Kickboxing lineal title history: Lineal Heavyweight gold on the line at Glory 19

Fraser here, welcoming you to the latest installment in our ongoing series documenting the lineal title history in kickboxing. Thanks for reading – we hope you enjoy the series, and that you tune in to Spike tonight for Glory 19 and a lineal title fight. Take it away Matt!

Hello there lineal title fans! As promised, we are back for Part 2 of our look at the lineal Kickboxing titles throughout the history of the Heavyweight division. With Glory 19 just around the corner, it’s a fantastic time to round out the lineal title picture. In fact, Errol Zimmerman himself holds two belts. And, if not for Rico Verhoeven’s shocking upset loss outside of Glory competition, the Main Event would have featured a lineal unification bout. It’s kind of a bummer, but those are the rules of the game in the world of lineal titles.

If you missed Part 1, I highly recommend checking out our focused look at the lineal titles of Alistair Overeem. And, if the 70 kg division is more your speed, our look at the titles of divisional king Robin van Roosmalen is a fantastic read.

Before we jump into the details, here’s a quick reminder of the rules that we follow when tracing these belts…

Rules:

1. All lineal titles will begin with the inaugural champion crowned by a given promotion. The title will change hands only with a loss by the champion regardless of what promotion that fight takes place in. In a phrase, a lineal champion is “the man who beat the man.”

2. Unlike MMA lineal titles, weight class will not be a factor in tracking the lineage of Kickboxing titles.

3. The spirit behind this collection of titles is to appreciate the history of the K-1 rules / Oriental Kicking style. But, we do sprinkle in a few titles of other similar rule sets like International (Leg Kick) and Shootboxing rules. For this reason, all fights that would traditionally be considered on a kickboxing record will be included in the lineage. This means that even Muay Thai rules and Shoot Boxing rules fights will be recognized.

The Titles:

Before we get too detailed, here’s a big picture look of all of the titles in the HW division. Some of them were featured during Part 1 and the rest will be detailed below.

Enfusion: The Lineal Titles of Errol Zimmerman

In honor of the Glory 19 main event, we thought it would be appropriate to start by taking a look at the lineal titles currently held by Zimmerman. Errol is a 100 fight veteran on a 2 fight win streak in Glory with wins over such top competition as Anderson Silva, Ben Edwards, Jerome Le Banner, Glaube Feitosa, and Zabit Samedov. He even holds a past win over Rico Verhoeven.

Field of Sixteen: Andrew Thomson, Mate Paulovics, Daniel Sam, Iggy McGowan, Kirk Krouba, Alexander Volobuev, Warren Thompson, Brian Douwes, Mohamed Boubkari, Gaetan Sautron, Todd Stoute, Pane Haraki, Sam Tevette, Wendell Roche, Chris Cooper, Razvan Ghita

Lineal Glory:

Filling the huge void left by the slow death of the iconic K-1 organization, Glory has emerged as the premiere kickboxing organization in the world today. The Glory World Series was founded in 2012 as a sort of coming together of Golden Glory, United Glory, and It’s Showtime. Glory has installed a mix of tournament and world titles over the past few years and you’ll see evidence of both below. You’ll also notice that we came very close to the rubber match between Rico and Errol being a lineal unification match, but it just wasn’t to be.

Field of Eight: Gokhan Saki, Wendel Roche, Brice Guidon, Mourad Bouzidi, Stefan Leko, Filip Verlinden, Anderson Silva, Nikolaj Filan

Field of Sixteen: Semmy Schilt, Brice Guidon, Sergei Kharitonov, Rico Verhoeven, Gokan Saki, Raoumaru, Anderson Silva, Igor Jurkovic, Remy Bonjasky, Filip Verlinden, Errol Zimmerman, Jamal Ben Saddik, Peter Aerts, Mourad Bouzidi, Daniel Ghita, Jhonata Diniz

Field of Four: Daniel Ghita, Rico Verhoeven, Anderson Silva, Gokhan Saki

Field of Eight: Danyo Ilunga, Tyrone Spong, Mourad Bouzidi, Brian Collette, Dustin Jacoby, Filip Verlinden, Steve McKinnon, Michael Duut

Field of Four: Tyrone Spong, Saulo Cavalari, Gokhan Saki, Nathan Corbett

The Remaining Titles of Zabit Samedov:

You may have noticed that Samedov holds the oldest Glory title from back in the United Glory days. One of the few top 10 Heavyweights not currently on the Glory roster, Samedov fights out of Belarus and is a veteran of 92 kickboxing bouts. Zabit has had mixed results against top competition with losses to Badr Hari, Errol Zimmerman, and Tyrone Spong on his record. But, he does hold a win over Hari as well and other solid wins over the likes of Micheal McDonald, Pat Barry, Melvin Manhoef, and Ray Sefo. Including his United Glory title detailed above, Samedov currently holds 4 lineal titles across 4 different promotions.

