I’ve already given ten fights to keep an eye on this month, now here’s ten more. December is a really busy month with tons of great fights going on. Even with two parts to this post, I’m still leaving out a ton of good fights.

December 8: Duoli Chen vs. Shkodran Veseli – Vendetta VI – Vienna, Austria

Duoli Chen looks to be a promising up and coming fighter at 77kg, with a dominant win at It’s Showtime Brazil last month. He lost to L’houcine “Aussie” Ouzgni in October but there’s no shame in that and seems to be getting better under the tutelage of Lucien Carbin. This fight should be another fight for him to showcase why he’s been featured on It’s Showtime, as well as to get some more momentum going into 2013 as GLORY looks to utilize his weigh class.

December 9: Stephen Meleady vs. Seeoui Sor Sunantachai – Muay Thai Warriors – Macau

Stephen Meleady has made a name for himself this year, beating Kongnapa Sirimongkol and giving a very tough fight to Rungravee Sasiprapa. Here he’s in another fight that is bound to be action packed. Seeoui is an action fighter himself so this promises to be a great fight.

December 9: Toni Milanovic vs. Dragon Jovanovic – Supreme FC – Belgrade, Serbia

Originally scheduled to fight Nenad Pagonis, this is now a full on heavyweight fight as Toni Milanovic fights Dragon Jovanovic. Put this into perspective: Milanovic just won a four man tournament in the Czech Republic on November 24 – but the tournament was at 86kg. Now Milanovic steps all the way up to heavyweight and faces an opponent who significantly outweighs him. Having fought Sahak Parparyan and Andrei Stoica this year, I don’t put it past Milanovic to do well here, as he’s a bright up and comer at only 22 years of age.

December 14: Hirotaka Urabe vs. Naoki Ishikawa – Krush.25 – Tokyo, Japan

Hirotaka Urabe is Krush’s champion at 60kg and at times lately has made easy work of some opponents but that won’t be the case here. Ishikawa has given some very tough fights to Urabe, although Urabe has a win and a draw against him. Their second and last encounter was the one which ended in a draw and still stands as the only blemish on Urabe’s record in his last twelve fights. Ishikawa has won two in a row since that fight and there’s no doubt that he’ll be up for this fight.

December 15: Aikpracha Meenayothin vs. Jordan Watson – Bangkok, Thailand

Aikpracha has had a breakout year in 2012, winning a Lumpinee title and getting many international fights. This time he gets Jordan Watson, who already faced Saiyok Pumphanmuang this year. Aikpracha fights are never boring

December 15: Vladimir Mineev vs. Ali Cenik – Battle at Moscow 9 – Moscow, Russia

Vladimir Mineev is one of the best up and comers in kickboxing at just 22 years of age, having won ten fights in a row. Mineev is in a similar position to Roman Mailov, having built up a name in Russia and gradually increasing the level of opposition that he faces. In Ali Cenik its one of his toughest tests yet. Cenik gave Danyo Ilunga a tough fight and was able to hit him a lot. Look for Mineev to work some slick counters as Cenik tries to throw big power shots.

December 15: Halim Chibani vs. Alyssane Sy – Saint Raphael, France

Halim Chibani may not be well known outside of France but in October he scored a big win over another one of France’s best 85kg fighters in Yassine Ahaggan, which probably makes Chibani the top 85kg fighter in France. This should be an interesting fight to see just how good Chibani is, as Ahaggan also defeated Sy.

December 16: Singmanee Kaewsamrit vs. Andrei Kulebin – Thai Fight 2012 Finals

Singmanee and Andrei Kulebin fought back in June with Singmanee getting what was to many a controversial decision. Now they’ll meet again, with Singmanee looking in better form in his last fight especially. Kulebin hasn’t looked spectacular so far in Thai Fight but he’s done what he’s needed to do to win and gave Singmanee trouble last time. A three round fight is completely different so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of pace the fight is fought at, considering that some weren’t too fond of their first fight.

