It looks like my analysis about the Takeru Segawa vs Superlek Kiatmuu fight was spot on. Superlek battered Takeru's legs with kicks, kept popping him in the face with jabs, intercepted his pressure with hard knees to the body and continually kicked him back with front kicks. He even kicked in straight in the face with some front kicks as well. Superlek did an excellent job using punches to set up his leg kicks. He continuously used a left jab, right cross, right leg kick combination and a right cross, left jab, right leg kick combo. He also used the double jab and triple jab feints to set up left step up knees and right leg kicks. In the third round, Takeru finally managed to close the distance and battered him in the corner with body shots, hurting Superlek very badly. He started alternating with body hooks to hook to the head, going up and down. He landed some nice left switch kicks to the body and one particular solid knee there as well which contributed to the damage. But it was mostly the hands doing the work. Takeru nearly finished Superlek here. Superlek does not take damage to the body very well. But Takeru let the opportunity slip away. Takeru made a huge mistake giving the first round away and letting Superlek find his range. I understand that you don't want to make a mistake early in the fight and walk into an unexpected shot, but he needed to put the pressure on immediately. Cardio has been somewhat of a weakness for Superlek in these long fights, especially after eating a lot of body shots like Daniel Puertas Gallardo landed on him. Superlek is not nearly as effective when being forced backwards continuously, and Takeru is a very good pressure fighter. That was a major strategic mistake on his part in my opinion. If anything, Superlek was managing to push Takeru back for good portions of the fight. The fourth round had some good back and forth, but Superlek was clearly winning. The leg kicks and knees to the body really began taking their toll. Superlek was even pot shotting with leaning right hands very well by this point. Really digging in some front kicks to the body, too. Takeru's nose was getting bloodied up. Takeru did land some good switch kicks and body punches, as well as a few right hands, but it was far too few to match Superlek's onslaught. The fifth round was more of the same. Superlek landed some many knees to the body that I'm very surprised that Takeru didn't drop from them. Takeru was visibly limping from the leg kicks, and the damage to his body. As tough as Takeru is, I feel like Superlek would have finished him if it had gone another round. Superlek was masterful in this fight. This might be the greatest performance of his career over a legitimately great world class opponent. I was very impressed. Takeru had his moments, but it was a little less competitive than I thought it would be. I was disappointed in Takeru's approach. He could have made this an extremely close fight if he had gone at him from the very beginning and maybe even potentially won. Still, I really enjoyed myself watching this fight. If anybody is interested, I'll post a link down below. The video will probably get pulled at some point, so enjoy it while you can. This content is protected
I really enjoyed the Superlek Takeru fight. I'm trying to pay more attention to muay thai and kickboxing and watch more one fc shows, but I find the promotion to be so all over the place it's hard to get into. For example, I can appreciate grappling and I used to train bjj, but I am not interested in watching a grappling match on the undercard of a big kickboxing fight. I'm not really interested in watching the old guy mma fights they had either. I wish one would just promote muay thai or kickboxing. You might tell me to watch Glory, and I'll probably try to, but what I'm really after is a big time muay thai promotion. I try and watch a bit RWS every now and then also. Muay thai/kickboxing is so fragmented it's tough to gage where the best fighters are and the level of comp. Watching last night's fight made me think that if Tenshin had fought more Thai's he wouldn't have that undefeated record in kickboxing. Last thought. Superlek is owning dudes in kickboxing rules but he's even more exciting under muay thai rules. So why hold him back by not letting him clinch and elbow? What's the point of kickboxing when he could be fighting muay thai rules? Is it to give non thais an advantage? In conclusion, please give me funding so I can start a muay thai promotion and sign all these guys away from Chatri, who is a bum, and away from one fc, who holds these guys back from being bigger as the general public does not want to sit through lower level mma and grappling.
