Yesterday in Hilversum, Holland, Twilight Fight Night played host to a few notable match-ups in the Dutch kickboxing scene. Two fighters that are definitely not known enough at all for how good they are, Ramzi Tamaditi and Fred Sikking each fought.

Both Tamaditi and Sikking are rather unknown outside of Holland and deserve some recognition. Tamditi fights in the stacked 70kg division and should be on an It's Showtime card. He fought Leory Kaestner at It's Showtime's event back on March 6th and came up short, losing a decision. Fred Sikking is in the 85kg division and has had mixed result at the higher levels. He recently split a two fight series with Moises Ruibal and got knocked out by Bogdan Stoica in February. Both fighters are on the cusp of breaking into the more prominent stages and needed wins yesterday to advance forward.

Tamaditi took on Egon Racz, a Slovakian fighter who now trains out of Mike's Gym. Racz is a good litmus test for a fighter's level and Ramzi took a decision over him. The win moves Ramzi a step closer to the bigger stages of kickboxing. It's never certain when one fighter will finally get the opportunity and some guys will hover around the Dutch scene for a long time.

Fred Sikking also moved forward with a decision win over Rodney Glunder. Glunder is a pretty decent win and moves Sikking up the ladder. It's surprising that Sikking hasn't gotten an opportunity on an It's Showtime card, especially with their efforts to establish an 85kg division. He would be a good fight for Sahak Parparyan.

A lot of guys like Tamaditi and Sikking hover around the Dutch and obscure European scenes for a very long time without getting any opportunities on the big stage. Now with more stable organizations popping up, there's hope that more fighters can get the recognition they deserve.

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I've got to admit the idea of hopping on a Greyhound bus and traveling to Atlantic City has never been on my top ten list of things I'm really interested in doing before I die. Actually it has never even been on my list of things to ever contemplate doing in my life. I would have probably thrown going to Atlantic City on my list of things I'll be happy to never do. Fortunately my good buddy Bauzen used some jedi mind trickery and dangled some Catvonc style kryptonite in front of my face and convinced me to cash in some travel vouchers and head to the Jersey shore for the weekend. I say fortunately because had Bauzen not exploited my weakness I might not have gone out of my way to attend what in my opinion was one of the most well run, classiest and amazing combat sports events I've ever attended.

The show that Take On Productions, in association with MSG Sports puts on is a well oiled machine and I can only hope they continue to grow and their show is able to expand throughout the country. From the local favorite talented ring announcer Larry Legend to MuayThaiislife.com owner Eric Rivera handling the fight commentary, to the promotors and fighters-this is a professional and entertaining show. I know from personal experience, we've got nothing that even comes close to their level of production quality here in Atlanta. Take On's event truly made me fall deeper in lust with the sport of Muay Thai and if you ever have the opportunity to go to one of their shows I say you had better jump on it. I'm not even mad that I somehow lost an earring, a ring, a phone charger and a flat iron in the post fight celebrations. I'll blame all of that on sharing too many watermelon rock rancher drinks with Bauzen's girlfriend.

The West Coast has always boasted about having the creme de la creme of Muay Thai fighters on American soil but I think the gyms on the East Coast are ready to give them a run for their money. Gyms like Sitan NY, Phil Nurse's The Wat, Cool Hearts from Philly and Boston Muay Thai just to name a few-have trained and assembled crews of skilled and exciting fighters that combat sport junkies need to start paying close attention to. From the ammy fights to the pro debuts and full rules title fights-there was not one moment where I felt the action was lagging. Here's some of the highlights of the night:

Amateur fight Rich Brattole of Weapons 9/Strategic Combat Gym vs Tim Scmeier of Sitan NY

These guys were both obviously not used to wearing headgear, which is a New Jersey athletic commission rule and not a requirement where the fighters normally fight in their home state of NY, but despite that they went to war with each other trading blows back and forth for the entire 3 round contest.

