Some Kickboxing fights to watch for Boxing/MMA fans

The timing of Iancu's counter strikes in that fight were impressive, especially that first left hook knockdown. Every time Murat opened up he got punished for it. Pretty fast hands for a man with such high body fat as well.

 

It´s so funny when he tries to cover up like in a basic boxing high guard, because he is physically too fat to do it.
I watched a few more of his fights, and they are all as entertaining. His speed and accuracy are murderous.

 

Jonathan Haggerty vs Wei Rui for the ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing Championship was a good fight. It wasn’t a non-stop barnburner, but it had some good back and forth action nonetheless. I might do a short write up of it later.

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I got an excellent kickboxing fight to share with you guys today from one of my favorite Russian fighters. We’re going to take a look at Artem Vakhitov vs Ariel Machado for the Glory Light Heavyweight Championship. This fight was an absolute masterclass in kickboxing technique.

It’s worth mentioning that Artem has had notorious hand problems throughout his career, suffering from numerous breaks. He was clearly hesitant to throw his right hand with any regularity in this fight due to a recovering fracture. Therefore, he compensated with a masterful performance of switch hitting, continuously fighting from both the orthodox and southpaw stance.

Artem came out in the first round throwing hard left jab, right leg kick combinations. Both kickboxers did a good job targeting the legs throughout the fight, especially early on. When fighting from orthodox, Vakhitov continuously used his masterful left jab, peppering and popping it into Machado’s face. I think Artem had one of the best left jabs in the whole sport of kickboxing. He pump faked with his jab to set up hard left hooks to the body. Artem also used his left jab to set up left switch kicks to his opponent’s body, legs and head. He didn’t do it often, but the Russian was very effective when he would double up with his hook, going from head to body.

Artem didn’t punch much to the body in the fight, but he dropped a few left jabs and southpaw left crosses down the middle to mix things up.

Vakhitov used his southpaw stance to continually batter Machado with his rear left straight. He often moved his head off the center line beautifully and slightly delayed his timing before landing these shots. There is an excellent example of this at 12:37 of the video, where he lands his southpaw left cross before shifting into orthodox to land his lead left hook.

While in his southpaw stance, Vakhitov landed hard left body kicks to Machado’s right side, badly bruising the skin. Just as the rear straight opens up when a southpaw fights an orthodox fighter, so too does a fighter’s rear roundhouse kick. When Machado tried to measure with his left hand, Vakhitov did a good job countering. He landed a southpaw left body kick, a left cross, and a lead right hook from that read.

While primarily using a high guard for defense, Vakhitov also employed some fancy head movement at times in this fight, getting Machado to overextend on his shots. Artem also showed very good distance control, moving in and out, drawing out Machado’s counters and then coming back in with effective shots while his opponent was against the ropes.

At 11:22 in the video, Vakhitov countered Machado’s right leg kick with a right hook while shifting into a southpaw stance. He then stepped in with a lead right hook and followed up with a beautiful left head kick behind it. Machado’s feet gave out from under him, forcing him to cling to the ropes for support. The referee rightfully called this a knockdown and began the 10 count. What a tremendous set up and knockdown that was.

Vakhitov also used a lead left uppercut a few times to set up right leg kicks and head kicks. The Russian had good success with head kicks throughout the fight. Even though most of them were partially blocked, the power still got through and added to his opponent’s cumulative punishment. At 16:51, Machado tried to measure with his left jab and Artem pulled his head offline to his left. Then Artem measured with his own left, and landed a switch left kick behind it right to the side of the Brazilian’s head. Just brilliant fighting there.

He nearly finished his opponent again at 17:08 with a flurry of punches and knees as the desperate Brazilian hastily retreated in a straight line, backing up against the hopes. Luckily for him, he was saved by the bell.

Since Artem fights with a high guard, Machado’s targeted and occasionally landed hooking combinations to the side of his opponent’s head. Machado would throw a straight right down the middle which was sometimes blocked by Artem’s high guard but other times broke through it, and then would follow up with his left hook around the guard. He also periodically added a right leg kick to this combo. Machado tried to jab with Artem, landing some of them, but he definitely got the worst end of the jabbing contest. Machado landed some decent punches in this fight, but Artem’s defense was tight enough that he had trouble landing any fight changing blows.

Machado landed some hard right body kicks, but they usually were naked kicks without anything coming before or after them. The Brazilian was effective using punching combinations to set up his low kicks, both with lead switch kicks with his left and rear roundhouses with his right. He sometimes stepped in with some right knees to the body, but he was often too close to generate significant power in these shots. Or he was too far away, and Artem would step back to take away its force. These were also often inaccurate, landing with the top of the thigh instead of the knee cap.

Machado showed a lot of balls and toughness to not only survive but try to fight back all the way to the final bell. He’s a good fighter to be sure, but he was totally outclassed. You basically had to score this one 50-44 for Artem. Machado fought back enough to make it a mildly competitive, but Artem Vakhitov completely dominated this championship fight.

Artem Vakhitov really was a phenomenal kickboxer. It’s a travesty that Glory fired him, not to mention the rest of their Russian fighters, just to grandstand over the Ukrainian war. He’s switched over to MMA now, but I really wish he would have stuck with kickboxing. That’s what he was made to do in my opinion. I can't blame him, though, since Glory took away his primary source of income. You gotta do what you gotta do.

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Just reposting Superlek Kiatmuu9 vs Takeru Segawa since One Championship put it on their youtube channel. Great fight.

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Excellent documentary on Brazilian legend Francisco Filho. Well worth a watch.