The Flying Gentleman: Lineal HW King Remy Bonjasky

Growing up as a combat sports fan when I did in the early 2000s, the man they called the Flying Gentleman was without question my favorite fighter on the planet (I’ll have to let Fraser fill you in on his favorite fighter in the comments section). A veteran of 96 fights, Bonjasky was a 3-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion. In fact, you’ll see that Remy currently holds nearly all of the lineal K-1 titles not already presented in our Lineal Reem post. The one straggler is the lineal K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 title held by Francisco Filho and won in what would turn out to be his retirement match against none other than Remy Bonjasky. I’ll include that lineage below as well.

One last highlight from this collection of titles is the appearance by Pride legend Mirko Cro Cop. You’ll notice that Cro Cop actually stepped away from kickboxing at a time when he was considered the lineal king of the sport. He would return nearly 10 years later and, amazingly, defend his lineal titles another 6 times including his first K-1 World Grand Prix title in 2012, before losing them in controversial fashion to The Flying Gentleman (A fight that, despite my admitted fanboy admiration of Bonjasky, I scored for Cro Cop).

Field of Eight: Todd Hays, Masaaki Satake, Branko Cikatic, Changpuek Kiatsongrit, Maurice Smith, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Toshiyuki Atokawa

Field of Eight: Peter Aerts, Rob van Esdon, Patrick Smith, Masaaki Satake, Andy Hug, Michael Thompson, Andre Mannaart, Branko Cikatic

Field of Eight: Masaaki Satake, John Kleijn, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Toshiyuki Atokawa, Jerome Le Banner, Mike Bernardo, Stan Longinidis

Field of Eight: Mike Bernardo, Sam Greco, Musashi, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Mirko Cro Cop, Andy Hug, Duane Van Der Merwe (Reserve for the injured Stan Longinidis)

Field of Eight: Fransisco Filho, Sam Greco, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Mike Bernardo, Jerome Le Banner, Andy Hug, Masaaki Satake

Field of Eight: Francisco Filho, Sam Greco, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Mike Bernardo, Ray Sefo, Andy Hug, Masaaki Satake

Field of Eight: Jerome Le Banner, Sam Greco, Musashi, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Mirko Cro Cop, Andy Hug, Ray Sefo

Field of Eight: Sefan Leko, Francisco Filho, Cyril Abidi, Musashi, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Mirko Cro Cop, Musashi, Ray Sefo

Field of Eight: Sefan Leko, Francisco Filho, Mark Hunt, Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Nicholas Pettas, Alexey Ignashov

Field of Eight: Cyril Abidi, Francois Botha (Reserve for injured Sefan Leko), Peter Graham, Remy Bonjasky, Ray Sefo, Musashi, Alexey Ignashov, Peter Aerts

Field of Eight: Catalin Morosanu, Mirko Cro Cop, Pavel Zhuravlev, Jarrell Miller, Badr Hari, Zabit Samedov, Ismael Londt, Hesdey Gerges

Field of Eight: Pavel Zhuravlev, Freddy Kemayo, Ismael Londt, Benjamin Adegbuyi, Sergei Lascenko, Daniel Sam, Sebastian Ciobanu, Roman Kleibl

Last but not least…

I have a couple of MISC titles to show you below. One of them is currently held by the great Semmy Schilt, the Lennox Lewis of the kickboxing world. To give you an idea of just how good Semmy is, he was as successful in his crossover from MMA to Kickboxing as Cro Cop was from kickboxing to MMA. Schilt was Lineal King from 2009 to 2010 and is 3rd all time on the list of Career Lineal HW Title holders. Hopefully, we will one day see him back in the ring (health permitting, of course).

Field of Four: Sergei Lascenko, Ismael Londt, Pavel Zhuravlev, Erhan Deniz

Field of Eight: Giannis Stoforidis, Mathieu Kongolo, Redouan Cairo, Jegish Yegoian, Frank Munoz, Muamer Tufekcic, D’Angelo Marshall, Pacome Assi

Lineal Stats & Leaderboards:

Together with the belts of Alistair Overeem, the above represent all of the HW lineal titles that we’ve been able to find reliable information for. All told, it’s a history of 43 championship belts. But, what does it all mean? How do the big guys compare with the 70 kg lineal champions?

Let’s take a closer look…

In comparison, here are the top 5 Career lineal title holders at 70 kg:

* As mentioned above, Bonjasky is the king. The trouble with this list is that the two top dogs are retired from the sport. And, so is Semmy Schilt. Here’s hoping for a return match between The Reem and the Flying Gentleman.

* Ok, so we should probably prepare for the worst. Just in case Overeem, Bonjasky, and Schilt decide against epic comebacks, above is a look at the active fighters who currently hold lineal titles.

* Above is a look at the Lineal Kings throughout the history of the division. Peter Aerts appears an amazing 5 times on this list, adding to an already legendary career.

And, for one last comparison, here are the 70 kg kings…

In a sport where the best always fight the best and often multiple times per night, this comparison really puts into perspective the amazing runs that Buakaw, Petrosyan, and Souwer went on in the peak of their respective careers. And, it also helps us to understand just how dangerous it is, for even the best Heavyweights in the world, to step into the ring with another 220 lb man.

Until next time, Lineal title fans. Enjoy the event tomorrow night, but never forget the heroes from the past that paved the road….to GLORY!