Amateur fight Caitlyn Dempsey of Impact Martial Arts vs Christina Rodriguez of Girl Fight MMA NJ

The ladies brought the first blood of the evening and the first extremely loud crowd response of the night. Caitlyn Dempsey won her debut fight and the crowd erupted in excitement.

Amateur fight Tianna Urman of The Wat vs Prarie Ruglio of Girl Fight MMA

Prarie came at Tianna Urman raging with unrelenting fists for one full minute before her right hand shut Urman down for good. Girl Fight MMA fans in the crowd went absolutely bonkers and let's be honest, Bauzen had a momentary fear of being trampelled by a mass of angry lesbians.

Main event Justin Greskiewicz of Cool Hearts Muay Thai Philly vs Eddie Martinez of Sitan Gym NY

Another really great fight featuring one of the Sitan gym fighters Eddie Martinez versus the always fun to watch purple haired Justin Greskiewicz. Justin took full advantage of the NJ elbow allowance and used those along with some kicks and punching combos to take the very close split decision win over Eddie Martinez.

Pro fight Jay Matias of Sitan Gym NY vs Jake Mainini of Boston Muay Thai

Saving the best for last here-this was the pro debut for both of these fighters and most of the media in attendance agree it was hands down the fight of the night. These two stole the show and put on an amazing display of technical and precise Muay Thai from round one all the way to the end of the fifth round and never once looked fatigued. Jay Matias gave the crowd a show that they will talk about for years afterwards with his arsenal of kicks and unrelenting combinations that ultimately won him the unanimous decision over an also very skilled Mainini. Here's a small video clip from this fan favorite fight to help fill your hungry Muay Thai bellies.

I know right now you are sitting there dying to watch the rest of that fight. As a matter of fact, I'm certain you want to watch the whole event and you are now angrily axe kicking your little sister into your mom's plastic covered couch because you missed out on all the action this weekend. Well calm down and stop being an angry bully. You can go check out the whole event on GFL.tv right now. The full event results on TakeOnProductions.com and don't forget to follow TakeOn Muay Thai on Twitter and like them on Facebook for all the information you are going to need about their upcoming shows.

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Yesterday in Moscow, Russia, Fight Code along with W5 held an event featuring a Fight Code portion of the card and a W5 portion of the card. The Fight Code portion was shown on Fight Code's stream and W5 wasn't, so everyone was left in the dark about the W5 portion. The W5 portion was shown on Russian TV and videos should be uploaded soon.

In the main event of the W5 portion, former It's Showtime 61MAX World Champion Sergio Wielzen took on Russian fighter Ruslan Tozliyan for the W5 World Title at 60kg. The fight started off fast and Wielzen was knocked down in the first round. It was tough to tell if it was a slip or a legit knockdown because a very strange canvas was being used that had fighters slipping on it all night. Wielzen rallied back and hurt Tozliyan multiple times throughout the rest of the fight. The knockdown made the fight pretty close but Wielzen got a unanimous decision to become the W5 -60kg champion. Next for Wielzen is current It's Showtime 61MAX World Champion Javier Hernandez at It's Showtime's card in Tenerife on November 12th.

In the co-main event, Maxim Smirnov fought Maxim Shalnev at 70kg. About halfway through the first round, Smirnov started to get into a rhythm with his hands and started consistently finding the mark on his opponent. Shalnev was hurt by punches in the first and it continued in the second. Shalnev got cracked with a left hook and staggered, causing the referee to call a halt to the bout in the second round. Smirnov didn't take much damage and should be ready for his fight against Dzhabar Askerov next month at the Tatneft Cup 2011 Finals.

Highly touted up and comer Aziz Kallah made the venture to Moscow to fight 17-year-old Alim Nabiev. In what was quite surprising, Nabiev controlled the fight with his height and range and landed significant strikes on Kallah for most of the fight. If I were to make comparisons, I'd say he looked like a mixture of Artem Levin and Yoshihiro Sato. Only at the very end of the fight did Kallah come on strong. Nabiev picked up a unanimous decision and he's definitely one to look out for in the future, being just 17 years old and already beating the likes of Aziz Kallah.

