It’s Showtime 55 was an explosive show, and in the realm of the Heavyweight division helped to organize it and make some sense of what was a rather confusing division. The retirement of Badr Hari was the big story for this show, and quite honestly, Badr Hari looked better than he has looked in a long, long time in the ring. He was focused, in control and defending just about everything that Saki had to offer. It is a shame that we will not get to watch him fight again for an undisclosed amount of time, but he is off to try his hand at Boxing where he will try to become a star in America.

What is clear is that Daniel Ghita’s win over Hesdy Gerges has proven that Ghita is finally making good on his potential. Ghita burst onto the international scene in 2009 when he first appeared in the It’s Showtime ring, stopping Tomas Hron with deadly low kicks. He then went on to win the K-1 WGP Final Qualifying Tournament in Japan three months later, which gave him the unenviable task of making his K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 debut against Semmy Schilt. Ghita was yet to become a complete fighter and Semmy was able to pick him apart in typical Schilt fashion. The years that have followed have been important learning years for Ghita, with the last two years in particular with him realizing that he needed to improve his hands to hang with the elite Heavyweights.

He has done exactly that, adding good technique with his hands as well as devastating power along with what might be the hardest kicks at Heavyweight. At the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 in 2010 Ghita knocked Errol Zimmerman out with a right hand, one of his few KO victories with his hands. Then in 2011 a win over Erhan Deniz came from a deadly left hook to the body, and finally the fight against Gerges tonight where Ghita landed a brutal left hook, leaving Gerges sprawled out on the canvas. A distinctly different fight than the one that we saw last year, and a different Ghita as well. Tonight was the realization of what Ghita should be, a complete fighter, a patient fighter and a scary one. The win over Ghita has earned him the It’s Showtime Heavyweight Championship, and honestly, puts him in the spot to where he is the man to beat in 2012. The departure of Badr Hari only re-enforces that, as Ghita being a complete fighter poses a threat to everyone in the division.

The fight to book right now seems to be Errol Zimmerman and Daniel Ghita, as both men have been on a roll, with Zimmerman seeing one of the best years any Kickboxer has seen in a while in 2011. Errol’s winning streak and Ghita’s rise to prominence just makes for a great fight on paper, with both men filling in the holes in their game and training extra hard to be considered the best int he world. Ghita also can look forward to avenging a few other big losses, with fights against Gokhan Saki and Semmy Schilt also being fights that fans would love to see.

It’s long been known that Mirko Cro Cop has planned a return to his original sport of kickboxing on March 10. Rumors circulated of potential opponents, with names like Errol Zimmerman and Dzevad Poturak popping up.

Croatian journalist Slobodan Mufic is reporting that Cro Cop will face none other than Ray Sefo on March 10 at the Zagreb Arena in Zagreb, Croatia. An official announcement of the fight will be made on Tuesday at a press conference at the Sheraton Zagreb hotel. 

The event is named “K-1 Final Fight” as previously reported and it is being organized by Fight Channel, a TV station in the region. It’s set to be pretty big, as the Zagreb Arena is a state of the art facility with a maximum capacity of 24 000 people. Other names like Daniel Ghita have been rumored for the fight card, but nothing is official yet.

It’s fitting that Sefo and Cro Cop face eachother. Despite being two of the main fighters in K-1 during their times there, they never fought eachother. Both are obviously well past their prime so the fight and should consider retirement but they’re most likely getting paid nicely so this will really just be a test of who has more left in the tank. Cro Cop lost his last three MMA fights by way of knockout and I don’t think anyone would like to see himself put in anymore danger than he already is in, but nevertheless, he’ll continue on with his career, this time in kickboxing. Ray Sefo’s last kickboxing fight was in October of 2010 where he lost to Tyrone Spong at the K-1 Final 16. He’s also dabbled into MMA, being a coach at Xtreme Couture and losing by way of submission to Valentijn Overeem in February of 2011.

We already gave you ten fights to keep an eye on this month, but with October being so stacked, I knew a lot of fights had been left off. Here’s ten more fights that should definitely be checked out this month.

October 5: Penthai Singpatong vs. Jomhod Eminentair – Lumpinee Stadium – Bangkok, Thailand

This is a rematch from August, which Penthai won by decision. Penthai is the Lumpinee Flyweight(112lbs) Champion and is making his return to fighting at Lumpinee after having some fights in South Thailand, like the one against Jomhod in August. It will be great to see Penthai back at Lumpinee and also against a bit bigger opponent in Jomhod.

