Some Kickboxing fights to watch for Boxing/MMA fans

Great back and forth brawl. Astounded how much punishment Chahid could absorb here. He was getting absolutely mullered at times.

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If you're just looking for pure action and violence, this fight is still the gold standard in kickboxing. Chahid was a fool trying to go to war with Zambidis.

 

This was a very exciting three round muay thai fight between Chatpichit and Nueaphet at ONE Friday Fights 86. At the beginning of the second round (at 3:54 of the video), they both throw switch kicks at the same time, but Chatpichit went to the legs and Nueaphet went to the chin. It was a brutal knockdown that sent Chatpichit down to his back hard. Nueaphet beat him up badly after that and nearly had him finished. Chatpichit made a big mistake of continuously going back in a straight line which got him in a lot of trouble. But then at 5:03, Chatpichit landed a switch kick of his own to Nueaphet's neck, and that blow changed the whole momentum of the fight.

He hurt Nueaphet badly and kept on the pressure, landing hard jabs from distance as well as knees and elbows in the clinch. He had some good switch kicks to the body and some right hand counters as well. Then in the third round, he finally broke him. The ending combo was nice, too. Five body shots, alternating sides, before going up top. Got his opponent to try to counter with a right cross and got counter himself with an arching right and left hook.

Definitely worth watching if you have 11 minutes to spare.

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What a brutal fight. Crazy comeback in the second round.

 

This was a fight between Artem Levin and Artem Vakhitov, two of the greatest Russian kickboxers in history. They are also two of my personal favorites. Unfortunately, one of the rounds is missing from the video which sucks. The skill level in this fight was at a phenomenally high level. I would have loved to see a five round rematch of this fight.

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Mohammed Jaraya vs Tayfun Ozcan was an awesome four round fight. The fight started out with an intense kicking duel. Each fighter would land their own leg and body kicks, only for the other to counter them back. Both fighters made good up of the front kick in this fight, not just to create distance but also to do some damage to the midsection.

Ozcan threw some wicked double left hooks throughout the fight, going head to body. Sometimes landing kicks on the end of those combinations as well. Jaraya on the other hand was going with the 1-2 combination to land some solid right straights. Ozcan was very effective chaining left lead uppercuts to the end of his combinations. That's a signature part of his skillset as we saw in his fight with Marat Grigorian. They both landed some cracking roundhouse kicks to the body, especially Ozcan. They both favored the lead leg switch kick a lot in this fight.

At 13:02, Ozcan slipped Jaraya's jab, throwing his own jab to the body and then threw a left switch kick to the jaw over the top. It only caught him on the end of the foot, so it didn't do a tremendous amount of damage, but it was a really slick move, I thought. 15:21 was a sick sequence. Ozcan measured out with a stiff arm jab and then landed a scissor jumping knee right up the middle. But as Jaraya took a step back after absorbing the blow, he threw his own switch kick off the side of Ozcan’s head. Nice fighting there. Jaraya landed some key head kicks later in the fight that helped change the momentum of the fight.

Jaraya landed infrequently landed some good knees to the body in the beginning, but was struggling to effectively find his range. But then in the third and the fourth, he started firing some really effective knees up the middle. Jumping scissor knees and knees right to the dome from the thai clinch.

Ozcan was definitely the more talented fighter, with the greater speed and smoother combinations. But Jaraya's toughness and conditioning won him this fight.

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Gabriel Varga vs Mosad Amrani was a pretty good scrap between two lower end world class fighters. This fight was for the Glory featherweight championship. The fight was got pretty sloppy at times, but it was certainly violent enough for fight fans to enjoy.

The weapon of choice for both guys in this fight was the left hook to the body. Varga and Amrani both used a pretty effective overhand right, left hook body shot combination from close range.

Varga would also throw a right body hook the midsection to set up a left hook up top. As the fight when on, Varga began using naked straight rights more often and had some solid success with them. Amrani was badly overextending his strikes later in the fight and Varga caught him with some hard straight right counters, one time appearing to really hurt him. He also was able to occasionally finish his combination with uppercuts, punctuating his flurries. Varga was also much more effective in utilizing knees to the body, but he didn’t use them enough in my opinion.

It seems to let the fight be tougher than it needed to be by insisting on always pressuring and infighting his opponent rather than properly using his reach. I could understand that early on that might not have been an option with Amrani’s fierce pace, but after he started to slow down, Varga really could have done better with distance management and shot selection at times.