Full results below:

W5 60kg World Title fight (5x3):

Sergio Wielzen def. Ruslan Tozliyan by Unanimous Decision. 

Single fights (3x3):

Maxim Smirnov def. Maxim Shalnev by TKO (Referee Stoppage) in Round 2.

Yuri Zhukovsky def. Valdrin Vatnikaj by decision.

Goran Radonjic def. Nadir Gadzhiev by decision in an extra round.

Alim Nabiev def. Aziz Kallah by Unanimous Decision.

Vitaly Lisnyak def. Evgeny Khil by decision.

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Earlier today at Differ Ariake, It's Showtime Japan and REBELS copromoted their second event together, It's Showtime Japan 4 and REBELS.9, headlined by an It's Showtime 61kg MAX #1 contender's bout.

In the main event, former AJKF Featherweight champion and 2009 Krush Lightweight GP winner Masahiro Yamamoto defeated former RISE 60kg champion Kan Itabashi for a second time on the strength of a 3rd round flying knee knockdown by unanimous decision on scores of 30-27(x3), 30-28 and 29-28. The win puts Yamamoto back on a 2-fight win streak and makes him the #1 contender for the It's Showtime 61kg championship, currently held by Javier Hernandez. The last time the two met Yamamoto was on a 5 fight win streak, including his Krush tournament win, winning 10 of his last 11 fights while Itabashi was riding an 8 fight win streak including back to back title defenses of his RISE belt over TURBΦ and Keiji Ozaki. Yamamoto won that fight by unanimous decision, but went on a 4-fight winless streak immediately after before defeating Arita Tsukahara to earn the right to face Itabashi. Itabashi won his place in this fight by defeating Genki Yamamoto at the first It's Showtime Japan event in what turned out to be Genki's last fight. This win restores a lot of momentum for the 28 year old Masahiro Yamamoto that had been lost over the past year and a half. His matchup with Hernandez should be an extremely entertaining fight. Hernandez is set to take on former 61kg champion Sergio Wielzen, who defeated Yamamoto, in a non-title fight in Spain at It's Showtime 53 on November 12th.

In the co-main event, Hinata was able to defeat South Korean fighter Baek Min-Cheol via a body kick KO at 1:01 into the first round. For Hinata, it is a bounce back from his one-sided loss to 70kg kingpin Giorgio Petrosyan as well as a tune up for his fight at the big It's Showtime January 28th show against Gago Drago.

WPMF Japan Welteweight champion Daiki Watabe picked up a much needed win with a unanimous decision over former J-Network Super Lightweight champion Tomo Kiire on scores of 29-27(x2), 29-28 and 29-26(x2). Watabe was riding a two fight losing streak with a loss to Chi Bin Lim in RISE as well as a loss to T-98 at the first It's Showtime Japan event. Up next for Watabe could be a defense of his WPMF title against newly crowned J-Network Welterweight champ Masato Otake who is looking to be one of the hottest prospects in Japan at the moment.

In REBELS action, WPMF Japan Featherweight champion Yosuke Morii picked up a 3rd round KO win over a Lumpinee ranker. If Morii continues winning and Genji Umeno wins his next fight for the WPMF World title, the two could meet each other with the WPMF Japan and World titles on the line as well as a spot in the Lumpinee Stadium feathweight rankings.

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Fight Code sets up shop in Moscow, Russia today for their second consecutive weekend holding an event. This time, the main focus of the card will be heavyweights (105kg). The Rhinos series has gotten to the Final 8 and each fighter in the Final 8 has qualified from wins at previous Fight Code events. Among the fighters featured on the card are Vitali Akhramenko, Freddy Kemayo along with Keiji Ozaki taking on Roman Mailov in a single bout. The event is co-promoted with W5 but Fight Code only shows the Fight Code portion of the events on their streams. Full fight card here.