October 5: Tass Tsitsiris vs. Wes Capper – Fight Force: Total Impact – Chadstone, Melbourne, Australia

This is a fight between two of Australia’s best 70kg kickboxers. Both have fought and lost to Steve Moxon, although they both had close fights with him. Capper has faced a lot better competition than Tass, as he fights in pretty much any ruleset whereas Tass sticks to kickboxing. Both guys are hard hitters and the winner is probably the number two behind Steve Moxon in kickboxing in Australia.

October 6: Miran Fabjan vs. Yoann Kongolo – Villars Centre Des Sports – Villars, Switzlerland

This is another rematch of a fight from August, with Yoann Kongolo having won a very close fight. This time it’s in Kongolo’s home territory and also five rounds for a WKN title. With how close the first fight was, this one has even more on the line and is very relevent in the light heavyweight division.

October 8: Hirotaka Urabe vs. Xavier Bastard – Krush.23 – Tokyo, Japan

Hirotaka Urabe has been crushing everyone lately, especially with high kicks. Bastard is the third opponent that Urabe’s had for this fight. Bastard isn’t by any means one of the top French fighters at this weight (60kg) but it should be interesting to see how he fares against one of LiverKick’s top 10 lightweights. It’s always intriguing when a Japanese fighter who has been fighting mostly Japanese competition fights a foreigner, just to get a better overall feeling of the landscape of the division.

October 9: Sam-A Gaiyanghadaogym vs. Penek Sitnumnoi – Lumpinee Stadium – Bangkok, Thailand

This is a huge fight, as their first fight back in July determined who won the Fighter of the Year Award in Thailand, with Penek winning a decision after dropping Sam-A with elbows in the fourth round. Sam-A was fighting well for the first three rounds before the perfectly applied pressure of Penek got to him. Sam-A is a brilliant technician and shouldn’t be counted out here at all. We’ll see what changes he makes in order to neutralize Penek’s applied pressure.

October 14: Batu Khasikov vs. Mohamed Reza Nazari – Team Russia vs. Team Asia – Khabarovsk, Russia

After a shaky performance in which he should’ve lost to Warren Stevelmans back in May, Batu Khasikov is back. His opponent has fought three times before in Russia, going 2-1. Khasikov shouldn’t have much trouble with him. The interesting part about the fight is how Khasikov will look after his sub par showing against Warren Stevelmans. He did beat Albert Kraus and technically Mike Zambidis, so it’s too early to write him off.

October 20: Hicham el Gaoui vs. Alexander Stetsurenko – Tatneft Cup 2012 Finals – Kazan, Russia

Another rematch here, and it has much higher stakes than the first one. Their first fight took place last year as a super fight at the Tatneft Cup Final, with Hicham winning a razer thin decision. This time, they’re actually fighting in the final, as they won their way to it this year. This fight features two of LiverKick’s top 10 light heavyweights. Stetsurenko actually hasn’t lost since the fight to Hicham last year and has been decisively beating everyone in front of him.

October 20: Dylan Salvador vs. Saiyok Pumphanmuang – Roschtigrabe Derby – Roschtigrabe, Switzerland

This fight was a bit of a surprise when I first saw it, as Salvador is very young and still working his way up the ladder, having not fought anyone near Saiyok’s level. Salvador is from Team Nasser K though and if you’re from that team, you’re probably going to get big opportunities like many of his teammates have. Although Saiyok will most certainly win, this will be a good fight to gauge the level that Salvador is at after having won two fights in a row at Thai Fight. And who doesn’t like seeing Saiyok fight anyway?

October 21: L’houcine “Aussie” Ouzgni vs. Mike de Snoo – Top Team Beverwijk Gala – Beverwijk, Netherlands

Hopefully Aussie fighting a bit over a month after his last fight means he’s going to be more active. This is an up and comer vs. established veteran fight, with Aussie having been around the block and de Snoo looking for his first big win. If there’s one fighter here who’s bigger, it’s probably de Snoo, who normally fights at this weight (79kg is where the fight takes place at) while Aussie fights anywhere from 70kg to this weight. With Aussie beating Nieky Holzken last month, de Snoo will have a tall task ahead of him in order to get a win here.

October 27: Abraham Roqueni vs. Yury Bessmertny – Nitrianska Noc Bojovnikov – Nitra, Slovakia

Another fight between two of LiverKick’s top 10 here, this time from our middleweight rankings. Bessmertny surprised everyone last year when he won the Fight Code tournament, by beating Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee in the final. It’s been a bit hard to tell how good he’d do against the rest of the field but this fight with Roqueni will tell us a lot. Roqueni gave Andy Souwer fits twice, winning one of them and put up a better fight against Giorgio Petrosyan than even Artur Kyshenko did so he’s a proven fighter. Bessmertny can be a slow slarter at times and lack urgency so we’ll see if Roqueni can take advantage of that.