Takeru's leg after the fight. I knew it was pretty bad, but that is just horrific. This content is protected
You make some good points. Kickboxing and Muay Thai have always kind of been the redheaded step children of the combat sports community and that’s really unfortunate. They definitely aren’t promoted very well. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that most kickboxing promotions base their operations in Western Europe and Asia (specifically Japan). It doesn’t reach an American audience as readily. Also, there hasn’t really been any high level American stars in kickboxing and muay thai which has inhibited the growth of the sport in the North American continent. Kickboxing and muay thai are very fractured in that way. In many ways, you have to actively search them out through youtube and Wikipedia to follow the sport. ONE FC and Glory do have cool youtube channels where they post a tremendous amount of content, though. And you can pretty much find any fight you’re looking for on youtube if you just type in the names. It’s easier to watch fights after they happen rather than keep up with it in real time in that sense. And you’re right, muay thai and kickboxing are very fragmented. Generally, I think the Lumpinee Stadium stadium is considered the most prestigious title in the sport followed up the Rajadamnern Stadium title. Then the Channel 7 Belt and the WBC Muay Thai belt fall behind those. But just like boxing, the belts mean less than the quality of the fighters who you actually beat. And ONE has definitely changed things, attracting a lot of high-end talent. I love a lot of what ONE Championship is doing. They have definitely boosted the level of popularity of the sport. A lot of mma fans are now regularly watching kickboxing and muay thai when they were not doing so previously. It’s very cool that you can get MMA, kickboxing and muay thai in all the same place and that might help reduce some of the fragmentation you were talking about. I do agree with your point about the mixed fight cards, though. I don’t mind muay thai and kickboxing on the same cards since they are sister sports. But I agree that they should separate the MMA cards from the striking sport cards. They just don’t really seem to mesh well, and they do appeal to somewhat different fan bases. It’s funny. You hear a lot of casual fans that love the striking element of mma involving kicks, elbows and knees but they don’t care for the grappling element. Or are at least less enthusiastic about it. Yet, kickboxing and muay thai are the perfect alternative for those types of people. They have all the striking elements they love with none of the ground fighting. Yet despite this, these sports have never taken off in the same way that mixed-martial arts has. It’s kind of peculiar.
I somewhat disagree with you about Tenshin Nasukawa, though. I’ve always thought he was a special talent, and I think he’s proven himself as a great fighter. He has a legitimate victory over a prime Rodtang Jitmuangnon. I know a lot of people think that victory was controversial and felt like Rodtang won that, but I disagree. It was a very close fight, but I thought Tenshin beat him. Tenshin also has two victories over Suakim, a three time Lumpinee Stadium champion and a Channel 7 Boxing Stadium Champion. Tenshin even finished him in their second fight with a cut stoppage from a rolling thunder kick which split his forehead down the middle. Suakim has a record of 103 wins and 24 losses, equaling out to a 81% winning percentage. He’s a legit fighter. Tenshin beat Taiki Naito, the former Shoot Boxing Super Bantamweight champion and 2017 Rise tournament champion. He has a 79% winning percentage. Decent scalp. Tenshin beat Kumandoi Petcharoevnit. He was a former World Boxing Council champion, a two weight Rajadamnern Stadium champion and the Omnoi Stadium champion. And of course, Tenshin knocked out Wanchalong Seanchai with a spinning wheel kick. His record isn’t anywhere near complete on Wikipedia, but he is thought of as a great fighter. And, of course, Tenshin was the first man to defeat Takeru Segawa. Despite seeing his flaws in this recent fight, I still believe he is a great fighter who will go on to do great things. That victory has to count for something, especially since Tenshin managed to drop him. Tenshin also knocked out Amnat Ruenroeng, a former IBF flyweight champion in boxing. Granted, he didn’t accomplish anything in muay thai, but it’s still a nice name. He also holds victories over Shiro Matsumoto, Federico Roma, and Ignacio Capllonch. They’re all good fighters. I do agree that Tenshin’s record does have a high degree of padding. But all kickboxers have some padding since they fight so often. But you can’t deny that he also has some legitimate quality scalps on his mantle. Sure, he probably wouldn’t be undefeated if he was fighting the best of the best as frequently as guys like Buakaw, Masato, Petrosyan and Souwer used to back in the old days. But I think he would still be great no matter who or where he was fighting. I wish that Tenshin hadn’t decided to transition to boxing. He was a special talent in kickboxing and could have done a lot to elevate the sport. I really loved watching him fight. But I also understand the financial incentive for doing so, if he manages to become a boxing champion. He’s 3-0 so far, so we’ll see how he does.
There's no doubt that Tenshin is a talented fighter and I thought he beat Rodtang without needing the extra round. I was expressing frustration that Kickboxing is fragmented and that cross promotional fights don't happen often enough more than I was criticizing Tenshin. In regards to Tenshin transitioning to boxing, what else could he accomplish in kickboxing, or what would you have liked to see him do intead? Sign with ONE like Takeru? Also, I know that cross promotional fights have happened in the case of Tenshin and Takeru, but for such a big fight I found it annoying that the fight only went 3 rounds.
