, he could easily move up a few spots within this year if he remains active.

Saturday, 25 May 2013 01:05

I'm pretty terrible at things that involve a high level of organization or repetition, like weekly polls and daily videos, apparently. Badr Hari's return has came and went, and the fight that was against Gregory Tony was nothing short of a mockery. Gregory Tony most likely did not belong in the ring with Badr Hari, and by all means Kader Marouf's influence of getting him that spot was felt.

Our weekly poll asked you if you felt that Badr Hari was the best. The results are in, and a good portion of you indeed believe that he is.

60% believe that he is. 24% think that he might not be there yet. 11.8% believe that he isn't and the rest feel that he is all hype. Fair enough.

Our new weekly poll is as follows:

Which Glory World Series Bout Are You Looking Forward to the Most? This just covers the kickboxing fights, sorry Siyar! So get to voting, the show happens on Saturday!

Gokhan Saki vs. Brice Guidon

Mark "Fightshark" Miller vs. Nikolaj Falin

Nieky Holzken vs. Arthur Kyshenko

Errol Zimmerman vs. Mourad Bouzidi

Sergei Kharitonov vs. Mighty Mo

Other

Saturday, 25 May 2013 01:05

Just as we assumed, today the K-1 brass announced a new -63kg Tournament that will take place on June 25. They'll look to build off of their -63kg Tournament last year, which featured all Japanese fighters. It's a different approach for K-1 as they try to build up new Japanese stars to possibly create a new star that can somewhat "revive" K-1.

It'll be an 8 man tournament, the winner will have to win 3 fights in one night to claim the crown. Here are the brackets:

Quarter Finals, -63kg Japan Tournament

Super Fight, -70kg

Yoshihiro Sato vs. Albert Kraus

The -63kg tournament features some of the same names from last year, mixed in with new names. Koya Urabe, HIROYA, Yuki Takeuchi and Masaaki Noiri are the new names in the tournament and without doubt deserve to be there. Many were disappointed that some of these names didn't take place in the inaugural -63kg tournament last year. Koya Urabe and HIROYA are the most notable of these new participants. Urabe being a reserve fighter in last year's tournament and a prominent fighter in KRUSH while HIROYA was one of the faces of the K-1 Koshien series. Definitely a better field of fighters than last year's tournament. If the first -63kg tournament last year is anything to base this off of, then you should expect fireworks.

The addition of Yoshihiro Sato vs. Albert Kraus is a great one as both men haven't had the best of results lately and look to get back to the top. It's a big fight between 2 top 10 middleweight fighters that is sure to add some interest to the card for those who aren't familiar with the tournament participants.

As of right now, the chances of a TV deal are looking slim. There's no TV deal in Japan and with the event just being announced, it's unlikely HDNet will hop on board.

Be on the lookout for more details in the lead up to the event.

Saturday, 25 May 2013 01:05

Last week "Fightshark" Mark Miller was featured on Ariel Helwani's radio show on AOL/MMAFighting.com, which garnered a whole lot of attention. That is something to be said for this whole ordeal, about six months ago the average fan did not know about Mark's story, nor did the average promoter. There were a lot of talks with a lot of promoters and some remembered him while others had no clue. It was frustrating, to say the least, to see such a talent with such a huge story and people did not know what to make of it. Finally, it took Martijn de Jong's Glory World Series to say, "that guy, we want that guy."

Now I can only imagine how those promoters who passed up the opportunity feel as Mark has received a ton of more mainstream media attention in the United States than any kickboxing show has received in many, many years. So you reap what you sow. Of course, with more attention from the media comes... more attention. If you've been on the internet for a while, you know what that means; more people trolling, insulting and generally speaking being snotty. Being featured on the AOL Sports homepage led to some doubting the shape he is in, or how smart it is for him to fight. In his last installment of his MMAWeekly blog, Mark replies.

Read the rest of the article to see how he handles preparing for the fight, his mental state and the thoughts that race through his head.

The Glory World Series is Saturday morning in the United States, airing live on YouTube at 11am Eastern time for $7.95. You can order the event now or just wait until Saturday morning when the event is live. Mark is the first fighter to return from open heart surgery, a surgery where his aortic valve was replaced with a cadaver valve, one that is considered "as good as new" for him to ensure he would not only be able to keep fighting, but be in better shape than ever. He fights Nikolaj Falin at Heavyweight.

