Sunday, 26 May 2013 00:18

So you're all hyped for It's Showtime Lyon on May 14. You're hearing all this talk about the return of Badr Hari and how this is the most stacked card of the year. You look into the card a bit more, browse through all the great match ups and you see Badr Hari vs. ...Gregory Tony? Who could this be?

Many people technically don't know him. If you look around you can see that no one's even sure of his real name. Take a look around the internet and you'll notice that you'll find about half of the results are for Tony Gregory and the other half are for Gregory Tony. I guess those are the troubles you encounter when you have two first names as your name. It's Showtime lists him as Tony Gregory. In his recent big time boxing match against Robert Helenius, he was listed as Gregory Tony. We can indeed confirm that his name is Gregory Tony.

So let's get to the question. Who is Gregory Tony? Gregory Tony is a 6'5, 230lb Super Heavyweight fighter from France who will be taking on Badr Hari, May 14th in Lyon for It's Showtime.

Early in his career in the mid to late 1990s Tony fought around France, becoming the Muaythai champion of the country in 1996, 1999 and 2000 and Kickboxing champ in 1995, 1996 and 2000. In 2001, Tony started fighting in K-1 with a disqualification win over Swedish fighter Jorgen Kruth. The next year he went on to win the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 in Marseilles tournament with 3 straight wins over Karim Aouaden, Phillipe Gomis and Azem Matsukaj. The next year in 2003, Tony would again win another K-1 tournament, this time winning the K-1 World Grand Prix Preliminary France with Daniel Waciakowski, Fabrice Bernardin and again Azem Matsukaj in the final for the second year in a row.

For the next few years, Tony went on to fight for K-1 all over Europe, facing names such as Alexander Ustinov twice, Humberto Evora, Vitali Akhramenko and Patrice Quarteron. In 2006 he split two fights with Daniel Ghita, knocking Ghita out in the first encounter and being knocked out by a right hook from Ghita in the rematch.

The year 2006 was also the year Gregory Tony started his professional boxing career. Tony would go back and forth between boxing and kickboxing from the end of 2006 until 2008, racking up a 9-0 record in boxing and getting a win over Alexey Ignashov and a loss to Zabit Samedov in kickboxing. Tony moved more towards boxing in 2009 with 3 wins, improving his record to 12-0. At the end of 2009, he came back to kickboxing and fought to a draw over 5 rounds with Fabrice Aurieng, still retaining his WKBC Heavyweight title. That was the last time he would fight in kickboxing.

In August of 2010, after not having fought in any combat sports for 9 months, Gregory Tony returned for the biggest boxing match of his career. At this point, he was ranked one of the best heavyweights in all of France. Facing Robert Helenius of Finland, one of the biggest up and coming fighters in boxing. Tony was dropped in rounds 3, 4, 5 and 6 when the fight was finally stopped. Tony continued with boxing this year, picking up a win each in March and April.

Just last night, mere hours ago, Gregory Tony fought in the British "Prizefighter" International Heavyweight Tournament. He defeated Russian journeyman of both boxing and kickboxing, Evgeny Orlov by controversial split decision in the first round. In the second round, he was stopped in the first round by Cuban-Irish Mike Perez. Now you may be thinking..Wait, he got stopped in the first round, how is he fighting Badr Hari in a week? Well, supposedly he had hurt his arm when he was dropped but many people are questioning that and think he may have just been looking for a way out. We'll never know but as of now he is still fighting Badr Hari.

And that leaves us where we are right now. A week away from It's Showtime Lyon on May 14th. In kickboxing, Gregory Tony is coming off a longer layoff than Badr Hari. He's been keeping active in boxing but you have to wonder if this whole time he's even been training kickboxing or just focusing solely on boxing.

Here's some fight videos of Gregory Tony:

Sunday, 26 May 2013 00:18

Two big names in the Muay Thai world are set to clash on May 31st in Hong Kong. Fight Factory has put together their "Arena" card and in the main event, Belarussian Andrei Kulebin takes on the current Super Welterweight champ of Lumpinee Stadium, Saiyok Pumpanmuang under full Thai rules. Kulebin looks to bounce back from a lackluster win over Italian Angelo Campoli at Fight Code: Dragon Series Round 2 on March 12. Kulebin picked up the win but the fight was more competitive than many thought it would be. Saiyok has not lost for years and is looking to continue his winning streak with a convincing win over the Belarussian.

The event poster below:

Sunday, 26 May 2013 00:18

Mosab "The Jaguar" Amrani is one of the breakout stars in the European kickboxing world after a few great bouts for It's Showtime, including a Fight of the Year Contender against Mootje Khamal at It's Showtime: The Sand in December. He has another fight for It's Showtime coming up on May 14th at It's Showtime Lyon against Houcine Bennoui. So where has he been training for this bout? At Superpro Samui in Thailand, one of the better-known, quality Thai Boxing camps, best known for Pajonsuk Superpro Samui. Many feel that Amrani is one of the fighters to watch over the coming years, so watch Amrani training and follow his path to becoming one of the best.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 00:18

If for some reason you've missed out on the Final 16 for Fight Code's "Dragon Series" tournament, their 72.5kg tournament featuring names like Sudsakorn, Armen Petrosyan, Giorgio Petrosyan and Dzabar Askerov, you are in luck. Fight Code has released a video breaking down the Dragon Series tournament's Final 16 stage, including brief highlights of the first round as well as the tournament brackets heading into the Final 8.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 00:18

It's Showtime recently updated their card for the May 21st event in Amsterdam with a -65kg bout. Dutch fighter Robert van Nimwegen who trains out of the Loek's Gym under Peter van Os takes on Peruvian Frank Pareces. van Nimwegen has fought in It's Showtime a few times before, owning a 1-3 record in the promotion. He's also fought notables Mosab Amrani and Fabio Pinca. Pareces, who recently fought in the WMC I-1 Muaythai World Grand Prix 2011 on April 21st has fought and trained all over the world, including living in Russia and Thailand. These two aren't very well known but this should make for some exciting action in the -65kg division.