Some Kickboxing fights to watch for Boxing/MMA fans

I struggle to imagine how Rico would have done in the 90s. Like you, I've never really been that impressed by him, and find him pretty flawed and inconsistent in his performances. He does most everything well enough, but there's just no spark in him that makes me think he'd stand a chance against a prime Hoost or Aerts or even someone like Bernardo. Maybe that's nostalgia or bias talking though.

 

Finally got around to watching this one. That was a very impressive victory for Masaaki Noiri. Tawanchai was quite sharp in this fight. He was doing a beautiful job of landing left kicks to the body, countering Noiri's kicks with his own low kicks, and chaining punches off of his left kick,etc. He was controlling the ring with pivots and lateral movement off his left hooks, as well as keeping him at range with his teeps, forcing Noiri fight from long distance for the first two rounds. But then Masaaki just timed him perfectly, twice, with his left hook when Tawanchai stepped in with a knee.

I've always thought Masaaki Noiri was an excellent talent. He's very exciting to watch. Unfortunately, he has a big problem with inconsistency, but when he's on form, he is a very good fighter. He dropped a couple of fights in ONE. A loss to Sitthichai is nothing to be ashamed of, but then lost to a no-name fighter. It's good to see him finally come through on the big stage against a class opponent.

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It's definitely an uphill battle for Artem, for sure. We agree on that. But I could foresee a scenario where he outslicks him to a close decision victory. 40% odds might have been a little generous, though. We'll just have to see.

 

This is just a little short video a Japanese kickboxer I saw. Pretty amazing kicking dexterity and coordination from a female fighter. And she's pretty cute to boot.

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Jonathan Di Bella vs Sam-A Gaiyanghadao was a pretty underrated scrap. This fight was for the ONE Interim Strawweight Kickboxing World Title.

Di Bella was very effective using his jab to set up his strikes in this fight. He would use a double jab feint to set up the left leg kick. Other times, he would land solid jabs and land brutal leg kicks behind it. A lot of Di Bella’s leg kicks, especially early on, were to the calf as well which did a lot of damage and had an immediate impact on Sam-A’s movement. At 4:35 of the video, Jonathan landed 6 leg kicks in row in quick succession doing significant damage to his opponent’s front leg.

He would feint upstairs with a jab and then drop a nice left straight to the body. Jonathan would also use his to safely close the range and land hooks to the both, alternating punches to opponent’s right and left side. The fear of the jab also helped him set up naked left straights to the head. Other times, he would come in with a hard right jab, left straight, knocking Sam-A’s back. Di Bella would also catch Sam-A effectively with that right jab feint to left cross because Sam-A would sometimes retreat in a straight line (like at 11:58 of the video). He also hut him at 12:34 when he feinted with the right and landed a left hook to the bread basket.

Jonathan Di Bella’s best punch is his lead right hook and he was masterful using it throughout this fight. He was countering beautifully with that shot. At 6:31 of the video, Sam-A landed a left cross, but Di Bella pulled his head to take away its power while simultaneously countering right his lead left hook. It was near perfect timing. The blow badly hurt Sam-A, forcing him to backpedal into the corner. Di Bella followed up with some excellent left crosses, a nice left knee to the body and a short left uppercut to boot. Sam-A got punished by Di Bella’s right hook when he opened up with his left cross on more than a few occasions. Jonathan also countered Sam-A’s leg kicks with that right hook as well pretty effectively. He clipped Sam-A with a nice counter right hook at 14:25 after Sam-A was lazily feeling out with his lead jab and paid the price for it.

Di Bella would chain left leg kicks after his right hook, or conversely land a right hook after his leg kicks. He hurt Sam-A at 16:42 with that left low kick and right head hook combination.

Sam-A was also extremely effective with the his left leg kicks throughout the fight, albeit slightly less than Di Bella. Later in the fight, Di Bella’s offense started to slow down from that punishment. The announcers even took notice that Di Bella wasn’t stepping in with his jab as much, presumably to avoid taking more full powered leg kicks while sitting down on his weight.

Both fighters would occasionally counter their opponent’s leg kicks with their own but that wasn’t a major dynamic of this fight.

Gaiyanghadao landed a lot of really solid left roundhouse kicks to the body as well. He was effective countering with these body kick. Sometimes, when Jonathan overreached with a left cross, Sam-A would step back and land that left kick right to the ribs. However, a lot of these were naked kicks. It could have served him better if he had chained these at the end of some punching combinations as well.

Sam-A had some success landing his left cross, especially ones from shorter range during the later portions of the fight. He countered Di Bella in-between his punches a few times with that shot. Sam-A also started to land a few effective knees to the body in the later rounds, but it just wasn’t enough to shift the tide of the fight.

This was a really fun, grueling fight from both gentleman. Sam-A put on an impressive performance for a 41-year-old fighter and really made Di Bella work hard for this victory. I still scored it (50-45), but you could have maybe given Sam-A the fourth round or had it a 10-10 instead. I love Di Bella as a fighter. He always brings it every time he fights.

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