The event goes live on www.livefightcode.tv at 12:30PM EST/9:30 PST. All you have to do to watch is register and the event is free to watch. If you want play by play, follow us on Twitter at @Liverkickdotcom and @rianscalia.

Rhinos Final 8:

Pacome Assi def. Petr Vondracek by Decision.

Yuksel Ayadin def. Tomas Kohut by Unanimous Decision in an extra round.

Vitali Akhramenko def. Zamig Atakishiyev by Unanimous Decision.

Freddy Kemayo def. Mladen Kujundzic by Unanimous Decision.

Single bouts:

Roman Mailov def. Keiji Ozaki by Unanimous Decision.

Edgar Arutyunyan def. Imro Main by Decision.

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On the 16^th at Korakuen Hall, J-NETWORK held an event which featured a Welterweight title fight as well as a Super Bantamweight title unification fight.

In the night’s main event, undefeated Masato Otake improved to 9-0, capturing the J-Network Welterweight title from former champion Atsushi Sasatani by unanimous decision on scores of 50-47(x3). Sasatani won the title against Tomo Kiire in October of last year and this was his first defense. Otake earned the right to fight for the title by defeating former K-1 Koshien fighter Kohei Nishikawa in August. Otake should be an interesting fighter to watch going forward as he has faced little resistance on his path to the title. I would liken him, as a prospect, to Takafumi Morita as he captured a major promotional title within 11 fights and they have a common opponent in Nishikawa. However, Morita took a big step up in his following three fights as well as knocking out Nishikawa in the first round while Otake took him to a decision. Otake has a few options going forward as he could defend his title against #1 ranked Tomo Kiire or he could set his sights on the WPMF or WBC Japan titles.

In a Super Bantamweight title unification bout, reigning champion Hiroaki Mizuhara defeated interim champ Hidemaru by split decision on scores of 49-47, 48-50 and 50-48. Mizuhara was a part of the Krush 55kg tournament and made it to the semifinals, losing to Ryuya Kusakabe by decision and this win is his first successful defense. Hidemaru won the interim title back in June by unanimous decision. Next could be a rematch between the two, but with a relatively strong weight class, Mizuhara could find himself fighting WPMF Japan Bantamweight champ Ichinohe Sota while a good matchup for Hidemaru would be against Takayuki Umehara in a fight that would have J-Network and WPMF Japan implications.

Finally, in a matchup of Krush regulars, Junpei Aotsu defeated DYNAMITE Yuta by unanimous extension round decision on scores of 10-9(x3) after a majority draw with scores of 29-28 and 29-29(x2). In the past 2 and a half years, Aotsu has fought 17 times, going 9-8-1 against a who’s who of Japanese Lightweights the likes of Masahiro Yamamoto, Fire Harada, Yuta Kubo, Masaaki Noiri, TaCa, Arita Tsukahara and TURBΦ. Aotsu is currently on a 2-fight win streak. DYNAMITE Yuta scored a big upset in the quarterfinals of the Krush 63kg tournament with a first round knockout of former K-1 63kg posterboy Daisuke Uematsu, but lost to Koya Urabe in the semifinals.

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As you may or may not know, this Saturday, Fight Code held an event in conjunction with TK2, featuring a one night, eight man tournament on the TK2 portion of the card. Fight Code only showed their own Fight Code portion of the card on their stream, so we had no opportunity to watch the TK2 portion of the card.

Yohan Lidon and Leroy Kaestner were scheduled for the tournament but it seems both of them pulled out. I'd assume Lidon pulled out due to his MPL fight next month in the Netherlands and he has a fight in France against Gregory Choplin a month after that. As for Kaestner, rumors are swirling that he's actually retired from kickboxing altogether. Nothing is one hundred percent certain though about his future though. Lidon was supposed to fight Ait Said and Kaestner was supposed to fight Ismael Uzuner, both in the quarter finals.

