Welcome back to Weekly Kicks, Bloody Elbow’s round-up of all the news from K-1, Glory, Superkombat, and the international kickboxing scene.
Superkombat results: Kleibl joins Grand Prix
Superkombat held their latest show last weekend. The main feature was a 4 man tournament to earn the last spot in their 2012 Heavyweight Grand Prix. In that tournament, Roman Kleibl was victorious. He now joins Ismael Londt, Sergei Lascenko, Ehran Deniz, Pavel Zhuravlev, Raul Catinas, Catalin Morosanu, and Benjamin Adegbuyi in the GP. The round of 8 will be held on November 10, with winners moving on to a one night final 4 on December 22.
Also on the card, Superkombat favorites Andre Stoica and Alexandru Lungu were victorious, while Sebastian Ciobanu defeated Dzevad Poturak in the night’s featured bout. Complete results via Liver Kick:
Super-fight (-72 kg): Claudiu Badoi def. Alex Tropimov by KO (left hook) in Round 1.
HW Semi-final: Razvan Ghita def. Goran Radonjic by decision.
HW Semi-final: Roman Kleibl def. Steve Banks by TKO (Leg kicks) in Round 3.
Super Fight (-95 kg): Andrei Stoica def. Toni Milanovic by decision.
Super Fight (+125 kg): Alexandru Lungu def. Deutsch Pu’u by KO (Punch) in Round 2.
Super Fight (+96 kg): Sebastian Ciobanu def. Dzevad Poturak by decision.
National Title Local Kombat Romania (75 kg) Miodrag Olar def. Adrian Mitu by decision.
HW Final: Roman Kleibl def. Razvan Ghita by decision.
Next up for Superkombat is the Grand Prix round of 8 November 10 in Romania.
Buakaw wins at Thai Fight
K-1 MAX legend Buakaw Por. Pramuk was also in action this week, competing under Muay Thai rules for the Thai Fight organization. No surprise, Buakaw had little trouble dispatching his overmatched opponent, Mauro Serra. Buakaw won the fight via TKO in the 3rd round.
With that win, Buakaw is now on a three year, 18 fight undefeated streak. His last loss came against Andy Souwer in the 2009 K-1 MAX Grand Prix. Unfortunately, most of those 18 wins have come against a very low level of opponent, with Dzhabar Askerov standing out as the only particularly impressive win in that time. Thai Fight has made it clear that their plan is to showcase Thai fighters, so expect more of these mismatches in Buakaw’s future.
While it’s great to see him compete, it would be nice to have Buakaw fighting the world’s best. At this point, I’m not sure if we’ll ever see him against a true top 10 opponent again.
Glory 70kg tournament fights announced
Speaking of the world’s top 70kg fighters – Glory announced the match-ups for their 70kg Grand Prix to be held November 3 in Rome. Here’s the line-up:
Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Ky Hollenbeck
Albert Kraus vs. Sanny Dahlbeck
Robin van Roosmalen vs. Tim Thomas
Shemsi Beqiri vs. Davit Kiria
All four of these are relatively lopsided. I can’t imagine either Petrosyan or van Roosmalen having any trouble here, and Beqiri should slide through as well. Kraus is the definite favorite against Dahlbeck, but Dahlbeck looked great in his round of 16 win over Warren Stevelmans, and Kraus, while a tough veteran, is definitely beatable. Not sure if I would actually pick Sanny for the upset here, but it’s possible.
Either way, we’re clearly heading for a Petrosyan vs. van Roosmalen final, which is the only fight that really matters at 70kg right now. Petrosyan has sliced apart every big name in the division over the past three years, but he’s never faced the tough van Roosmalen. I’ll still pick Petrosyan for the win, but this is one of the very few challengers out there capable of truly pushing him. Winner of this tournament will be the clear cut #1 fighter in the world at 70kg.
Video of the week
Here’s Buakaw’s win from yesterday against Mauro Serra. Not much of a fight, but if you want to see Buakaw do his thing, this is for you:
Kickboxing calendar
- Glory 3 Rome Final 8 – November 3 (70kg tournament finals)
- Superkombat Grand Prix Round of 8 – November 10 (Catinas, Lascenko, Londt, more)
- It’s Showtime Brazil – November 10 (Sahak Parparyan, Sergio Wielzen, 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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