Well, a fight that we’ve been hearing about for a while, but never quite sure when it was going down has finally surfaced. The fight that we are speaking of is Remy Bonjasky vs. Tyrone Spong. We’ve heard about it for months now, and that it wasn’t a part of the Glory World Series Grand Slam tournament. That meant that both guys might not be in the tournament, which was a bummer, but it turns out that it was not scheduled for the GLORY 4 TOKYO event, afterall.
Nope. According to a Tweet from Tyrone Spong this morning, Tyrone Spong will be fighting Remy Bonjasky on February 16th, we assume for Glory, with no location yet. This is one of the all-time greats in Heavyweight Kickboxing against one of the hot, younger stars in the sport, making for a very interesting fight.
UPDATE: Well, Glory just made the big announcement that GLORY 5 London will be going down on February 16th with Spong vs. Remy as the main event. It will take place at the Excel Arena and the other names on the card so far are Liam Harrison and Jordan Watson. Who will they be fighting? Well, this is kind of awesome. Watson will fight “Stone Cold” Steve Moxon and Harrison will fight Mosab Amrani.
We are as confused as you when it comes to this news, honestly, but K-1 and the Fight Channel have announced that Badr Hari will replaced an overbooked Ben Edwards in the K-1 World Grand Prix in Zagreb. The announcement came this afternoon that Badr Hari, who has not fought since May of last year for K-1, would make his shocking return to the ring squaring off against Zabit Samedov.
Badr Hari has had some legal problems of late, to say the least, and was actually just recently released from prison provisionally. He was released under the rules that he is not to contact any of the witnesses in his upcoming case and that he is not allowed to attend bars or eateries past a certain hour. He had the same provisions before and broke those, which sent him back into prison. We already know that he’s been back into training, although he is quite a bit more lean than when we last saw him, so it is still a bit shocking that he is ready to fight.
Still no word on his legal situation and if he is actually legally allowed to leave the Netherlands before his trial, but K-1 has announced that he’ll be fighting, so cross your fingers, Badr Hari fans.
With this current weekend coming to an end shortly, we can see that it was a big weekend in Russia, with three notable events.
First on Friday, February 22 was a show put on by Octopus Fight Clib in Moscow. It featured a battle of two of the biggest prospects in kickboxing between Chingiz Allazov and Alim Nabiev. Allazov is the slightly older fighter at just 19 years old compared to Nabiev’s age of 18, but it showed in the ring. Despite being the smaller and shorter fighter, he controlled the range and got in and out with his offense. Nabiev got dropped in the second round with a left high kick and didn’t have much for Allazov until the dying seconds of the third round.
Also on the card was Alexey Ignashov, who fought Martynas Knyzlis. In typical Ignashov fashion, it was a stale fight that saw him win a decision over an overmatched opponent.
71kg: Chingiz Allazov def. Alim Nabiev by decision. HW: Alexey Ignashov def. Martynas Knyzlis by decision. HW: Igor Bugaenko def. Vladimir Oleinik by decision. HW: Valentin Slavikovsky def. Dmitry Bezus by decision. 81kg: Pavel Turuk def. Vladimir Idranyi by decision. HW: Roman Kriklya def. Yuri Dobko by TKO in Round 3.
Yesterday on Saturday featured two events, one in Moscow and one in Kazan. In Moscow, Fight Nights returned with another big show full of over the top theatrics. The only notable kickboxing fight on the card was between rising star in Russia, Vladimir Mineev and Revanho Blokland of the Netherlands. Mineev didn’t have a hard time and he finished Blokland in the second round with a left hook. It was an alright performance after being pushed to the limit by Ali Cenik in December, but Mineev is going to have to step it up when he faces that level of competition again.
The last leg of the Tatneft Cup qualifier to the quarter finals of the tournament took place in Kazan. At 70kg, Enriko Gogokhia and Maxim Smirnov both qualified to the quarter finals once again. Gogokhia beat Bruno Gazani by decision and Maxim Smirnov defeated Ajay Balgobind by decision.
Another fighter who qualified to the quarter finals once again was Hicham El Gaoui at 80kg as he defeated Brazil’s Anderson Arcanjo by decision. Also at 80kg, Sergei Papusha defeated Peter Romankevich by decision.
