Welcome back to Weekly Kicks, Bloody Elbow’s regular round-up of news and results from K-1, Glory, Superkombat, and the world of kickboxing.
Glory 2 Brussels Results
The top news of the week comes from Glory who put on Glory 2 Brussels this past Saturday. In the main event, former K-1 champion Remy Bonjasky made a successful return from retirement, defeating Anderson “Braddock” Silva. Silva made him earn it though, dragging Bonjasky to an extension round before Remy could finally take a decision win. The big question of course is, just how did Bonjasky look? My answer: very good. He faded a bit as the fight went on, but this was classic Remy Bonjasky all the way, and I don’t think he’s lost much of a step. For his part, Silva turned in one of the best performances of his career, and it wasn’t until Bonjasky started connecting to the body in round 3 that Silva was finally significantly slowed down.
Maybe it’s just the excitement of Bonjasky being back, but to me, this is the fight of the year so far, with round 2 in particular standing out. Be sure to give it a watch – and welcome back Remy Bonjasky!
Other notes from the card:
- Gokhan Saki looked good in his defeat of Mourad Bouzidi. Bouzidi is a tough man to finish, so I’m not surprised it went the distance, but that was a serious beating Saki put on him.
- Holzken vs. Direkci didn’t quite live up to expectations, as Holzken took the win via cut stoppage in round 2. Not a bad fight, but not what I was hoping for.
- There were two great KO’s on the night. First up, Andy Ristie hit a beautiful counter on an attacking Nordin Benmoh, dropping him flat for the KO. Later, Murthel Gronehart continued his rise up the ranks with a perfect knee KO on Marc de Bonte.
- I don’t want to take anything away from Mark Miller, as he has come back from so much, and his return last year was absolutely incredible. But he looked bad against Sergei Kharitonov earlier this year, bad again against Koichi Pettas here. Miller has resorted to strictly headhunting for the KO, and when he doesn’t get it, turning his back and getting pummeled. He was beaten badly again, and is going to get hurt at this rate. Again, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Miller, but I don’t want to see him fight like this again.
Here are the full results, via LiverKick.com:
70kg: Andy Ristie def. Nordin Benmoh by KO (Left Hook) in Round 1.
97kg: Danyo Ilunga def. Ali Cenik by decision.
71kg: Marat Grigorian def. Alex Vogel by TKO (Right Low Kick) in Round 2.
HW: Jahfarr Wilnis def. Jamal Ben Saddik by unanimous decision.
HW: Jhonata Diniz def. Sebastian van Thielen by unanimous decision.
HW: Koichi Pettas def. Mark Miller by KO (Right Cross) in Round 2.
HW: Igor Jurkovic def. Gregory Tony by TKO (3 Knockdowns/Liver Shot) in Round 2.
79kg: Murthel Groenhart def. Marc de Bonte by KO (Knee) in Round 2.
HW: Filip Verlinden def. Fabiano Cyclone Aoki by unanimous decision.
78kg: Nieky Holzken def. Murat Direkci by TKO (Cut) in Round 2.
HW: Gokhan Saki def. Mourad Bouzidi by unanimous decision.
HW: Remy Bonjasky def. Anderson “Braddock” Silva by Majority Decision (4-1) in an extra round.
Next up for Glory is Glory 3 Rome on November 3, featuring the final 8 of their 70kg tournament, with #1 pound for pound kickboxer Giorgio Petrosyan in action.
Shootboxing S-Cup 2012
Japan’s Shootboxing organization is currently preparing for their big year-end S-Cup event. Held every other year, the S-Cup is a one night, 8 man tournament that consistently entertains. Past winner include Andy Souwer, and reigning champion Buakaw Por. Pramuk. They’ve announced a partial line-up for 2012, and there are some surprising names in the mix:
Andy Souwer
Joachim Hansen
Hiroki Shishido
Hiroaki Suzuki
Bovy Sor Udomson
Warren Stevelmans
That’s 6 fighters – #7 will be the winner of Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Henri van Opstal at a Rebels event October 28, and #8 is yet to be determined. I’ll cross my fingers for defending champ Buakaw, but won’t hold my breath.
