Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

Our look at the top fights of 2010 continues here with a slightly more obscure fight:

Bovy Sor. Udomson v. Takaaki Umeno (Shootboxing Ishin 2, April 11)

From Shootboxing, this one kind of flew under the radar, but if you want an action packed brawl, this one is for you.  The Thai fighter Bovy has seen his career fade in recent years, while Shootboxing's Umeno has been on the rise.  Here they met in the middle, turning in a crazy, bloody battle high on excitement.

Previously featured:

Tyrone Spong v. Jerome Le Banner

A note on this series - we'll be posting 1 or 2 of the top fights of the year on a daily basis over the coming week.  Fights will be featured in chronological order moving through the year.

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

Andre "Dida" Amade is a MMA fighter who has been on a bit of a losing streak of late, but found a bit of a niche for himself in K-1's MAX division. After scoring a knockown against renowned Thai fighter Buakaw Por. Pramuk, Dida has been in demand for K-1 MAX events due to his exciting fighting style and immense power he packs. This documentary was done for The Fight Network and was Produced, edited and written by Jorge Barbosa and documents Dida moving to Canada to work with his brother and prepare to fight in K-1 MAX again. [Source]

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

With It's Showtime's final show completed, the 2010 kickboxing season is pretty much complete.  Outside of a few fights at Dynamite!! and SRC, we've now seen what the year has to offer for action.  So what better time to look back at the best fights of the year?  Here's our first nominee - check back all week for more.

#1 - Tyrone Spong v. Jerome Le Banner (K-1 Yokohama, April 3)

At the time, this looked like it might have been the start of a career resurgence for JLB.  Coming in off his career low at the 2009 GP, Le Banner changed up his training, recommitted himself, and ended up going toe to toe with one of the new generation's rising stars, showing that there still is some fight left in the Hyper Battle Cyborg.  Le Banner's year will sadly be more defined by his temper tantrum walk-out against Kyotaro, but this fight was a real highlight, and easily his best showing in recent years.

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

This was a quarter-final match-up in the 2010 S-Cup.

Andy Souwer is a two time S-Cup champion and was a heavy favorite to win the fight and progress to the finals. He typically fights a cerebral, point-scoring game that increases in pace as the rounds go on. This is in stark contrast to the damage-absorbing, Terminator style of his opponent.

Bovy Sor Udomson is a legend of Muay Thai with a reputation for being somewhat inhuman in the ring. His uncompromisingly aggressive style won him the Rajadamnern belt at the young age of 19, but his career peaked quickly because of the damage he took. He's moved up slowly in weight from 122 lb super bantamweight to continue fighting at 67-70 kg, 147-154 lb, though with obviously dimmed reflexes.

Bovy wears blue gloves here and Andy the red.

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

If you for some reason missed It's Showtime 45, you missed out on Mosab Amrani vs. Mohamed Khamal, an absolute, all-out war that not only went three rounds, but into an extension round before Khamal was able to pull himself together enough to pull off the big upset decision win.

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

This is my second post on clinch rules in K-1 and how they've changed. Post I featured Buakaw Por Pramuk's utter destruction of Takayuki Kohiruimaki via clinch knees.

In 2005, K-1 made its first major change to its clinch fighting rules. Fighters could now only throw one knee per clinch. Pre-2005, extended clinching with knees had been allowed, in the fashion of Muay Thai. People speculated as to why K-1 made this change, most citing Schilt's dominance with knees in the WGP, others citing the clinch skills of a fighter newly arrived in MAX, Buakaw Por Pramuk. No one really knows and, to my knowledge, K-1's explanation that it made fights more exciting was not readily taken up by the K-1 community.

This is from the 2006 K-1 MAX Final 16. Notice how Buakaw, very aggressive in the clinch against Kohi, now limits himself to one knee in the clinch, in accordance with the rule change in 2005. Until 2006, referees seemed unsure as to how to enforce the rule, but by this point they were quicker in breaking clinches and warning fighters, as they do in the third.

Virgil Kalakoda, a South African boxer, turned to K-1 in 2005. He was slow to add weapons to his repertoire and, facing Buakaw the year after his debut, he employs mostly hands in a bullying, smothering style.