December 16: Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Vitaly Gurkov – Thai Fight 2012 Finals

This might be Buakaw’s toughest test in a while (that might not be saying much considering the competition he’s faced this year) in Gurkov. What Gurkov brings is a smothering clinch game that allowed him to defeat Kem Sitsongpeenong at the IFMAs. Gurkov seems to have found his place as a clincher in Muay Thai as opposed to fighting kickboxing and its paid dividends in Thai Fight so far. I’m interested in seeing if Gurkov will be able to trouble Buakaw and make for a competitive fight. And well, Buakaw’s fighting.

December 21: Artem Levin vs. Simon Marcus – Ekaterinburg, Russia

Artem Levin and Simon Marcus are two of the best light heavyweight Muay Thai fighters right now and they’ll finally meet after a number of delayed fights on December 21. Levin was given a lot of trouble by Steve Wakeling in July and hasn’t fought pro since, although he did win the IFMAs. Marcus just won on Saturday very impressively against Sadibou Sy. This is what everyone wants to see, two top guys fighting each other.

K-1 Global presents SuperKombat WGP Final 2012 takes place on December 22 in Bucharest, Romania and today the full fight card was released. The event features a four man, one night tournament with all the winners having qualified from previous fights. Also, there are four super fights.

As previously announced, the four man tournament features Ismael Londt, Sebastian Ciobanu, Benjamin Adegbuyi and Pavel Zhuravlev. Londt fights Ciobanu in one semi final and in the other, Adegbuyi fights Zhuravlev with the winners meeting in the final.

Among the super fights announced include the lone non-heavyweight fight on the event, where Andrei Stoica fights Arnold Oborotov for the new SuperKombat -95kg world title. Other super fights include Ibrahim Aarab vs. Daniel Sam, Carter Williams vs. Hesdy Gerges and Mighty Mo vs. Raul Catinas, which is a rematch from the 2010 K-1 WGP Final 16. In the tournament reserve fight, Freddy Kemayo faces Sergi Lascenko.

Among other things, the event will be available to watch via Ustream PPV for $5 USD, along with being on Eurosport at 21:00 CET. Here are some quotes from Eduard Irimia and K-1 owner Mr. Kim about the event:

Kim: “As we announced 3 months ago K-1 has a good co-operation with Superkombat and also they proved to promote very good k-1 rules events and discovering new heroes worldwide , that way I will be also present at this event in Bucharest, Romania, where I found out that K-1 is as famous as football and we will focus to countries where our product has impact as before in Japan and other countries.”

Irimia: “This collaboration between our brands is very important for the fighters and keep them active and also the awarness and impact is stronger as we work together  for the same purpose trying to make this sport atracting general public  as we did already in some countries.”

1. Super Fight (+96 kg)
Ibrahim Aarab (Morocco) vs Daniel Sam (Great Britain)

2. Tournament – Semi Final 1 (+96 kg)
Pavel Zhuravlev (Ukraine) vs Benjamin Adegbuyi (Romania/Nigeria)

3. Tournament – Semi Final 2 (+96 kg)
Ismael Londt (Suriname) vs Sebastian Ciobanu (Romania)

4. Tournament – Reserve fight (+96 kg)
Freddy Kemayo (France) vs Sergey Lascenko (Ucraina)

5. Super Fight (+96 kg)
Carter Williams (USA) vs Hesdy Gerges (Egypt)

6. SuperKombat World Title (-95 kg)
Arnold Oborotov (Lithuania) vs Andrei Stoica (Romania)

7. Super Fight (+96 kg)
Mighty Mo (Samoa) vs Raul Catinas (Romania)

8. SuperKombat final 2012 (+96 kg)
Winner of Semi Final 1 vs Winner of Semi Final 2

Jesus christ this show. I don’t even know what to say about LEGEND at this point. If you’ve been watching this, you know what I’m saying, as they’ve apparently spent over $3 million in making this show happen, yet they are publicly sharing links to Firstrow.eu to watch the event. This is the conundrum of LEGEND, which makes this whole thing just fascinating to watch. This show features a one-night tournament as well as Badr Hari because why not?

*Zabit Samedov was pulled from the tournament finals due to a cut.