Amrani some thudding left hooks to the body in the first two rounds. He did a good job countering their exchanges with a final left hook as well that caught Varga flush more than a few times. Neither guy was very effective with leg kicks, but Amrani had the edge in that department, and was a bit better using front kicks to the body as well.

There’s no question Amrani was the bigger puncher of the two. However, Varga was the one who opened a gash on his opponent’s eye ridge and got blood flowing from his nose. Amrani became really tired in the later portion of the fight opening the door for Varga to out work him to a decision.

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Robin Van Roosmalen vs Shemsi Beqiri was three round dog fight. Robin was a guy who always brought it when he fought, and I plan to cover some more of his fights in the future.

In the first round, Beqiri came out blasting with very hard body kicks trying to hurt Van Roosmalen right away. He favored the right roundhouse to the body, but he used the left switch kick to the body effectively as well. Van Roosmalen landed some body kicks as well throughout the fight, but Beqiri definitely landed more. In the moments where Beqiri wasn’t throwing shots, Van Roosmalen would increase his output, landing looping hooks around the guard while intermittingly mixing in leg kicks.

Beqiri was able to land some jabs down the center, but he couldn’t land them with enough power or frequency to slow down Van Roosmalen’s pressure. So, he despite trying to keep his ground, he was constantly pushed backwards throughout the fight. Beqiri was able to use his jab to set up lead uppercuts, however. Both guys used the lead left hooks to the body or head to set up their rear roundhouse kicks to the legs.

After Beqiri would land hard kicks to the body, Van Roosmalen would counter back either with thunderous leg kicks or crushing left hooks to the body. The left hook to the body was Robin Van Roosmalen’s most important weapon in this fight. Robin hurt Beqiri multiple times with it, but to his opponent’s credit, he did a good job fighting through the pain. 4:57-5:06 in the video shows an excellent sequence where Robin blasted him twice with it in short order and really did some damage.

Beqiri landed a few good knees to the body, but Robin did a good job blocking most of them with his elbows. However, at 6:04, Beqiri landed a left switch kick to the body which Robin caught, and then responded to chest. Robin also landed a few subtle but important knees in clinch situations.

Robin did an excellent job chaining right upper cuts to left hooks, and left hooks to right uppercuts. In typical Dutch fashion, he did a good job finishing some combinations with hard leg kicks when Beqiri was particular vulnerable in a flat footed stance. Beqiri landed some solid right straights but Robin took them pretty well throughout the fight. He just couldn’t land anything hard enough to slow down Robin’s pressure.

I scored the first round 10-10, but gave Robin the next two rounds 10-9. If the fight had gone on another round, I think Robin would have had a good chance at a finish. Beqiri was breathing hard from those body shots. Beqiri seemed to slightly outland him, but aside from body kicks, Robin was the more powerful striker.

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Robin van Roosmalen vs Andy Ristie was an excellent fight for the Glory Lighweight Championship, although a quite lopsided one. Still, I guarantee this one will entertain you if you haven’t seen it before.

Ristie did a good job posting with his lead hand, both from an orthodox and southpaw stance, to set up his offense in the fight. He would use it to set up low kicks, punching combinations to the body, and even southpaw knees to the stomach. Ristie would follow up his left hook to the body with a lead left uppercut, sneaking blows in-between Van Roosmalen’s high guard defense.

Ristie made good use of some stabbing front kicks in the fight, but couldn’t utilize them often enough to keep Robin at distance for any prolonged period of time. If he had been able to consistently keep him at kicking range like Buakaw did against Nieky Holzken, he would have taken significantly less damage. Ristie occasionally landed some jabs down in the middle, but they did nothing to discourage Van Roosmalen’s forward pressure.

Robin was very effective with overhand rights and right hooks, then chaining them with left hooks to both the head and the body. Although focusing mostly on his boxing, He would also sometimes use a left hook to the body, right combination that was very useful. Robin would mix in some powerful body kicks to Ristie’s midsection, especially when his opponent went southpaw. Robin occasionally would drop some jabs or right straights to the body which added another dimension to his offense.

Robin was very effective at counter punching in this fight. When Ristie would measure his lead hand or use pitter pat punches to set up shots, Robin started to land first with big counters which prevented Ristie from controlling the tempo of the fight. He did an excellent job of countering Ristie’s punches, especially his straight right, with powerful left hooks. He would also counter combinations down low with leg kicks.

