July Rankings: Heavyweight Division

A little late getting these up this month, but I wanted to wait for the K-1 Oceania GP to take place.  That event saw #6 Ewerton Teixeira score a KO win, along with Ben Edwards earning himself a Final 16 slot with a record setting performance.  Edwards slides into the rankings at #25 with his big win.

Still to come in July are two top 25 fighters in action.  On July 25th, #11 Jerome Le Banner and #20 Brice Guidon both compete in Muay Thai action on the same card.

Speaking of Muay Thai, the only fight currently scheduled between top 25 opponents is a Muay Thai showdown on Sept. 19, pitting #13 Nathan Corbett against #23 Pavel Zhuravlev.  Corbett has many detractors that claim his ranking is more due to the low level of his competition than Corbett's own skills; a win over Zhuravlev should help give a bit more merit to Corbett's spot.

The other upcoming fight to watch for is #15 Ashwin Balrak v. Rico Verhoeven on Sept. 12.  Balrak is at a career high point at the moment, coming off his win over #16 Daniel Ghita.  Verhoeven is just outside the top 25, and a solid competitor who always seems to be on the verge of breaking into the upper ranks. 

Outside of those fights, it's back to the waiting game - waiting for K-1's Final 16 GP, currently scheduled for September.  Expect more names to fight for K-1 before then, but that may be the next time we see competitive fights from anyone in the top 10.

We acknowledge that all rankings are inherently subjective, however we have set the following criteria to help determine rankings:

These rankings are meant to represent fighters throughout kickboxing, not only in K-1.

Rankings are based on recent win/loss records in the ring. 

Rankings are divided into three weight classes - Heavyweight, for those fights at 85 kg and up, Middleweight, for fights at either 70 or 72 kg, and Lightweight, for fights at 63 kg.