Thursday, 23 May 2013 19:36

A bloodied Saenchai Sinbi takes it to Liam Harrison at last weekend's Duel at the Dome event.  Saenchai was victorious by unanimous decision.

For more pictures, plus complete results from the event, check out MyMuayThai.com.

Thursday, 23 May 2013 19:36

FightstarTV is one of the few websites that brings fresh, unique video content from the world of Dutch kickboxing, and never to disappoint, they walked through the opening of Peter Aerts' new gym in the Netherlands where the Dutch Lumberjack has vowed to help other fighters train and learn proper technique.

Watch as Mr. K-1 gives a guide through his new gym including the upstairs with a juice bar and a balcony overlooking the gym floor. [source]

Thursday, 23 May 2013 19:36

Last week's question: What was the March Fight of the Month?

43% - Hesdy Gerges vs. Daniel Ghita

30% - Andy Souwer vs. L'houcine Ouzgni

14% - Other

9% - Khem vs. Kongjak

5% - Sergio Wielzen vs. Karim Bennoui

This week we offer a pretty straight-forward question, but one I am definitely interested in seeing the response to.

How much do you watch current MMA?

Thursday, 23 May 2013 19:36

Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima is, as we all know, a very colorful fighter. Outside of his power and skill he comes to the ring in cosplaying costumes, much to the derision to some in the West and some at home, but it is hard to argue with his successes in the ring, especially over the past year. He announced earlier in the year his intention to step into the pro wrestling ring, namely of Zero-One MAX. Zero-One MAX for the uninitiated was the brain child of former New Japan Pro Wrestling owner, and one of the true god father's of MMA, Antonio Inoki's grand scheme to meld Mixed Martial Arts and Professioal Wrestling together, blurring the lines even further.

It started when it's chosen leader, Shin'ya Hashimoto was "shamed" into retirement by defeats from a MMA invasion of sorts by way of Olympic Judoka and MMA fighter Naoya Ogawa. At the time, due to Inoki and NJPW blurring the lines between wrestling and MMA, Hashimoto was "defending" his "sport" against MMA and was booked to lose, quickly. This pushed for the formation of a new promotion specifically for the two men and has since continued on after the death of Hashimoto.

Nagashima's opponent on 5/5/2011 will be none other than one of Hashimoto's former students and former Shooto fighter Kohei Sato. Sato started off in Shooto's amateur program, becoming a champion in their amateur ranks before moving up and having a few professional fights before entering professional wrestling.

All of this is a primer so you'll understand that Sato has a legitimate martial arts background and that his professional wrestling matches tend to look more like worked MMA bouts than anything else. His matches look more like submission grappling exhibitions than what you'll see on a standard WWE program. Video after the break, with Sato being the one in the kickpads.

Thursday, 23 May 2013 19:36

Welcome back to the LiverKick.com rankings. These rankings are an attempt to break down the top 25 fighters in two different weight classes - Heavyweight, for fighters above the 77kg limit, and Middleweight, for fighters at the 70-72.5kg limit. Our rankings are based on in-ring accomplishments and recent wins and loses. We hope they reflect where these fighters currently stand, although we recognize that all rankings are inherently subjective.

April 2011

Kickboxing continues on in the face of K-1's silence, but the Heavyweight division has definitely felt the blow.  Only a handful of ranked fighters saw action since our last rankings, and the top 25 remains essentially the same.

The biggest mover this month was Brice Guidon, who jumped up two spots to #13 with a win over #18 Mourad Bouzidi.  Guidon will next face #5 Gokhan Saki at the United Glory final round on May 28.

Also moving up were #24 Freddy Kemayo and #25 Dzevad Poturak - both men returned to the rankings after wins in Romania.

The rest of April doesn't hold too much more Heavyweight action.  Next weekend, #12 Nathan Corbett faces Tomasz Nowack at Domination 6 in Australia, and... that's it for the top 25 for April.  Like I said, there's definitely been a Heavyweight slowdown.

That will change in May, as a number of big fights are set to go down.  And none are bigger than #4 Badr Hari making his return against Tony Gregory at It's Showtime Lyon.  Also on that card is #10 Tyrone Spong vs. Igor Mihaljevic and #9 Daniel Ghita vs. #19 Anderson Silva.  Then on May 21, It's Showtime returns with #7 Hesdy Gerges vs. Chris Knowles in Amsterdam.

Also in May is the United Glory finals previously mentioned, headlined by Saki vs. Guidon.  A few other top 25 clashes are on that show including #14 Errol Zimmerman vs. #18 Mourad Bouzidi and #17 Pavel Zhuravlev vs. Igor Jurkovic.

One other scheduled fight to take note of: we've known for awhile that the next appearance of #1 Alistair Overeem will be in an MMA cage, likely against Fabricio Werdum in the opening round of the Strikeforce Grand Prix.  That fight is now set for June 18 in Dallas, TX.  Sad to see The Reem likely gone from kickboxing for awhile, but we'll be cheering the K-1 champ on in his quest to dominate the US MMA landscape.