• 1. Tournament Reserve Bout
• Agron Preteni (R3 – Dec.) Andrei Stoica
• 2. Superfight:
• Chingiz Allazov (R3 – Dec.) Warren Stevelmans
• 3. Superfight:
• Eduard Vartanyan (R3 – Dec.) Florent Betorangal
• 4. Tournament:
• Zabit Samedov (R3 – Dec.) Melvin Manhoef
• 5. Tournament:
• Pavel Zhuravlev (R1 – KO) Sahak ‘Hak’ Parparyan
• 6. Superfight (MMA):
• Alexander Yakovlev (R3 – Dec.) Paul Daley
• 7. Superfight:
• Badr Hari (R3 – Dec.) Alexey Ignashov
• 8. Tournament Finals:
• Pavel Zhuravlev (R2 – TKO) Agron Preteni*
• 9. Superfight (MMA):
• Alexey Oleinik (R1 – Submission) Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic

The Shootboxing S-Cup takes place every two years and today in Tokyo, Japan, it was time for the 2012 edition. S-Cup tournament participants this year were Andy Souwer, Kem Sitsongpeenong, Henri van Opstal, Gesias Cavalcante, Hiroki Shishido, Hiroaki Suzuki, Joachim Hansen and Bovy Sor Udomson. The card also featured some notable single fights with the likes of Andy Ristie, Kosuke Komiyama and Kizaemon Saiga.

Andy Souwer ended up winning his fourth S-Cup, defeating friend, teammate and student Henri van Opstal in the finals via unanimous decision. Souwer advanced to the finals by getting a majority decision over Kem Sitsongpeenong in his first match-up and then stopping Hiroki Shishido in the first round in the semi-finals. van Opstal defeated Bovy in his first match-up by unanimous decision, and also got a first round stoppage in his semi-final fight, as he knocked out Satoru Suzuki in the first round.

Henri van Opstal was supposed to face Hiroaki Suzuki, who defeated Joachim Hansen by extra round unanimous decision, but Suzuki couldn’t continue on to the semi-finals. Satoru Suzuki had won his reserve fight against Akihiro Gono by first round knockout, so he stepped in and fought van Opstal. Other quarter finals included Hiroki Shishido getting a majority decision over Gesias Cavalcante.

In the other reserve fight, Hinata Watanabe rematched Andy Ristie, and it went pretty much the same way as their first fight back in January at It’s Showtime. Ristie stopped Hinata in the first round again, extending his winning streak going into his fight with Andy Souwer next month at the K-1 MAX Finals on December 15.

In super fight action, RISE 60kg champion and LiverKick #10 ranked lightweight Kosuke Komiyama defeated Masa Naguranchun M16 by unanimous decision in an extra round at 60kg. At 63kg, Kizaemon Saiga defeated Shootboxing’s MASAYA by unanimous decision. At 70kg, Toby Imada notched another win in Shootboxing thanks to shoot points, as he got a majority decision over Mostafa Abdollahi.

S-Cup 2012:

Reserve: Satoru Suzuki def. Akihiro Gono by KO in Round 1.

Reserve: Andy Ristie def. Hinata Watanabe by TKO in Round 1.

Quarter Finals

Hiroaki Suzuki def. Joachim Hansen by unanimous decision in an extra round.

Henri van Opstal def. Bovy Sor Udomson by majority decision.

Hiroki Shishido def. Gesias Cavalcante by majority decision.

Andy Souwer def. Kem Sitsongpeenong by majority decision.

Semi Finals

Henri van Opstal def. Satoru Suzuki by KO in Round 1.

Andy Souwer def. Hiroki Shishido by KO in Round 1.

Final

Andy Souwer def. Henri van Opstal by unanimous decision.

Super Fights:

70kg: Koutaru Mori def. Yuki Sakamoto by unanimous decision in an extra round.

HW: Magnum Sakai def. Shunsuke Inoue by KO in Round 3.

60kg: Kosuke Komiyama def. Masa Magaranchun M16 by unanimous decision in an extra round.

63kg: Kizaemon Saiga def. MASAYA by unanimous decision.

70kg: Toby Imada def. Mostofa Abdollahi by majority decision.