As usual, Robin battered his opponent with left hooks to the body. When they both would throw left hooks at the same time, which happened several times, Van Roosmalen was always the one winning the exchange, each time hurting Ristie immensely. At 22:29, this combination resulted in a left hook duel which Robin won, quickly leading a knockdown of the badly hurt Ristie.

Robin walked away with a dominant decision at the end of five round. Andy Ristie took an incredible amount of damage in this first. It’s a miracle that he made it to the final bell, and it’s a credit to his toughness that he did. This might have been the most impressive victory of Robin Van Roosmalen’s career. Ristie might not have been at top form in this contest, but he is still a high-level fighter and provided a stiff challenge. He finished Van Roosmalen in a previous fight and was the first man to knock out the great Giorgio Petrosyan. You got to give Robin his credit for this win.

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Just wanted make a post about Tawanchai vs Superbon Singha Mawynn ii a few days ago. It didn’t last long, but the first knockdown by Tawanchai was absolutely beautiful.

It takes place at 4:50 of the video. Tawanchai threw a left kick from his southpaw stance, and Superbon countered with a right kick to the body as Tawanchai was stepping back. But Tawanchai caught the kick, hooking it with his right arm. He then pulled Superbon in while throwing a right hook, left combination that landed perfectly. Superbon did land with his own right but it did nothing, while Tawanchai’s combo instantly shook his opponent, sending him reeling. Tawanchai hunted him down, missing with a left, but coming over the top with another right hook and once again landing the left cross behind it as his opponent was already falling.

Superbon managed to get up before suffering two more knockdowns before the referee calls it off. It was just a matter of time after the first knockdown.

Picture perfect muay thai counter fighting right there. Tawanchai’s right hook, left cross combination is a deadly combination. A lot of people thought Superbon got robbed against Tawachai in their first fight, so this was an important win for Tawanchai to redeem himself with. Very impressive.

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Marat Grigorian vs Elvis Gashi was an excellent fight for the Glory Lightweight Title. If you enjoy watching a pressure fighter take his time, and systematically break down an opponent for a late round finish, you should enjoy this one.

Gashi was very effective using a single or double right jab to land his southpaw left straight. Occasionally, he switched up the tempo with a right jab, left straight, and left jab combination. Every time he threw it, he seemed to land every shot, snapping Marat’s head back in violent fashion. He consistently kept a jab in Grigorian’s face for the first three rounds, landing almost at will. He didn’t forget the body, either, throwing some hard hooks to the ribs. Gashi also used a solid left body kick to Marat’s right side, hitting beneath the elbow. Sometimes, he would step in with a left knee to the body, too. He would throw naked left straights which landed cleanly as well.

For the first two rounds, Gashi was pretty mobile and smooth. He would land combinations or pot shot, then circle away from his opponent, taking little punishment besides Grigorian’s counter leg kicks.

Although, Grigorian got hit a lot in this fight, he was incredibly disciplined in countering back Gashi’s combinations with ruthless leg kicks. He landed his kicks to both of Gashi’s legs but especially targeted his back left leg with devastating counters. With Elvis committing to his punches, all of his weight was planted when Grigorian teed off on his opponent’s legs. Grigorian used his typical high guard, but Gashi was able to effectively split it with his punches in the first half of the fight. Still, he blocked enough shots or at least took off some of their steam to avoid eating too many shots.

Grigorian landed some chopping right hooks to Gashi’s temple and straight crosses, countering off Gashi’s punches at times and other times just firing them from distance. He also was able to sometimes land a left jab or left hook and follow up with a right leg kick behind it.

At 6:43, Grigorian landed a sick combination. He used a left hook to pull down Gashi’s guard, then landing a switch kick to the leg. From there, Marat threw a right roundhouse kick to his opponent’s cheek, landing in a south paw position and followed up with a stiff right jab. Very high level.

However, Grigorian’s slow start belied a masterful fight plan. Despite getting outlanded, Grigorian was constantly pressuring Elvis backwards and hammering away at his legs. By the fourth round, Gashi’s fatigue and battered legs completely immobilized him. He had no choice but to exchange with his opponent which was right where Grigorian wanted him. Finally, Grigorian was able to land at will. His left hook, lead left uppercut and right straight were all finding the mark now. Still, he used a very varied attack, not favoring any type of strikes at this point which kept his opponent totally off-balance.