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I’ve got a great three round war to share with you guys, today. This was Akihiro Kaneko vs Masashi Kumura 2 for the K-1 Super Bantamweight Grand Prix Final.

Akihiro Kaneko was effective landing his left jab and was the more active jabber between the two. However, despite landing them frequently, they did nothing to discourage Kumura from standing his ground and firing heavy artillery. Still, Kumura didn’t entirely reject his jab, either. He was effective using a left jab, right hand, and left jab combination at a few points in the fight.

Masashi Kumura would also occasionally slip to the inside of Kaneko’s jab and land an overhand over the top of it. Kumura visibly hurt him with this shot at 3:18 of the video.

While trying to break down his opponent, Kaneko fired off leg kicks in between the exchanges, but were virtually having no visible effect. He just had no way to slow down his opponent.

Kaneko’s best punch was by far his right hand. He landed some monster shots throughout this fight, but Kumura took them like a champion. He was very effective using it as a lead as well as setting it up with his jab, but he didn’t do that as much as he should have. Sometimes, he was effective landing it was a counter after Kumura landed his trademark left to the body.

At 4:41 of the video, Akihiro touched his face with a jab and landed a chopping right to the side of the neck which hurt Kumura badly. In a savvy move, Kumura used a cross guard with his right glove to deflect Kaneko’s follow up right. But Kaneko exploited his advantage with a hopping left hook to put down his Japanese foe. Showing his toughness, Kumura got right back and went right back to war.

Kumura’s left hook was his weapon throughout the fight. He landed it almost at will to the body. Sometimes, he would go to the body and then double up to the head. Kumura was very accurate with his left hook, sometimes going around the side of the guard and other times changing the angle to go right down the middle. Almost every one of them landed cleanly and with authority. He threw a really nice combination where after landing a left hook to the body and followed up with a chopping right at short range. He would follow up his left hooks with some straight rights at close range as well. He just couldn’t miss.

He was also incredibly effective countering with the left hook. When Kaneko opened up with his boxing, Kumura continuously countered back with his left hook which won him exchange after exchange in the pocket. Akhiro tried to use this same strategy back to Kumura and was somewhat successful, but it paled in comparison to the damage he was sustaining.

Masashi Kumura was very effective landing left switch kicks to Kaneko’s body. Sometimes, he would chain them to the end of his boxing combinations or single punches. Other times, he would just land naked kicks. He mixed it up between landing with his shin in a muay thai fashion and with the ball of his foot in a karate one. Kaneko did very little to protect his body, from either punches or kicks, throughout the fight. A few times, he was able to scoop Kumura’s left kick and once landed a decent left hook counter off of it, but that was about it. Nothing prevented Kumura from teeing off to the body.

Kaneko landed some hard switch kicks to the body as well, but they were much more infrequent than Kumura’s. Both of them were effectively using it after right hands. Left switch kicks and right hands work well together just like hooks and uppercuts in boxing. Akihiro went to the body effectively with left hooks and right roundhouse punches as well, but it always seemed to eat a left upstairs for his trouble.

At 7:06, Kumura threw a left hook which Kaneko blocked for once. But then Kumura landed a chopping right straight through the guard, and followed up with a left jab for good measure. After Kaneko took a step back and then reengaged, Kumura threw a scissors knee to his opponent’s head and then a right cross after landing back to the ground, followed by another stiff jab for good measure. Kaneko showed toughness taking it, but you can tell the flurry was taking its toll.

After three rounds, Akihiro Kaneko was a awarded the winner of the fight and the tournament. Unfortunately, this was a flat out robbery of a decision. At best, Kaneko would hope for a draw to go into a sudden death extra round. But even after the knockdown in the second round, Kumura came back so hard in the latter half that it could have been scored a 10-9. They took a beating in this fight, but Kaneko’s was much more severe. His entire torso was marked with streaks of red, from the left hooks and switch kicks he was absorbing. And his nose was badly busted up throughout the fight. He just couldn’t keep up with Kumura’s output and countering, and he had no way to effectively slow down his pace.

Still, it was a great fight that I would have loved to see go one more round.

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I’m happy Artem’s back in the sport he belongs, but I’m also kind of puzzled why he’s going up to heavyweight. He was already pretty soft around the middle at light heavyweight, although it never seemed to affect his fighting skills. I really don’t think his body would adapt well to a heavyweight frame. He’s just too small and he doesn’t need the extra body fat. Maybe he just really needs the money after being away from meaningful fights for so long.

Still, I’ve never been overly impressed with Rico. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good solid fighter. But if he was competing back in the 1990s in K1, he would have been just another guy. It’s funny, sometimes you see him show these flashes of brilliance where you think that maybe he’s better than you gave him credit for. And then other times, he will seem incredibly clumsy and get dragged into life and death wars with vastly inferior fighters.

I think Artem could win, but I don’t love his chances. Maybe 40% odds at best just due to the massive size disadvantage. Still, I’ll be rooting for him.

 

I absolutely love Tawanchai's clean technical striking. Reminds me of an MT Bivol. Perfect balance, sense of distance, precision and crispness of strikes. Some weaknesses in his defence and staying in the pocket too long at times, but he's still probably my favourite kickboxer in the world right now. Saying that, never underestimate a Japanese fighter's will to win. Especially not one as experienced as Noiri.

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The legendary Superlek vs One Piece's Luffy, I mean Nabil Anane.

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And the rematch:

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I know the comparison's been made before, but Iancu really reminds me of a kickboxing Andy Ruiz. Nowhere near as fast of hand of course, but really relaxed and tough as nails.