Jonathan Di Bella and Danial Williams was a very good scrap for the ONE Strawweight Kickboxing Championship. I probably had this fight closer than some of you would. I scored it 3-2 for Di Bella. I gave Di Bella rounds 1, 3 and 4. I scored rounds 2 and 5 for Williams. Jonathan Di Bella is undefeated at 12-0 in kickboxing, but he’s quickly becoming known for some exciting fights. He was very effective with his lead right hook in this fight. He would feint with a lead right jab and then immediately follow up with a clubbing right hook behind it. He landed a really nice combo at 2:10. He used the double jab feint to set up a left hook to the body, then doubled up with two right hooks to the head as Williams tried to circle away. He continuously used a jab feint or a double jab feint to get in close to rip body shots and then come upstairs with a right hook. When Danial Williams went into a southpaw stance to land either his left leg kick or right leg kick to the inside and outside of Jonathan’s lead leg, Di Bella would tank it so that he could land his own lead right hook. This strategy was a double edged sword since he took a lot of damage to his leg, but he also caused a lot of damage with that punch. Di Bella occasionally countered these leg kicks with a left cross as well, and at one point dropped him on his butt. The referee didn’t score this as a knockdown since Williams was on one leg throwing a kick, and he didn’t think it was significant enough of a shot, but it still landed clean. He occasionally used a throw away lead right hook to set up a piercing left cross down the middle that popped Williams in the face. Di Bella occasionally popped the jab in William’s face, but I felt he should have done more of this. Later in the fight, he started to use his jab to set up more straight lefts. Di Bella also threw a few jabs to get Williams to counter with his southpaw left cross, so that he could counter over the top of it with his right hook. Di Bella’s clever use of the right hook was really the story of this fight. Di Bella also did a pretty good job landing leg kicks. He would pin his opponent’s lead left with his right and then kick the inside of the leg, causing his opponent to lose his balance. When his opponent was in a southpaw stance, Di Bella attacked William’s back leg with leg kicks. He also attacked William’s lead southpaw right leg with some hard left roundhouse kicks. He would land a right hook and then finish the combination with a left leg kick. Di Bella occasionally threw some left roundhouse kicks to the body as well. At 12:12, he kicked Di Bella’s leg out with an inside kick, causing him to take a knee. Di Bella landed a few superman punches with his left as well which landed nicely. One of them was at 11:19 of the video. At 1:19 in the first round, Di Bella feinted with a right jab, then feinted with a right hook which he used to pin his opponent’s lead left hand in place, getting his opponent to lift his right leg expecting a left low kick. Instead, Di Bella threw a left head kick which landed right across the law and hurt Williams quite a bit. Williams did well and was able to recover, however. In contrast, Williams offense was much more limited and stagnant. However, he did do a few things really well. He used a lot of front kicks in this fight, and Di Bella did nothing to discourage or punish him for it. They weren’t the hardest shots in the world, but he landed a lot of them, and they were landing cleanly throughout the fight. He even landed a few jumping front kicks which definitely had to hurt a little bit. Williams also landed some rear left roundhouse kicks to his opponent’s body. Williams didn’t land many punches in the fight, but he was able to have some success with his lead rights. Di Bella showed some decent head movement to avoid a few of them at times, but Williams still was able to get some shots through. At one point Di Bella threw a knee to the body, but Williams countered with an overhand right that seemed to hurt the champion a little bit. He landed a couple little short overhand rights and some thudding lead left jabs during combinations. But just not enough of them. Williams also started to bend the rules a bit, entering clinches and landing some knees to the body. It was a good choice to get some offense going, but he simply landed too few of them. He did land a nice flying knee to the body in the fifth round, though. However, Williams’ most effective weapon was his left leg kick from the southpaw stance. This is the weapon that kept him in the fight and allowed him to win some rounds. He absolutely battered Di Bella’s lead right leg, badly bruising and reddening it. Sometimes, he would counter with this left kick after Di Bella’s threw a series of punches. Williams occasionally doubled up with his leg kicks as well. This content is protected