At heavyweight, Jan Siersema beat Vugar Kazimov by decision, scoring a knockdown in the second round. The second heavyweight bout saw Brazil’s Vitor Miranda beat last year’s Tatneft Cup winner Tsotne Rogava by decision.
70kg: Enriko Gogokhia def. Bruno Gazani by decision. 70kg: Maxim Smirnov def. Ajay Balgobind by decision. 80kg: Hicham El Gaoui def. Anderson Arcanjo by decision. 80kg: Sergei Papusha def. Peter Romankevich by decision. HW: Jan Siersema def. Vugar Kazimov by decision. HW: Vitor Miranda def. Tsotne Rogava by decision.
GLORY holds their first event of 2013 on this Saturday in London, England from the ExCel Arena. Named GLORY 5 London, the card and event have been a long time coming from when it was originally announced in December.
The event if of course headlined by a heavyweight fight between Remy Bonjasky and Tyrone Spong. The other highlighted bouts feature two 70kg fights, with Jordan Watson fighting Steve Moxon and Albert Kraus fighting Andy Ristie, while at 65kg Liam Harrison fights Mosab Amrani.
Thankfully the main, top of the billing fights have stayed together and are all set to go. It should be noted that there have been quite a few changes to the original fight card. Eddie Walker fights Steve Wakeling at 85kg, after and originally announced match-up of Simon Marcus vs. Steve Wakeling fell through. At heavyweight, Singh Jaideep faces Daniel Sam. Jaideep was originally scheduled to fight Yong Soo Park. Maxim Vorovski, who was originally set to face Duoli Chen, now faces Nicola Gallo at 77kg, with this match-up just being confirmed this week. Raymond Daniels was originally going to be on the fight card but is no longer on it, so a 95kg fight between Road to GLORY USA winner Dustin Jacoby and Michael Duut takes the spot that Daniels would’ve occupied on the card.
The rest of the card’s match-ups have also stayed together and feature a 95kg fight between the It’s Showtime 95kg champion Danyo Ilunga and Stephane Susperregui, a 70kg fight between Warren Stevelmans and Johann Fauveau, and a catchweight bout of 67kg between Reece McAllister and Tim Thomas.
At first glance, Chike Lindsay vs. Saiyok is not the most intriguing fight on the Muay Thai Superfight Show scheduled for May 13 in Thailand. That honor no doubt belongs to former Heavyweight Boxing World Champion Riddick Bowe, who will be making his Muay Thai debut at 45 years old. To be completely honest, unless Bowe found a mystical reserve of secret energy he is probably not going to be any sort of force in the heavyweight kickfighting world. Other oddities include appearances by Dewey Cooper and Marvin Eastman.
Your eye might be drawn to the newly crowned LionFight Light Heavyweight Champion, Simon Marcus, who squares off against Kaoklai Kaennorsing. Kaoklai is probably still an exciting name for fans newly acquainted with Muay Thai, but the truth is he’s been over the hill for quite some time now. Marcus is at the peak of his career and is fresh off a win over one of the greatest 77 kg Muay thai fighters of all time in Artem Levin. Not only that, but Kaoklai has already lost to Marcus in a lopsided decision back in 2012. Outside of a freak injury, I can’t fathom any way Kaoklai could win, or even why this fight was made in the first place.
So now we are arrive at Saiyok vs. Lindsay. This is easily the best match on the card. Chike Lindsay is currently riding a hot-streak of wins, most recently taking out Cyrus Washington at the Yokkao Extreme Qualifiers, followed by a decision win over Somluck at Muay Thai World Stand Off. He’s one of the most talented Americans in the game right now, but he’s facing an incredibly skilled opponent in Saiyok.
Saiyok Pumpanmuang is coming off two wins, the latest being a dominating decision over Thiago Texeira at Thai Fight 2012. Although some wind was taken out of Saiyok’s sails due to a loss (via injury) to Team Nasser K’s Dylan Salvador in October of last year. Saiyok is still one of the best at 70 kg in my opinion, possibly THE best, and putting Chike Lindsay away will be another step towards proving it. This fight will answer a lot fo questions about both Saiyok’s longevity, and Lindsay’s metal at the top of the sport.