Chris van Venrooij went on to win the tournament. The tournament is a nice feather in his cap, as he's come up short against most of the higher up fighters he's faced. Every fight on the TK2 portion went to decision. Check out the full results below:

Superfight
Fabrice Aurieng def. German Talbot by decision.

Final
Chris van Venrooij def. Ait Said by decision.

Superfight
Wallid Haddad def. Niclas Larsen by decision.

Semi Final
Ait Said def. Enriko Gogokhia by decision.

Semi Final
Chris van Venrooij def. Yohan Beausejour by decision.

Superfight
Philippe Salmon def. Willy Borrel by decision.

Quarter Final
Enriko Gogokhia def. Ismael Uzuner by decision.

Quarter Final
Ait Said def. Yazid Boussaha by decision.

Quarter Final
Chris van Venrooij def. Farhat Ahmedjanov by decision.

Quarter Final
Johan Beausejour def. Mohammed Medhar by decision.

 

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Yesterday, SuperKombat held their final installment of their qualifying World Grand Prix series in Piatra Neamt, Romania. All four shows in the series have been in different Romanian cities, setting up the final World Grand Prix event in Darmstadt, Germany. The winners of each tournament of the World Grand Prix series face off in a one night, four man tournament at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix Final.

The two main names in the tournament, Wendell Roche and Erhan Deniz had little trouble dispatchnig their semi final opponents and met in the final. In what at times was a bit of a stinker, Deniz managed to get a decision victory over Roche. His kicks probably won him the fight, as he'd throw body kicks in succession that really looked great for the judges.

Bogdan Stoica returned after his injury suffered against Hakan Aksoy in July. He faced Leon Miedema and was in control of most of the fight, landing the much more significant offense, getting him a unanimous decision. The fight was at 92kg which is pretty high for Stoica to be fighting at. It leads me to believe he put on a bit of weight while he was injured and although he didn't look out of shape at all, he looked a tad softer than usual. I'd expect Stoica's next fight to be somewhere between 85 and 90kgs.

In other fights, Catalin Morosanu picked up a unanimous decision over late replacement Ibrahim Aarab and Sebastian Ciobanu picked up a split decision over Ali Cenik. Check out the full results below:

Reserve Fight: Jantje Siersema def. Lucian Danilencu by Split Decision in an Extra Round.

Semi Final 1: Erhan Deniz def. Angelis Konstantinos by KO (Punches) in Round 2.

Semi Final 2: Wendell Roche def. Marian Baryla by TKO (Low Kicks) in Round 3.

Bogdan Stoica def. Leon Miedema by Unanimous Decision.

Diogo Neves def. Ionut Atodiresei by Unanimous Decision.

Sebastian Ciobanu def. Ali Cenik by Split Decision.

Ionut Iftimoaie def. Luca Panto by Unanimous Decision.

Catalin Morosanu def. Ibrahim Aarab by Unanimous Decision.

Alexandru Lungu def. Bob Sapp by KO (Left Hook) in Round 1.

Final: Erhan Deniz def. Wendell Roche by decision.

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Fight Code hosts their Dragons Series Final 8 card today and Liverkick.com will be here to keep you up to date with live results. The event starts at 4:15 PM EST/1:15 PM PST on www.livefightcode.tv. All you have to do is register and you'll be able to watch a great stream for free. We'll be discussing the event on Twitter at @Liverkickdotcom and @rianscalia.

Dragons Final 8

Norbert Balogh def. Bruno Franchi by DQ (Illegal Knee) in Round 2. Franchi hit Balogh with a knee right as the referee told them to break and Balogh couldn't continue. I thought the end result was a bit stupid and Franchi could've been awarded a TKO.

Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee def. Halim Issaoui by TKO (Referee Stoppage/Punches) in Round 3. Sudsakorn low kicked the shit out of Issaoui and at one point in Round 2during a referee count, Issaoui ran over and tried to strike Sudsakorn, almost resulting in things getting out of control. Sudsakorn finished Issaoui off in Round 3 with punches.