He started landing targeting the body with his left hook and right straights which took a lot of the fight out of Elvis. He threw some very timely right knees to the body and head breaking his opponent down further. Gashi kept fighting but his punches had lost all their steam.

To his credit, Gashi came out in the fifth standing his ground against Grigorian and unloading everything he had left. But Grigorian finally had enough to started battering him with punches and pushing him back against the ropes. At 22:57, Grigorian landed a left jab, followed by a hard left hook. He proceeded to throw two more left hooks, forcing Gashi to move to his left. Then, Grigorian landed a devastating left jab, right hook, left hook combination which crumpled Gashi and brought an end to the fight.

I think Grigorian’s overall performance was somewhat mediocre by his elite standards. However, his overall fight strategy was excellent. He conserved his energy, pressured his opponent, took away his mobility, and then struck hard in the last two rounds when the moment was right. He used his superior conditioning, chin, and punching power to his advantage and finished his challenger in crushing fashion.

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Hoost-Sapp

 

Robin van Roosmalen vs. Davit Kiria III was ferocious back and forth fight between two blood and guts warriors. The fight was a five round battle for the Glory Lightweight Championship. The fans in Oklahoma City definitely got their money’s worth for this one.

Neither fighter wanted to concede the center of the ring, both trying to push the other back with their pressure which led to an action packed fight. More than a few times, they would both move forward, pushing their high guard against the other’s to try to force them into a backwards step. However, despite Kiria often holding his ground, Robin was more often the one controlling the center of the ring. Both fighters were very effective throwing hard switch kicks to the body. However, Kiria seemed a bit busier with body kicks. They both consistently attacked their opponents with leg kicks throughout the fight, leaving both of them covered in painful red welts.

Van Roosmalen frequently used his standard overhand right, left hook combination, switching between finishing to the body or head. He also was very effective chaining hooks to uppercuts and uppercuts to hook, attacking Kiria from both sides with punishing combinations. He used an effective left hook, right uppercut combination. Other times, he would lead with a right uppercut and then follow up with a left hook. When he could, he added additional strikes to these combos, overwhelming Kiria with his combination output.

When able, Robin would finishing his punching combinations with a hard leg kick as his opponent was planted in his stance. A few times his punching combinations missed entirely due to his Kiria’s defense, but the last leg kick would catch him solidly.

Van Roosmalen made good use of the dutch-style left hook, right leg kick combination. Even when the left hooks were blocked, they put all of Kiria’s weight on his lead left leg, which then got smashed by Robin’s right leg kick. He also used a left hook to the body, right leg kick combo as well.

Kiria was much more effective with the jab than his opponent was in this fight. Robin landed some of his jabs but a lot of them landed against Kiria’s high guard, while Kiria was able to consistently slip his between Robin’s guard. Of couse, Robin is a fighter who doesn’t rely on his jab. Kiria’s jabs generally had only moderate power, and so weren’t especially effective. He did land a lot of them, though. And they were useful for setting up follow up strikes. He periodically used his jab to effectively set up a straight right cross down the middle. He also used a stiff arm jab to set up his switch kicks to the body. Kiria was often resorting to single shots or two punch combinations while Robin was regularly stringing three, four, or five shots together.

Kiria was quite effective with front kicks to the face, catching Van Roosmalen on five or six separate occasions. He also used to it the body in the later rounds as well, but he was unable to keep Robin at distance with it. That’s something that could have helped him a lot in this fight.

At 14:35, Kiria landed a right hook to the side of the head. The two fighters fired their left hooks at the same exact time, both landing flush. However, Kiria got the better of it, dropping Robin van Roosmalen and seriously hurting the durable Dutchman. Still, after taking another flush front kick to the face, Robin van Roosmalen came back swinging. Kiria tried to finish his opponent, but Robin’s ferocious response tempered his aggression, giving enough time for the wounded warrior to recover.

In the fourth and fifth round, Robin van Roosmalen reduced his aggression out of respect to Kiria’s punching power. He began focusing a lot more on inside leg kicks, single shots, or mere two shot combinations instead of stringing together four and five.