Donovan Wisse vs Michael Boapeah for the Middleweight Glory Kickboxing title was an excellent offensive fight. Donovan Wisse is a super technical, boxing centric kickboxer that is worth watching if you haven’t seen him fight before. He’s definitely one of my favorites among the new crop of kickboxers. Boapeah landed some hard knees to the body which was a few weapon for him in the first three rounds. At times he would bend the rules, grabbing a muay thai clinch to land multiple knees to the body in a row. He would push Wisse back and landed thudding body hooks to both side to rough him up, often ending those combos with knees to the body. He used the classic Mike Tyson right body hook to right uppercut to hurt him a bit. Boapeah also landed some thudding hooks to the head. One right hook hurt Wisse pretty badly, but he was also to recover. Wisse used an excellent sharp left jab that he landed almost at will whenever they were at range. He threw a lot of hard and accurate left jab, right cross combinations that pierced Boapeah’s guard throughout the fight. There were sequences where he landed three or four one-two combinations in a row to Michael’s face. Those straight shots bloodied up Boapeah’s nose in the first round, and it got progressively worse for the rest of the fight. Wisse smartly started feinting left jabs to drop some right straights and right hooks to the body, breaking his opponent down. He also used right uppercuts to set up the left hook the body. Later in the fight, he dropped some left jabs to the body as well. He didn’t land a ton of body shots, but the ones he landed were very well timed and accurate. Wisse also landed some crisp left hooks to the head as well. And Wisse also threw some lead left uppercuts that caught his opponent by surprise. Although he took his fair share of damage, Wisse did a good job of countering Boapeah’s pressure with his counter striking. He let him fall into some counter right knees to the body. He countered Boapeah’s misses with one-twos. Wisse landed a really nice right knee to right cross combo that landed multiple times. He also countered Boapeah’s jab with a pull counter right hand. Wisse also landed a few flush front kicks that connected to Boapeah’s face. Wisse also mixed in some occasional sneaky right knees to the body. Both fighters landed leg kicks throughout the fight. They occasionally countered each other’s attacks with leg kicks and ending their combinations with them. Boapeah got the better of the leg kicking game, but Wisse definitely landed some good damage to the legs as well in the fight. However, by the fourth and fifth round, Boapeah had taken so much damage and was so tired that he had little left. Boapeah’s output and pressure slowed down dramatically. This allowed him to pot shot more at range and set up some punches. He also was able to counter more effectively, too. Finally, in the fifth round, Wisse landed a hard one-two that seriously hurt Boapeah. Wisse then started racking him with combinations, finally dropping him with another one-two that was followed by two right hooks. The ropes saved Boapeah from falling down, so the ref called it a knockdown. Boapeah showed tremendous courage making it to the final bell. I scored the first two rounds for Boapeah. Then the third, fourth and fifth for Wisse, with the fifth being a 10-8 round for the knockdown. This content is protected
Peter Aerts vs Gokhan Saki in 2009 was a fun three round affair. Wish it would have gone five rounds. Peter got a well-deserved decision victory. Peter used a good jab in this fight. Sometimes throwing it by itself. Something throwing a lead left hook and chaining a jab behind it as his opponent retreated. He would also use a left jab to set up his left hook to finish off with a right kick to the head or body. Peter Aerts would throw a left jab, right cross combination to set up left switch kicks to his opponent’s back leg. He continuously used a left jab to set up hard left switch kicks or right roundhouse kicks to the body. He would pull back while throwing switch kicks, safely countering Saki’s overhand right while battering his body. Aerts continuously tried to use his trade mark combination, using a left hook to set up his right roundhouse kicks to the head and body. Saki managed to block a lot of them but some of them got through. At 7:45, Peter Aerts feinted with a left jab and put all his body weight behind his right cross which blasted Saki on the cheek while he was throwing a wide left hook counter. The counter left landed but Aerts’ power dropped Saki, badly. Aerts clearly initially tried to throw a left switch kick behind it but pulled his leg when he saw his opponent drop. Saki barely managed to get to his feet in time to beat the count. Peter didn’t throw too many right hands, but the ones he did were mostly effective. Aerts again hurt Saki with a one-two combination at 9:21. Saki continuously would double up with his left hook, either going body-head or head-body, while sometimes adding a right leg kick to the combination. The speed and power of Saki’s left hook combinations were always impressive, and he showed excellent technique with these sequences. Saki would use land left hooks to the head and body to land right leg kicks. He also used a right left kick to set up his left hook. Saki did an excellent job of changing up the sequences of his attacks in this fight. Saki had some success countering Aerts attacks with his left hook. But he never timed one well enough to dent the old warrior. He also blasted Aerts with a really hard right hook from the southpaw stance. Beautiful shot. Saki landed a couple really hard spinning back kicks. One in particular seemed to hurt Peter pretty badly, but he was tough enough to shrug it off and keep pressuring Gokhan. At 9:16, Gokahn also landed a flush left switch kick to the head but Aerts surprisingly took it well. This content is protected
I think that's it. I didn't notice that someone posted this fight earlier in the thread; if so - I apologize. Badr Hari only showed boxing in attack and kickboxing only in defense... This content is protected
Funny, I was just watching this fight now. Saki was an excellent technician. One of the few really good technical HWs of the modern generation on par with some of the fighters of the golden period of the late nineties, early 2000s. And Aerts still beat him at age 39. Crazy.
