It's Showtime 2011 Lyon

Well, the first fight just ended in very anticlimactic manner.

Chahid Oulad El Hadj was unable to continue after an inadvertent kick to the groin from Giorgio Petrosyan and the bout was ruled a no contest.

I was looking forward to seeing Petrosyan ply his trade. Oh well.

Plenty of other kickboxing action on the card. :good

 

Now it's Chris Ngimbi vs. Willy Borel.

Same weight class as Petrosyan (70kg)

 

Good stuff from the Congolese-Dutchman. He's won the first two rounds with very consistent leg kicks and some beautiful jumping knees to the face.


WHOA!

Two hard knockdowns at the end of the 2nd, both using his hands. The first one was a powerful left hook by itself. Then he finished Borel off with a lead right hand setting up one more leaping knee to the face as his opponent backed straight up into the turnbuckle.

Knockout!

Ngimib's good.

 

It sucks that Petrosyan's fight had such a lame ending. He is the type to make fans of non-fans.

He is to kickboxing what Pacquiao and Mayweather are to boxing, or what Silva and GSP are to MMA: a top p4p guy who's so dominant (even against very good opposition) that it sometimes gets monotonous, but with just downright beautiful skills to watch.

 

Daniel Ghita's opponent is the unheralded Fikri "Amazing" Ameziane, who says that he's been sparring and training with Gokhan Saki, Badr Hari, and Errol Zimmerman (all top heavyweights; Ghita is 1-1 against them)

 

Blowout.

Amazing Ameziane did not amaze; just got his stumps chopped into splinters.

 

Ouch. There could be bone damage. He can't even sit right on his stool.

edit: nah, he's walking around fine. Nothing broken. Limping, though. He will have bruises to show off for the rest of the year. :yep

 

Slugging Frenchie journeyman Yohan Lidon says his heroes as a fighter are Bruce Lee, Jean Claude Van Damme, and the Ninja Turtles. atsch

He's up against Armenian rising star Marat Grigorian.

Here we go!

 

Grigorian controlled most of the opening round with sheer workrate, but Lidon did tip him back on his heels with a couple of hard right hands.

Lidon needs to use his feet more.

 

Round 2

They trade pitter patter up close, and Grigorian trips Lidon down onto the seat of his trunks. Not a KD. Big flurry from Grigorian, before propelling himself into the ropes with a front kick off Lidon's stomach. Body kicks by Lidon, now neglecting his hands except to feint or block. Grigorian punches down the pipe and backs him up. Low blow. The referee fishes his hand into Grigorian's shorts to help him "rearrange". Eww!! Grigorian stretches his jab out, brushing Lidon's face with it. Lidon clips him with a hard right cross and then lands another one bang on the button a moment later. They exchange mid-level kicks and Lidon staggers back. Grigorian jabs him in the face and gets kneed in the ribs. Hard right to the body by Lidon, then a left hook to the ear. Grigorian is still flurrying. Lidon trips him at the bell.

Very close round, Lidon was more effective but Grigorian still outworked him.

 

Grigorian is put down HARD early in the third! Good hand combo.

Lidon hails down with every extremity, overwhelming the younger man and backing him up. Grigorian actually lands some solid counters but is still in trouble. Lidon keeps walking him (and front-kicking him) to the ropes and setting up big right hands. They get back out to the middle of the ring and Grigorian seems to gather himself, moving around and kicking from long range. Again he is driven to the ropes by hard right hands. Lidon now is flurried into a corner but delivers a few high left kicks to the chest. Grigorian is leaving his hands down when he kicks and nearly getting clipped with that straight right as he leans back for extra torque.

10-8 Lidon

28-28 Grigorian