The name that clearly sticks out is Joachim Hansen. The former Dream and Pride fighter will be making his kickboxing debut here, and has not fought professionally in over a year. But that doesn’t mean he should be over looked. MMA fighters have had success in Shootboxing in the past – at the last S-Cup, Bellator fighter Toby Imada famously upset Andy Souwer. With it’s unique rule-set that adds throws and standing submissions to the normal kickboxing rules, Shootboxing is a great place for MMA fighters to try their stand-up skills.
The 2012 S-Cup takes place November 17 in Tokyo.
Superkombat Final Elimination Details
Superkombat is gearing up for their end of year tournament which will begin with the round of 8 on November 10 in Romania. Unlike other tournaments, Superkombat holds a round of 8 at one event, with the final 4 taking place later in the year. Superkombat president Eduard Irimia announced some of the names for the Final 8:
“For the moment I can share few names. We will have the SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 2012 Qualificated winners, Catalin Morosanu, Raul Catinas, Benjamin Adegbuyi and the winner from SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 2012 Fourth Qualification, scheduled for October 20th at Arad – Romania, but also Alexey Ignashov, Daniel Sam, Freddy Kemayo and Ismael Londt.”, said SUPERKOMBAT® President – Eduard Irimia.
The other fighters from the event will be selected from K-1 World GP 2012 Final 16, scheduled for October 14th at Tokyo – Japan “We will make a selection from there and some of them will be at Craiova on November 10th for SUPERKOMBAT® WGP 2012 Final Elimination. A press conference will be held at Tokyo after K-1 World GP 2012 Final 16, where we will announce the fight card and the plans for the next year.”
We’ll have more on Superkombat next week as they prepare for their final qualification event on October 20.
K-1 Final 16 This Weekend
Finally, just a reminder that this weekend K-1 returns with their 2012 Heavyweight Grand Prix Final 16 event. The show will be streamed at Spike.com. Check out the full line-up below, and check back later this week for much more on the event:
K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16
Raul Catinas (Romania) vs. Ben Edwards (Australia)
Makoto Uehara (Japan) vs. Hiromi Amada (Japan)
Xavier Vigney (USA) vs. Zabit Samedov (Azerbaijan)
Hesdy Gerges (Egypt) vs. Sergii Laschenko (Ukraine)
Singh Jaideep (India) vs. Ismael Londt (Surinam)
Jarrell Miller (USA) vs. Arnold Oborotov (Lithuania)
Paul Slowinski (Poland) vs. Catalin Morosanu (Romania)
Mirko Flipovic (Croatia) vs. Randy Blake (USA)Super Fights
Genji Umeno (Japan) vs. Chanhyung Lee (Korea)
Jafar Ahmadi (Iran) vs. Benjamin Adegbuyl (Nigeria)
Saulo Cavalari (Brazil) vs. Pavel Zuravliov (Russia)
Rick Roufus (USA) vs. James Wilson (USA)
Fight of the Week
Highlights from Glory 2 Brussels:
Kickboxing Calendar
- Boonchu Cup 2 – October 13 (Caged Muay Thai with 4 oz gloves in Australia)
- K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 – October 14 (Full line-up above)
- Superkombat Grand Prix Qualification – October 20 (Lungu, Stoica, Ciobanu)
- Glory 3 Rome Final 8 – November 3 (70kg tournament finals)
- Superkombat Grand Prix Round of 8 – November 10 (Catinas, Lascenko, Londt, more)
- Shootboxing S-Cup 2012 – November 17 (Andy Souwer, Joachim Hansen, more)
- Glory 4 Tokyo – December 2 (16 man Heavyweight tournament)
- K-1 World MAX GP Finals – December 8
- Superkombat Grand Prix Finals – December 8
- K-1 Grand Prix Finals in New York City – December 26
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