Monday Morning Head Kicks: February 21st to 27th

Banner image provided by Anton Tabuena

Monday Morning, time for your Head Kicks. It actually ended up being a much busier week than I realized it would be last Monday when first getting my bearings on everything coming up. A whole lot of notable mixed martial arts action this weekend, and not a single bit of it in America. R.I.S.E. held it down for kickboxing in Japan, while Australia and Russia did the same for notable international Muay Thai action.

I enjoyed UFC 127, but there are a couple things that make me not want to talk about it any more than I have to. You can read my thoughts below. Let's move on to Britain. BAMMA 5 was pretty straight forward: Paul Daley blasts Yuya Shirai, Ricco Rodriguez is too much for James McSweeney, Alex Makhonin benefits from a complete mental lapse from Xavier Foupa-Pokam. Cage Warriors 40 helped answer some questions about the female mixed martial arts scene, and also showed that Joseph Duffy continues to be better than his domestic competition. Shooto, DEEP, and MFC were also in action this weekend. Go watch Masakazu Imanari's bout against Hiroshi Nakamura from DEEP 52.

The big news in kickboxing: Hesdy Gerges is a free man and is still competing at the March 6th It's Showtime event. Well, the upcoming It's Showtime event is the big news in general. We've got some pertinent videos and we'll have plenty more things coming your way in the week to come. Of course all the talk is of It's Showtime taking the place of K-1 and what not, but some of the Japanese promotions are still out there. R.I.S.E. 74 went down Sunday, and the two championship bouts which headlined the card were closely contested. Highly regarded middleweight kickboxer Nieky Holzken was also in action over the weekend, as he met Thilo Schneider in the Netherlands.

A couple notable happenings in the international Muay Thai scene, as Artem Levin won the WBC Muay Thai light heavyweight title and Paul Slowinski met Thor Hoopman over the weekend. Talk of some intriguing bouts coming out of Thailand, we'll highlight one of those below. I'd also recommend checking out the interview Science of 8 Limbs did with American Muay Thai standout Joe Schilling - link is near the bottom of the article.

Let's go.

UFC 127 Afterthoughts: I have to say that this was an enjoyable event. In my eyes, the main event was a solid bout between two of the greatest mixed martial artists in the world, and that counts for something. The co-main event was somewhat enjoyable prior to an illegal knee which I have to believe was intentional. Brian Ebersole surprised a lot of people with his win over Chris Lytle, and Kyle Noke submitted Chris Camozzi about as quick you can. Noke probably has much more of a future at middleweight than Ebersole at welterweight, but the night was good to both.

Mark Hunt finally showed up and did what Mark Hunt can do, even though a lot of people are acting as though they're disgusted by the fact that anybody would be knocked out by Mark Hunt today. Sure, it's been a decade since he won the K-1 World Grand Prix, but he can still hit people pretty hard. MMA fans are delusional.

Oh, and MMA judges. They're delusional too. Nick Ring being gifted a decision victory over Riki Fukuda marks the worst decision I've seen in at least the past two years. Hyperbole is not my style, I honestly mean it. Now that I've written about that, I don't want to talk about this event anymore. I nearly turned it off after that one.

Andy Souwer vs. L'houcine Ouzgni Promos: AFAV is putting together another great series of promo videos leading up to the It's Showtime bout between Andy Souwer and L'houcine Ouzgni on March 6th. Two parts have been released so far, and our friend robinhorobson has been posting them over in the fanshots. Check them out: Part 1, Part 2.

Danyo Ilunga Training Ahead of It's Showtime Bout: Ilunga will be meeting Wendell Roche for the vacant It's Showtime 95kg. title on March 6th. Here is video of him training under K-1 legend Remy Bonjasky. Speaking of Bonjasky, our friends at LiverKick reported on the question of whether or not we might ever see him compete again. Chances are still slim, and it is still sad.

Artem Levin Wins WBC Muay Thai Title: Levin, the It's Showtime 77kg. champion, walked away from his bout with Kaoklai Kaennorsing this past Thursday as the new WBC Muay Thai light heavyweight world champion. Video here. Not to say that Kaoklai isn't an excellent fighter, but this brings the slightest bit more credibility to the belt. Many of the WBC's divisions have a long way to go and the organization will never really reflect the state of the sport, but progress counts for something I suppose.

DEEP 52nd Impact: I have one thing to say about the event that happened on Friday. Masakazu Imanari lost a clear decision to Hiroshi Nakamura. Imanari retained his belt because it was a non-title bout. Dear Japan, please stop with the non-title bouts. Oh, and the DEEP Megaton title was up for grabs. Plus Ryuta Sakurai won. Results below.