GLORY 8 Tokyo takes place on May 3 in Tokyo, Japan at the Ariake Coliseum. Previously announced for the fight card were GLORY’s eight man 65kg tournament, as well as a fight between Peter Aerts and Jamal Ben Saddik. The complete tournament lineup was just announced, as well as a few other fights.
The eight man field for the 65kg tournament is as follows:
Yuta Kubo
Mosab Amrani
Liam Harrison
Masaaki Noiri
Marcus Vinicius
Abdellah Ezbiri
Gabriel Varga
Chi Bin Lim
Two other fights were also added to the card. The 70kg fight that fell through at GLORY 5 London this past weekend between Albert Kraus and Andy Ristie has been rescheduled to be on this event. Also, Anderson “Braddock” Silva will fight Jaideep Singh.
March is the biggest month of the year for kickfighting so far with a ton of big fights and events taking place, so what better title for it than March Madness? I’ll highlight all the action this month that everyone should know about and keep an eye on.
March 2: Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Ole Laursen – Gotti Promotions
Giorgio Petrosyan is the best fighter in all of kickboxing, so of course it’s notable when he fights. This is more of a stay busy fight for him but any time that he fights it’s a treat.
March 9: Andrew Tate vs. Vincent Petitjean – Power Trophy 2013
This is a rematch from 2011 where Petitjean won a decision over Tate. Since then, Tate has established himself as one of the top kickboxers in the world at 85kg. Tate will go back to full contact for this fight.
March 9: Suleiman Magomedov vs. Halim Chibani – Monte Carlo Fighting Masters
These two are some of the better fighters around 85kg, and are very under the radar. Magomedov has some really good results and Chibani has been on a big roll lately.
March 9: Yassine Ahaggan vs. Horace Martin – Monte Carlos Fighting Masters
Yassine Ahaggan is another very good 85kg fighter, who lost to the aforementioned Halim Chibani last year. Here he looks to rebound against the veteran “Boy Boy” Martin of Holland.
March 9: Abraham Roqueni vs. Artur Kyshenko – Enfusion Live Barcelona
This is a marquee match-up at 70kg. Roqueni is a solid, proven fighter while Kyshenko has been a mainstay around the top for years now.
March 9: Sahak Parparyan vs. Cesar Cordoba – Enfusion Live Barcelona
Two of the top 85kg fighters square off here. Cordoba hasn’t fought top competition in a very long time but on skills and fighting prowess alon he’s one of the better fighters in the division and should make for a competitive fight.
March 14: Sergio Wielzen vs. Alexei Blinov – Era of Champions
An unknown Russian up and comer gets to test himself against a name in the lighter weight divisions of kickboxing in Sergio Wielzen. Wielzen comes off a win over Sasa Jovanovic in December, so another win would help him further get back on track.
March 16: Karim Ghajji vs. Darko Delic – Explosion Fight Night 7
Karim Ghajji had his breakout performance last month when he beat stopped Aikpracha in the first round in the final of the La Nuit des Titans tournament. That was at 72.5kg, and this fight is at 78kg and will lead into Ghajji’s big 77kg fight against Nieky Holzken at GLORY 6.
March 17: Masahiro Yamamoto vs. Karim Bennoui – RISE 92
This is a battle of two of kickboxing’s top lighter weight fighters, with Bennoui being #2 and Yamamoto #3 on the LiverKick lightweight rankings.
March 17: Yasuomi Soda vs. Koji Yoshimoto – RISE 92
Here is a battle of two of Japan’s top 65kg fighters that has been a long time in the making. It’s for Yoshimoto’s RISE 65kg title.
March 17: Chang Hyun Lee vs. Genji Umeno – RISE 92
This is a huge rematch from October when Lee rose up from being an unknown and shocked Genji Umeno in LiverKick’s 2012 Fight of the Year.
March 20: Thomas Adamandopoulos vs. Hideaki Yamazaki – Krush.27
Both fighters come off losses here, but it’s an interesting match-up nonetheless. Yamazaki was shockingly knocked out by Gagny Baradji in December while Adamandopoulos lost to Karim Bennoui in November.