You're right. The current era of heavyweight kickboxing sucks. It's basically just Rico by himself and even then he sometimes ends up in life and death brawls with his opponents. He's a not a bad fighter, but if he was fighting in the 1990s and 2000s era, he would be just another top level guy. He might beat fighters like Greco or Bernardo, but he would lose against top guys more than he would win in my opinion. Saki was an awesome athlete. He's probably the closest thing we're going to get to a Mike Tyson in heavyweight kickboxing. There are some other kickboxers who has incredible left hooks. Nieky Holzken, Artur Kyshenko, and Alex Pereira all come to mind. But I don't think I've ever seen a kickboxer who can chain left hooks and left uppercuts together the way Saki could. He would string together these combinations which were just breathtaking. I feel like he probably should have accomplished more but wins over Ghita, Sponge, and Sefo isn't too shabby for an undersized heavyweight. I don't think anybody could deny the guy's natural talent, though. And yes, Aerts is a legend for pulling that off pushing 40. He was pretty damn sharp in that fight, too. Used a good jab. Set up his body kicks. And that right hand knockdown was ridiculous. When he got full torque and extension on his right hand, he would absolutely crush guys. Almost Wladimir Klitschko-esque there.
That was a great performance by Hari. As ugly as his style was, Semmy Schilt is one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers ever. Hari didn't give Schilt a chance to get his long jabs and teeps going. He just blitzed him and came out bombing right away. Badr Hari really was a phenomenal power puncher. He was a good kicker as well, but his forte was always power punching. The shift he used mid combination to score the knockdown at 14:01 was beautiful stuff. Throws the looping overland left from a southpaw stance and then shifts into an open stance to land a chopping right cross on the chin to slay the big giant.
I feel sorry for Harry, because he beat k-1 champions, but he was never a champion. Schilt Aerts Overeem Boyanski (he beat him, but he didn't have to jump on his head) Maybe he beat another champion without me knowing it, and you know it?
Superbon vs Marat Grigorian III for the ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Championship was a decent scrap. In some ways, it was very similar to their second fight, but just far more lopsided for Superbon. In typical fashion, Grigorian pressured Superbon backwards for most of the fight with Superbon content to counter. They both did a good job of working the legs, but Superbon slightly got the better of it. They both consistently landed their jabs throughout the contest. They both landed a few headkicks as well, but Superbon landed more of them. Superbon disrupted Grigorian’s pressure with his teep and front kicks. He also countered that pressure with intercepting knees to the body which was his primary weapon of the fight. But he also did an excellent job landing some left switch kicks to the body as well as bruising up his arm a bit. Grigorian was quite inaccurate in this fight. He landed some good uppercuts as close range, and some left hooks. But he really struggled to get his body attack working until the 4th and more so the 5th round. He did land some clubbing right hands, but they just didn't seem to have that much behind them. Superbon was excellent for the first three rounds, but he slowed down significantly in the 4th. Grigorian tried to up the pressure was somewhat successful, but seemed tired throughout the entire fight. He’s had beaten some excellent fighters in the past five years, but this could be a sign that he’s starting to exit his prime. He did not look good here. Time will tell. I still think Superbon, despite his fatigue, won the fourth round. He really impressed me in terms of the grit he showed. He actually took the initiative and started pressuring Grigorian back sometimes and just frankly outfought him in my opinion. It was a close round, though. But Grigorian definitely took the fifth very comfortably, doing some solid work, but not enough to really hurt his opponent. I scored it 4-1 in favor of Superbon. This content is protected