I scored the first two rounds for Robin van Roosmalen. The third was a 10-8 for Davit Kiria for the knockdown. The fourth round was very close, but I gave it to van Roosmalen. I also thought van Roosmalen edged out the fifth round as well. A draw would have been an acceptable score as well, though. Awesome fight and a great one to watch if you're new to kickboxing.

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Chadd Collins vs Petpanomrung Kiatmuu9 was an awesome war for the RISE Super Lightweight Championship. It was also a big upset that possibly marked the initial decline of a great kickboxer and gave another his crowning career achievement.

Collins’ repeatedly grabbed hold of a collar tie and blasting away with right uppercuts until the referee separated them. He would use some sweeping right hooks and right straight to the head which were landing hitting their mark. His punching combinations weren’t necessarily smooth but they relentless along with his pressure.

Collins used a powerful right hook to the body throughout the fight which Petch had no answer for. He sometimes used a left hook to set up this right body hook, so that even when Petch’s elbow blocks stopped the left hook, the right to the body would reach its target flush. He also would hand trap Petch’s lead right with his left and then land that right body hook.

He was very effective with knees in this fight, sometimes firing from the clinch and sometimes stepping into them from range. Those step in right knees really were hurting Petch. The damage that Petchpanomrung was doing with his left body kick was being more than counteracted by Collins’ right hooks and knees to the body in return. When Petch would land a good kick, Collins would often immediately try to counter with a right straight, right body hook, or a leg kick and he had some good success landing shots.

Collins was also nailing Petch with front kicks to the face as the thai would back up in a straight line. Collins’ didn’t throw many body kicks but he landed some of them, both with the right roundhouse and the left switchkick.

Collins’ was also very effective with his spinning backfists in this fight. Petch had no answer for them. He was extremely creative with when and how he would use them, landing clean almost every time. He must have landed at least seven of them. One time Petch ducked a sweeping right hand, so he let his momentum carry himself into a spinning backhand and caught his opponent clean.

At 19:30, Petch hand trapped Collin’s lead left hand with his lead right, pulling it down, and stepping to create an angle to land his left body kick. But Collin’s was ready and immediately spun into counterclock wise into a right spinning backfist, dropping his opponent. Petch was in motion to fire a kick when this happen, so the referee chose not to call it a knockdown, but I think that it was powerful enough that it should have been called one.

Like almost all his fights, Petch’s main offensive weapon was his left body kick. And it definitely was effective. He landed a lot of cracking, clean shots to Collin right side. Petch did land some heavy leg kicks with his left leg as well, but just not hard enough or often enough to hamper Collins’ movement or will. Collins was able to check a few of those left kicks to marginally mitigate the damage he was receiving.

Petch was able to periodically land some left straight to the body, but these shots were sometimes jammed and certainly didn’t have to power to slow down Collin’s assault. He landed some lefts straight down the middle to the head, but Collin’s took them well. Petch did have some success with right lead uppercuts, but it paled compared to the work Collins was doing with his hands.

Petch was able to counter Collins’ pressure with left front kicks, which would back him up momentarily but not for long. Unfortunately, Petch is no master with front kicks and teeps like Buakaw, and so he didn’t have the type of skillset needed to keep his opponent at distance with them. Petch would throw some knees to Collin as well when they clinched, and was fairly effective with them. But, once again, Collins’ got the better of this dimension of the fight with his own knees.

I scored the first round for Petchpanomrung, but I thought Collins took the rest. Still, they were competitive enough that it made for a very exciting fight.

This fight really exposed some of Petchpanomrung’s limitations as a fighter. There have been a number of southpaw Thai fighters who relied on left body kick and left kicks for the majority of their offense. Yodsanklai Fairtex and Samkor Kiatmontep come to mind immediately. However, that fighting style is risky because it makes you predictable. If your opponent can nullify that weapon, or in this case just endure it, then you become very beatable. Petch is only 29 years old, but if he wants to reach the highest pinnacles of the sport again, he’s going to have to expand his arsenal. He also seems to have lost some of his power in that left kick.

As for Chadd Collins’, I was very impressed with his determination and ferocity. He just outdogged Petch throughout the fight, and, even if Petch seems a bit past his prime now, Collins’ still beat a great fighter that night. Collins might not be the most skilled guy in the world, but has ridiculous conditioning, output, and will. He deserved this victory.

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Never been a fan of kickboxing, but I have enjoyed the occasional fight that stumbles upon my social media feed.
This is the latest one. And I must admit, I am now a Iancu fan.

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