March 20: Koya Urabe vs. Fumiya Osawa – Krush.27
This fight should be all Koya Urabe. The interesting part though is that he’s dropping down to 60kg for it, a weight that might even suit him better.
March 30: Michael Wakeling vs. Pajonsuk Super Pro Samui – Enfusion Live London
Pajonsuk is making his return to the ring after quite a long time away, not having fought since the end of 2010. Michael Wakeling is the brother of Steve Wakeling and a very capable fighter in his own right. This should be an intriguing, competiive match-up.
Tournaments
March 14 – Era of Champions 60kg: Artur Isayants vs. Irakli Gvindliya 60kg: Konstantin Trishin vs. Avetik Petrosyan
March 16 – W5 Slovakia 71kg: Alim Nabiev vs. Tevfik Sucu 71kg: Hysni Beqiri vs. Vladimir Konsky
75kg: Vladimir Moravcik vs. Artem Litvinenko 75kg: Arjan Vatnikaj vs. Konstantin Serebrennikov
March 24 – Haarlem Fight Night IV 70kg: Anthony Kane vs. Kevin Hesseling 70kg: Armen Petrosyan vs. Robbie Hageman 70kg: Henri van Opstal vs. Nick Beljaards 70kg: William Diender vs. Maiki Karathanasis
GLORY 6 Istanbul goes down today from the Ulker Sports Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, featuring a main event of the long-awaited rematch between Daniel Ghita and Gokhan Saki. We’ll be providing live results as they happen here in this post.
You can watch the event live here on LiverKick for $20 USD by clicking here. The event starts at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT in North America.
Former French K-1 fighter Jerome Le Banner continues to fight past the age of 40 and continues to have success by carefully choosing his opponents, which for a fighter of his level and age is no shame, really. I don’t want to see Jerome Le Banner fight against Daniel Ghita or Gokhan Saki at this point, I want to see Jerome Le Banner go out and put on a good show, which most people seem to agree with.
That isn’t to say that his opponent yesterday, Roman Kleibl, is a “can” by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s simply not experienced or big enough to really stand much of a chance against a fighter like Le Banner. It was a rough start for JLB in the first round, but some of his signature kicks were able to turn the tide during the second round, possibly breaking Roman Kleibl’s arm and leading to a stoppage, giving JLB yet another victory.
The rest of the card saw Kharim Ghajji and Yury Bessmeryny go to a three round war with Ghajji taking the decision victory.
Kickboxing news in the summer is always kind of at a lull. In the past we’d usually see a K-1 MAX show and maybe an It’s Showtime event, but it looks like Glory 9 was the last big show for a while before things go back into full swing in September with K-1 putting on the K-1 World MAX Final 16 and GLORY 10 LA going down.
With that being said, Kickboxing never truly sleeps in Europe. On August 4th in France there will be a pretty cool card going down featuring Jerome Le Banner, Arnold Oborotov and Stefan Leko at Fight Night Saint-Tropez.
Fight Night Saint Tropez
Main event +100 kg: Jerome Le Banner (Francja) vs James Smith (USA)
WKN World Championship 100 kg: Vladimir Mineev (Rosja) vs Thiago Beowulf (Brazylia) 95,8 kg: Emmanuel Payet (Francja) vs Arnold Oborotov (Litwa)
Superfight – 4 x 2 min +100 kg: Stefan Leko (Niemcy) vs Nicolas Wamba (Francja) 59,6 kg: Helene Loewinski (Szwecja) vs Alena Hola (Czechy) +100 kg: Thomas Vanneste (Belgia) vs Vladymir Toksyatynov (Rosja/Niemcy)
Extrafight – 3 x 2 min 92 kg: Antony Rea (Francja) vs Laurent Atriffi (Belgia) 70 kg: Philippe Salmon (Francja) vs Sansong Moua (Francja) 100 kg: Marc Vliger (Francja) vs Cédric Ameline (Francja)
Turniej – 82 kg Yoann Koangolo (Szwajcaria) Mourad Hosni (Francja) Freddy Marius Bructer (Francja) Eduard Andronache (Francja)
