Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:01

It's Showtime has shown absolutely no sign of slowing down in the coming months, after running a blistering number of shows already in the first half of the year. In just a few weeks It's Showtime will run two more shows, June 11th from Warsaw and June 18th from Madrid. So to go along with that pair of shows, we have a pair of awesome hype videos from the team at It's Showtime.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:01

It's common for Thai boxers at the heavier weights above 60-65 kg to take fights in Europe. The pay, once converted to Thai baht, is substantial, and three rounds can be a nice change from five.

Ekapop fights at 72.5 kg, which is huge in Thailand. Most of the small handful of Thai nationals who have competed internationally at this weight are well known. Among them, Lamskongkram Chuwattana, Kaoklai Kaennorsing, Yodsenklai Fairtex, Pajunsuk Lukprabat, and Changpuek Kiatsongrit.

This fight was a semi-final bout in a four man tournament in Bagnolet, France. Where that is, I'm not sure. Google Maps tells me it's somewhere in France.

The fight is quite nice to watch, with the fighters having entertaining and well-matched styles. Ekapap wears black gloves, Frederich red.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:01

You'll remember last week It's Showtime sent out an announcement that they would be possibly taking legal action against K-1 for a total of $400,000+ that is owed to It's Showtime fighters. This all came after It's Showtime announced It's Showtime Japan would begin gearing up over the summer and K-1 is finally running their first show. Tanikawa made it clear he was unhappy and wished to block any fighters from fighting for It's Showtime if they wanted to fight for K-1 again.

Well, Rutz has released a new statement this morning.

It is good to see that some common ground has been met, but we aren't out of the woods yet.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:01

This week our question revolved around this weekend's Glory World Series event. We asked you what bout you were looking forward to the most, and the results fell right in line with what we predicted. So let's go to the results.

Which Glory World Series Fight Are You Looking Forward to?

32.4% - Gokhan Saki vs. Brice Guidon

24.5% - Nieky Holzken vs. Artur Kyshenko

20.6% - Sergei Kharitonov vs. Mighty Mo

11.8% - Mark Miller vs. Nikolaj Falin

5.9% - Errol Zimmerman vs. Mourad Bouzidi

4.9% - Other

This week's poll is; Favorite Knockout From the Glory World Series?

Mark Miller

Sergei Kharitonov

Jason Jones

Siyar Bahadurzada

Dion Staring

Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:01

You may be familiar with K-1's format. They hold two World Grand Prix tournaments a year, a heavyweight one and a 70kg one (K-1 MAX). Recently they've started a -63kg tournament as well. With K-1 being the pinnacle of the sport in past years up until this year, every fighter had a goal to compete in K-1 and win a world grand prix. The problem? With only 2 weight classes and the -63kg tournament pretty much being all Japanese, where does everyone else in between fit in? Where do the fighters in between get exposure from? We'll go over just how K-1 has influenced fighters and how the recent lull in action from them has created a new outlook on weight classes.

With K-1's recent lull in action, many other promotions are stepping up to the plate and putting on big cards. Many fighters that fight in K-1 are appearing on these big cards. With K-1 not paying fighters and with no one having a clue if they'll do any heavyweight or -70kg MAX GP this year, fighters have to find a way to make money. The great thing about the rising promotions like It's Showtime and Ultimate Glory is that more weight classes are being utilized. K-1 only uses two 2 weight classes and everyone in between those two are a bit stuck.

We've seen many fighters fighting way above or way below their natural weight class because of K-1's format. Melvin Manhoef has been fighting Super Heavyweights when his optimal weight class is -85kg. Manhoef did fight in It's Showtime's 85MAX division and won the title. The thing is, the big money and most exposure was in K-1. Despite winning the 85MAX Title in It's Showtime, Manhoef never defended it and continued to fight in K-1. You have to wonder, if K-1 was not around or it used more weight classes, just how different would Melvin Manhoef's career be? For giving up so much weight, Manhoef was quite successful. It would be interesting if he would've had all his fights at 85MAX instead of fighting Super Heavyweights.

Read more after the break..