Yuri Bessmertny def. Armen Petrosyan by Split Decision.

Abdallah Mabel def. Xu Yan by Split Decision.

Super Fights

Chingiz Allazov def. Raouf Beliouz by TKO (Referee Stoppage). One sided ass kicking here.

Cedric Castagna def. Soufiane Derdaga by decision.

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Earlier today at Shinjuku FACE, Krush held the first two rounds of their Under-22 Supernova Tournament to determine the 4 semifinalists with blocks A and B competing in the afternoon and blocks C and B at night.

During the day in Block A, 2010 K-1 Koshien quarterfinalist Sho Ogawa was able to edge out an extension round decision over Tang Tang Fight Club's Fumiya Osawa, winning the extension round 10-9 on all 3 cards. In the other half of Block A, 2008 K-1 Koshien champion and one of the tournament favorites HIROYA ran through his opponent, Hiroshi Hoshikawa, scoring a knockout just 1:35 into the first round. In the Block A final, HIROYA dominated Sho Ogawa, winning a unanimous decision on scores of 30-27(x2) and 29-26 to advance to the semifinals.

In the other half of the matinee portion of the event, Block B favorite and 2009 K-1 Koshien champion Masaaki Noiri scored a knockout at 1:25 into the 3rd round over Violence. In the other half of Block B, Team Dragon's Daizo Sasaki also scored a 3rd round knockout at 1:24 in the round over Silver Wolf's Shota Fukuda. In the Block B semifinal, Masaaki Noiri scored another knockout, this time 1:42 into the 2nd round to secure his spot in the semifinals against HIROYA.

This fight is a rematch from the 2009 K-1 Koshien semifinals where Masaaki Noiri shocked nearly everyone and made a name for himself with a dominating, entertaining win over HIROYA. The win would be huge for either fighter.

In the night portion of the event, RISE #6 ranked Super Lightweight Shimpei Keita cruised past J-NETWORK's Hiroshi Matsui to take a unanimous decision on scores of 30-28(x2) and 30-27. In the other half of the bracket, tournament favorite Koya Urabe also cruised past Yuta Otaki, taking a unanimous decision on scores of 30-27(x2) and 30-28. In the Block C final, Koya Urabe faced more resistance than one would have thought from Keita, but was still able to defeat Keita on scores of 30-29(x2) and 30-28.

In Block D, Yukimitsu Takahashi edged out Kazuma in an extension round, winning 10-9 on all 3 cards. In what could be considered a bit of an upset, former K-1 Koshien fighter Kengo Sonoda edged out J-NETWORK Flyweight champion Tsukasa Fuji on scores of 30-29, 30-30 and 30-28. Size was likely a factor as Fuji fights about 10kg under the 63kg weight limit for this tournament. In the Block D final, Takahashi caught Sonoda with a hard head kick 25 seconds into the 3rd round and Sonoda was unable to recover, giving Takahashi the KO win.

This sets up a semfinal between Koya Urabe and Yukimitsu Takahashi. Urabe, already the tournament favorite before the brackets were announced, should have his status as tournament favorite bumped even higher. Takahashi showed he is no slouch and Urabe struggled a little with Keita, but Urabe should be able to cruise into the finals while the winner of Noiri-Hiroya will likely be dinged up from the semifinals. However, if the pattern of the Krush tournaments of favorites losing in the later rounds hold, Takahashi could see himself with a big upset win, though I find it more unlikely as Krush tournament champions Shota Takiya, Hirotaka Urabe, Ryuji Kajiwara and Kenta were more overlooked talents while the focus was on fighters like Ryuya Kusakabe, Masaaki Noiri, Koya Urabe and Hiroki Nakajima.

The tournament's conclusion will take place on December 9th and if Naoki Ishikawa gets his way, he will fight the winner of this tournament at some time after that.

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