Simon Rutz Responds to It's Showtime US Expansion Rumors

by Fraser Coffeen on Nov 29, 2010 10:43 AM EST in It's Showtime News

In case you missed it over the holiday weekend, one of the biggest international stories in the world of kickboxing is the rumored expansion of It's Showtime into the US market. As we wrote, the rumors we heard had It's Showtime planning multiple US shows in 2011, with Oklahoma identified as one of the first markets.

We reached out to It's Showtime head Simon Rutz for more information. He confirmed to HKL that IS is indeed in talks to bring shows to the United States next year, and that they have "just started to talk about this." He also confirmed that IS does have big expansion plans in 2011 and will run next year in England, Russia, Germany, and Spain.

So for now, it looks like the US plans are definitely in the works, but not quite ready to be fully confirmed just yet.

I know many of our US readers are eager to see high end kickboxing in action here in the States - we'll keep you posted as we learn more about this very exciting story.

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“will run next year in England, Russia, Germany, and Spain.”
and add up USA to these countries ! …. Maybe Simon Ruts find a treasure ;)
I am very happy and wish the best for It’s Showtime
so i’m thinking why K-1 never went to some countries that have good potential in Kickboxing such as Greece , Russia , Germany …..

by k1wgp on Nov 29, 2010 1:01 PM EST reply actions

thanks

for keeping us informed, u guys do a great job

we mutha fuckin thug life riders westsiiiide till we die

by cosmic fist technique on Nov 30, 2010 1:20 PM EST via mobile reply actions

As much as I'd like to see high level kickboxing in the US...

It’s not going to happen. UFC (and to a lesser extent MMA) has the fighting world by the balls in the US. K1 is in big trouble in Japan, there is zero reason to think it’s going to come out of its funk. Too many things going against it, specifically Yakuza influences together with fewer and fewer top fighters coming in.

In a way, kickboxing has already lost the battle. Are up and coming fighters thinking about going the K1 route or the MMA route? UFC has won that battle already. I could come up with half a dozen good new names in kickboxing but they are in the minority… and those guys probably just don’t have a ground game and don’t believe they can develop one. Virtually all up and coming fighters are doing jitz, wrestling and standup, they can see the future and it’s not kickboxing.

by Nepal on Nov 30, 2010 3:42 PM EST reply actions