Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:32

Yesterday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Shootboxing held its second major event of the year, headlined by a 67kg matchup between fan favorite Hiroki Shishido and DREAM Featherweight champ Hiroyuki Takaya. The rest of the card featured Shootboxing stars RENA, Hiroaki Suzuki, Satoru Suzuki and Naguranchun Masa M16, as well as stars and champions from other promotions like Kosuke Komiyama, Kizaemon Saiga, Mohan Dragon and Lorena Klijn.

In the main event, Hiroki Shishido dominated DREAM champ Hiroyuki Takaya en route to a unanimous decision on scores of 28-26 from all 3 judges. Shishido knocked Takaya down twice in the opening round with a kick to the body and a spinning backfist, securing an early lead. In the 3rd, Shishido was deducted a point for kicking a downed Takaya, but he had already secured such a big lead that the deduction didn't hurt him. Shishido has now won 3 of his last 4 after seeing his career going into a tailspin, where he lost 6 of 7. Takaya hadn't been very active over the last year, fighting on New Year's Eve in 2011 and not fighting in 2012 until again on New Year's Eve, where he lost to Georgi Karakhanyan.

In the co-main event, MA Kick champion Mohan Dragon surprised nearly everyone by knocking out Shootboxing Lightweight champion Hiroaki Suzuki in the 1st round. The fight started well for Suzuki, who was returning to 65kg after fighting in last year's S-Cup, as he knocked Mohan down with a left hook. However, the brawler from Nepal refused to be put away and scored with a massive right hook that sent Suzuki to the ground where he struggled to get up before the count of 10, forcing the ref to stop the fight. The win is huge for Mohan Dragon, who competed and lost in the opening round of the Road to GLORY 65kg tournament. Going in, there was little doubt that this would be a brawl as both men love to throw down and pack significant power. However, the consensus was that Suzuki's defense was better, that he had more power and that he would dominate in every aspect of the fight. The loss is Suzuki's first since 2010 and snaps a 6 fight winning streak. 

At 70kg, the crowd-pleasing Satoru Suzuki put his Shootboxing Super Welterweight title on the line against Yuki Sakamoto and it was Sakamoto who came out on top on scores of 50-48, 49-47 and 49-48. The little-known Sakamoto has quietly put together a 14-2 record entirely under the Shootboxing banner and the win will get him a lot of name recognition, as well as matchups with some of Shootboxing's better 70kg fighters or foreign talent. Despite his overwhelming popularity, the results have not been there from the former boxer Suzuki, who is just 2-5 since 2012.

In a 60kg #1 contender's bout, K-1 veteran Kizaemon Saiga took an extension round unanimous decision over Shootboxing Featherweight champion Naguranchun Masa M16 after a majority draw. Saiga's speed was too much, as he got the better of most of the boxing exchanges and Naguranchun wasn't able to abuse the Shootboxing ruleset enough to earn the victory. Saiga improves to 3-0 in the organization and has earned a shot at 60kg champ Akifumi Utagawa. Naguranchun drops his 2nd straight bout after losing to RISE champion Kosuke Komiyama.

Speaking of Kosuke Komiyama, he faced South Korea's Seong Jae Kim, winning a unanimous decision on scores of 30-26 and 30-27(x2). Komiyama got a bit of an easier challenge after taking on Shootboxing champions Naguranchun Masa M16 and Akifumi Utagawa in back to back appearances. He pushes his win streak to 9 and he could probably argue that he is the next challenger to the Shootboxing 60kg belt as well. I'd definitely like to see him fight Saiga, whether there's a belt on the line or not, either under Shootboxing rules or under Krush/RISE rules. Kim splits time between MMA and kickboxing, fighting out of the Gumi MMA gym, home to Korean MMA standout Doo Ho Choi. 

Shootboxing prospect MASAYA moved up to 67kg and bounced back from a loss to Kizaemon Saiga with a 2nd round stoppage of Horu Tarai. I'd like to see him face Hiroaki Suzuki next, as his ties with the Cesar Gym mean he won't be leaving Shootboxing for some time. 

Going over to the women's side, 3-time Girls S-Cup champion RENA took on highly touted Taiwanese muay thai practitioner Peiling Du. RENA took advantage of her opponent's unfamiliarity to the rules, scoring a few throws early in the fight before finishing it in the 3rd round with a choke. This was RENA's first fight since last year's Girls S-Cup in August, as she was recovering from an injury. It is very possible that her next fight will be her rematch with Erika Kamimura in RISE. 