Watch Virgil's attempts to shut down Buakaw's traditional kicking game and how Buakaw responds to Virgil's strategy. Virgil actually has a large weight advantage over Buakaw, being as he moved down from 78 kg, 170 lb, in boxing to fight K-1 at 70 kg, while Buakaw moved from 63.5 kg, 140 lb, to fight in the MAX. The mass likely makes his tactics more effective. Buakaw wears the red gloves in this bout, Virgil the blue.

Part 1

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

In light of the upcoming UFC event headlined by Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem, I thought it'd be worthwhile to look back on Alistair's K-1 fights. Fan predictions for Dos Santos vs Overeem are predictably varied, and I think rightly so. Some fans are quick to label Overeem as chinny, citing his Pride FC performances; others point out his vastly improved performance at heavyweight, where he has improved stamina, technique, power, and, most importantly, a much more solid mental game.

I think Overeem's main flaw, that he can be hurt -- especially when tired -- is still there, but he's learned to manage it much better with sound defense and safe gameplanning.

Tyrone Spong manages to hurt him in this bout from 2010, convincingly take a round from Overeem. His temporary advantage is due in part to an edge in speed but, man, does he have some sweet hook counters. Overeem, for his part, recovers well, and uses a solid pressure game to grind Spong down for a decision win with a standing eight count in the final round.

Why do I bring up this fight? Because Spong, technically as sound as the elite heavyweights, is not known for power. People doubted whether his frame could handle the one hundred plus kilos he was carrying, and he'd recently lost a decision to Jerome Le Banner without inflicting much damage of note. Yet, he manages to hurt Overeem.

Here's their bout from 2010. Overeem is in red, Spong in blue.

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Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

This fight is part of a series discussing changes in K-1's clinch rules. I'll be posting fights that demonstrate what fights in different eras of the clinch rule had the potential to look like. The next fight will be post-2005, when "one strike in the clinch" was enforced.

In 2004, the clinch was essentially unchanged from Muay Thai. Fighters could throw as many strikes/ knees as they wanted and it was often used to avoid distance fighting by fighters like Takayuni Kohiruimaki and Yoshihiro Sato. Sato, before joining K-1, had a great career in Muay Thai and full rules Japanese Kickboxing in the AJKF where he utilized knees and elbows to great effect. His build looks similar to that of famous knee fighters of old, like Dieselnoi Chor Thansukarn, who was 188 cm, 6' 2", and fought at 63.5 kg, 140 lb.

In Thailand, Buakaw Por Pramuk had climbed the Lumpini rankings at 135 lb lightweight to no.2 before stopping in deference to a stablemate who held the belt. He competed at 140 lb in Thailand before being invited through Ingram Gym connections to fight in K-1 MAX. Because he moved directly from 63.5 kg to the MAX, he regularly weighs in at 69 kg or 70 kg without cutting weight, while other fighters in the MAX cut the usual 5 to 10 kg. Buakaw was only in the promotion for one year before the rules changed.

Takayuki Kohiruimaki, in 2004, was an up and coming prospect in Japanese K-1, having wins over Kozo Takeda, Hayato, and Mike Zambidis, and Masato (This was very early in both their careers, being both of theirs second bout.). Kohiruimaki changed his name to Taishin in 2008 after coming back from a long, injury-related layoff. He currently has not competed since 2009, the year he won his third J-MAX title. Kohi debuted in 1999 in K-1 and used the clinch and knees as a mainstay of his style.

Keep in mind that most K-1 fights of this era did not look like this. In fact, this is one of very few examples where offensive clinching is decisive. The rules merely allowed matches to potentially look this this. This was the semi-final of the 2004 K-1 MAX Final Tournament. Buakaw wears blue gloves in this bout, Kohi wears red.

Monday, 20 May 2013 15:29

Kickboxing is like MMA in a way, where there are results that are disputed by fans when it comes to close fights. This past weekend's It's Showtime!! event flew under the radar due to falling on the same weekend as the K-1 World Grand Prix, but that doesn't mean that it did not have its share of exciting action. It's Showtime's 70kgs championship was on the line as Murat Direcki defending the title against Chris Ngimbi in the main event. It was a close bout, seeing Ngimbi pulling out the decision victory, but many fans, as well as the announce team, feel that Direcki deserved the nod. Who do you feel won the bout? Direcki is in the blue trunks, Ngimbi in the white.