Two Bouts Announced for REBELS 7, April 24th

Two bouts have been announced for the April 24th event REBELS 7 via the Japanese Muay Thai promotion's official blog.

Top South Korean fighter Chi Bin Lim will be meeting WPMF welterweight Japanese champion Daiki Watabe on the evening. While Chi Bin Lim had a quiet 2010, readers are likely to remember his back-to-back exits from the K-1 MAX Final 16 in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, Lim was knocked out by Yasuhiro Kido in the round of 16 (video), while 2009 saw him drop a decision to Yuya Yamamoto. As for Daiki Watabe, the Japanese fighter just became the first WPMF Japanese champion by stopping Hideya Tanaka in the first round of their bout in January.

Toshio Matsumoto and Magnum Sakai are set to meet in the other bout which was announced by REBELS. Matsumoto is a K-1 veteran with career accomplishments including fighting against Lamsongkram Chuwattana for the Rajadamnern Stadium middleweight title in 2005. Magnum Sakai was also busy fighting for a title in 2005, as he took a TKO loss to Nathan Corbett in a bout for the WBC Muay Thai 79kg. title (video here). Sakai lost in another WBC MT title bout in 2010 against Kaoklai Kennorising.

REBELS last appeared in January with REBELS 6, an event headlined by the aforementioned bout between Daiki Watabe and Hideya Tanaka. The promotion also ran the REBELS-EX: Hinata's Wave event on the same night, as Hinata came through with a head kick knockout against Woo Yong Choi, a teammate of Chi Bin Lim's.