In a 53.5kg fight, Lorena Klijn, the woman who upset Erika Kamimura in last year's Girls S-Cup, returned to Shootboxing, taking a majority decision over Miyo Yoshida on scores of 30-29, 29-28 and 29-29. Klijn competed in last year's S-Cup, drawing tournament co-favorite Erika Kamimura in the quarters, but she hung with Kamimura over the first three rounds, forcing an extension round where she scored a shoot point, ensuring victory. In the semis, she faced 2009 finalist V.V Mei, again going to an extension round, but was on the receiving end of several throws that gave V.V Mei the win. This is a solid win over Yoshida, who has beaten everyone Shootboxing put in front of her except Kamimura and now Klijn.

Finally, in a JKS48 qualifier, 2012 champion MIO moved on to the next round with a over Sayaka Yoshina while 2012 quarterfinalist Yuuki Kiratsu beat 2012 semifinalist Yusa Taichi to advance. 

Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:32

GLORY 7 Milan takes place today live from Milan, Italy featuring a main event pitting the top fighter in all of kickboxing, Giorgio Petrosyan, against Hafid El Boustati. Overall it's a stacked card in general and also features marquee match-ups between the likes of Murthel Groenhart and Robin van Roosmalen, Sahak Parparyan and Artem Levin, and Davit Kiria and Yury Bessmertny to name just a few.

You can watch the event live right here on LiverKick for $20 USD. The event starts at 3:30 PM ET/12:30 PM PT in North America. Aside from the live stream, in Canada GLORY 7 will air live on the Fight Network. In the United States, it will air on tape delay on CBS Sports Network at 1:00 AM ET/10:00 PM PT.

We'll be on Twitter providing live updates and play by play at @rianscalia and @LiverKickdotcom. Full fight card can be seen here.

77kg: Karapet Karapetyan def. Roberto Cocco by unanimous decision.

95kg: Michael Duut def. Steve McKinnon by decision.

65kg: Kaoponlek def. Sergio Wielzen by unanimous decision.

70kg: Chingiz Allazov vs. Marat Grigorian ruled a draw due to accidental cut caused from unintentional elbow.

85kg: Artem Levin def. Sahak Parparyan by unanimous decision in an extra round.

HW: Rico Verhoeven def. Jhonata Diniz by unanimous decision.

70kg: Davit Kiria def. Yury Bessmertny by unanimous decision.

70kg: Robin van Roosmalen def. Murthel Groenhart by unanimous decision.

70kg: Giorgio Petrosyan def. Hafid El Boustati by unanimous decision.

Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:32

Final Fight 3 took place today in Split, Croatia with a main event of Igor Jurkovic taking on Raul Catinas.

A ton of damage was dished out over the course of the fight between both fighters. Jurkovic showed some improvements in his overall game with added movement that helped him avoid some of Catinas' punch-rushes, as well as effective knees that at some points during the fight were clearly putting Catinas in some discomfort. Catinas appeared to take the first round but Jurkovic hurt him with knees to the body in the second round. The third round seemed like it would decide the fight. Catinas had his moments of landing some big punches in the round but to me, Jurkovic seemed to do more over the course of the round. Jurkovic ended up getting the decision win. Either way, it was a pretty close fight and could have gone to an extra round, or even maybe have gone to Catinas.

Pavel Zhuravlev returned to the ring in Croatia again and had a quick outing against Luca Panto, knocking him out in the first round. Toni Milanovic also rebounded with a win on the prelininary card, taking a unanimous decision over the young rising Dutch fighter Ibrahim El Bouni at 88kg. Full kickboxing results below:

88kg: Toni Milanovic def. Ibrahim El Bouni by unanimous decision.
HW: Mladen Kujundzic def. Rok Strucl by unanimous decision.
81kg: Vlatko Bajic def. Petros Vardakas by unanimous decision.
HW: Pavel Zhuravlev def. Luca Panto by KO in Round 1.
HW: Igor Jurkovic def. Raul Catinas by unanimous decision.

Photo via fightsite.hr

Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:32

Anticipation is building for tomorrow's GLORY 7 Milan event, headlined by Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Hafid El Boustati. The weigh-ins went down today in Italy with all fighters making weight and looking prepared for tomorrow's event. You can watch a video from the weigh-ins below and the full results after the break.

Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:32

This weekend Hafid El Boustati goes in to one of the toughest challenges in his career against 70kg kingpin Giorgio Petrosyan. In this video interview from Glory, Hafid El Boustati talks about his team that he trains with as well as how he feels going into the Giorgio Petrosyan fight. Obviously he has nothing to lose and everything to gain from this fight and many are simply writing him off due to how dominant Petrosyan is. Hafid talks about how he doesn't have as much pressure on him now, which makes this a great fight for him.