Saturday, 25 May 2013 01:05

Welcome back to the LiverKick.com rankings. These rankings are an attempt to break down the top 10 fighters in three different weight classes - Heavyweight, for fighters above the 85kg limit, Middleweight, for fighters at the 70-72.5kg limit, and Light Heavyweight, for fighters at the 77-84kg limit. Our rankings are based on in-ring accomplishments and recent wins and loses. We hope they reflect where these fighters currently stand, although we recognize that all rankings are inherently subjective.

May 2011

We've decided to take a different approach to the rankings, in the past Fraser Coffeen handled them, but as many are aware, Fraser has since had to step down from his responsibilities at LiverKick.com and has since moved on to other ventures. Our Top 10 list a while back moved on to being a top 25 to reflect a uniformity with our then home of SBNation. We've decided to move back to only including the Top 10 and to opt for the inclusion of Light Heavyweight (77kg - 84kg) to reflect the depth of talent in that weight class.

That means there were some very pronounced changes to the 70-72.5kg rankings. Part of the move to adding a 77kg ranking is certain fighters, Nieky Holzken in particular, will be absent from the 70kg rankings, and others will be moving up to reflect the changes. Of course no one will usurp #1 Giorgio Petrosyan, as he has earned his spot as the top Middleweight in the world. He'll have to prove his mettle once again in his third big tournament this year with It's Showtime running a huge 70kg tournament later this year. Petrosyan's next challenge is #10 HINATA. HINATA has been fighting for REBELS in Japan, who has just announced will become a part of It's Showtime Japan, and the first bout to promote the name will be Petro vs. HINATA.

The #2 spot was a lot tougher to choose, as #3 Buakaw Por Pramuk does hold his victory in the 2010 S-Cup, but he also has no major kickboxing bouts on his plate as of right now. He has re-focused on Muay Thai, mainly in the Thai Fight promotion. #2 Andy Souwer has stayed active in the thick of the action, and while there are some head-scratchers of losses on his record, he has solid wins over top competition in 70kg as well as over fighters from the 77kg division. #4 Mike Zambidis has had an incredible career resurgence of late. Last year he made it to the Finals of the K-1 World MAX tournament and has continued in his winning ways this year, including a 4-man tournament recently.

The #5, #6 and #7 spots were a lot more difficult to decide, as Artur Kyshenko, Sudsakorn and Yoshihiro Sato have all had their ups and downs within the division. Kyshenko is clearly the front-runner out of the three fighters, with Sudsakorn making a very calculated and successful approach on the international scene over the past few years. Sato has had a few tough losses, including one to Andy Souwer that keep him in the top 10 but make it a lot easier for him to slip.

#8 Chris Ngimbi will be a part of It's Showtime's upcoming tournament and many are outwardly calling for Ngimbi to fight Giorgio Petrosyan, just to see the It's Showtime 70kg MAX title around the waist of an undisputed champion. Ngimbi has successfully defended his title in an incredible fashion at It's Showtime Lyon with a flying knee KO on Willy Borrel. Many feel that Petrosyan is clearly the top fighter and to have a fighter like Ngimbi holding the title makes little sense, but Ngimbi has the skills, passion and power to make a run at the top, and all will be decided later this year in It's Showtime's tournament.

Both #9 Albert Kraus and #10 HINATA are top level fighters who have had some struggles of late, losing to some lower-ranked competition while holding their own against top competition. Both men are far from done and continue to prove in every fight that the 70kg division is a deep division with a lot of talent. HINATA challenges Petrosyan over the summer. Kraus should, without a doubt be a lot higher in the rankings, as his only losses over the past two years come by the way of Giorgio Petrosyan for top competition, then comes the head scratcher. His loss to Bhatu Khasikov hurts him immensely. Bhatu is still young and a relative unknown, plus the judging in the fight seemed less-than-fair. Regardless, it is a mark of shame on Kraus's record for the time being, which can be avenged with wins over some top 5 competition.