Buakaw vs. Yodsanklai Possible?: The short answer is no, probably not. Talk of the bout first came from Muay Siam and reports indicate that Yodsanklai has agreed to fight at the 70kg. limit, leaving the ball in Buakaw's court so to speak. Anybody who knows Buakaw's history of staying away from fellow Thai fighters knows that we're likely to never see this bout come to fruition.

Paul Slowinski Wins Rematch With Thor Hoopman: The last time Slowinski and Hoopman met, Hoopman walked away with a five round decision. This time, Slowinski finished the bout early, bringing about a referee stoppage in the first round at Knees of Fury 32. Boonchu Gym member Flip Street notched a victory on the card, and there was evidently a truly action-packed bout between Kym Johnson and Wes Capper.

The Last Emperor's Next Camp: The news that Fedor Emelianenko would be spending a fair amount of time training in the Netherlands before his next fight has been floating around all week. Fighter's Only has also reported that TUF 8 veteran Vinny Magalhaes will be taking part in the Emelianenko camp. Magalhaes has had mixed results in MMA, but what he does bring to the table in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu could certainly be a great help here.

So, This Jose Aldo and Andy Souwer Thing: Last Tuesday, we told you about UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo training with Andy Souwer in the Netherlands. Among the messages Souwer sent out on Twitter was one which, depending on how you read it, may have indicated his desire to try his hand at MMA. I initially didn't read it that way, but that's because I'm a contrarian fool. I know Souwer is training BJJ and his experience in Shootboxing could certainly offer an advantage over other kickboxing converts. Let's hope he goes through with it.

Evolution 23 Headlined by Macfie: Australian Muay Thai news, as The Contender Asia cast member Bruce Macfie will be competing in the main event of the Evolution 23 event in April. The Preacher will meet Frank Giorgi in the main event - the bout is said to be a rematch of an earlier bout (which I've never seen) that Giorgi won by TKO.

Joe Schilling Interview: Joe Schilling is one of the top Muay Thai fighters in America. Science of 8 Limbs recently interviewed him. If you have any interest in learning about the American Muay Thai scene, and one of the rising stars within it more particularly, I'd recommend reading it.

MMA Results

DEEP 52nd Impact - Friday, February 25th, in Tokyo, Japan

• Kazuhisa Tazawa SUB-2 Yuji Sakuragi: Tazawa wins DEEP Megaton title
  
• Ryuta Sakurai SUB-3 Yoshiyuki Nakanishi
• HIroshi Nakamura UD Masakazu Imanari: Non-title bout
• Other results: Shoji Maruyama TKO-1 Tomoya Kato, Seo Hee Ham UD Saori Ishioka, Takeshi Yamazaki SUB-1 Katsunori Tsuda, Shigetoshi Iwase TKO-1 Yoshitomo Watanabe, Ken Hasegawa SUB-1 Noriaki Oshida, Tatsumitsu Wada UD Sakae Kasuya, Masato Kobayashi UD Ryo Masuda, Yoshihiro Tomioka TKO-2 Luiz Andrade
  

MFC 28: Supremacy - Friday, February 25th, in Alberta, Canada

• Ryan Jimmo TKO-3 Dwayne Lewis: Jimmo gained MFC light heavyweight title with win
  
• Drew Fickett SUB-1 Matt Veach
• Other results: Richie Whitson SD Curtis Demarce, Thomas Denny DRAW Sheldon Westcott, Emanuel Newton SUB-2 Rodney Wallace, Tyrone Glover SD Robert Washington, Dan Ring SUB-2 Garret Nybakken, Brendan Kornberger UD Paapa Inkumsah
  

Shooto: Shooting Disco 14 - Saturday, February 26th, in Tokyo, Japan

• Yoichiro Sato DRAW Akihiro Murayama: Sato retained 168lb. Shooto Pacific Rim title
  
• Shin Kochiwa TKO-2 Kazuya Satomoto
• Naohiro Mizuno MD Yuta Nezu
• Other results: Tatsuya Nakashima DQ Akinobu Watanabe, Kota Onojima UD Daiki Takashima, Takayuki Hirose UD Komei Okada, Minoru Takeuchi MD Hideto Okada, Takafumi Ato MD Takahito Tomozawa, Nobumitsu Taison MD Jin Suzuki, Koji Nishioka DRAW Hideto Kondo, Yusuke Kasuya SUB-1 Yohei Ota, Kotaro Hagiwara SUB-1 Yuta Horikawa

BAMMA 5 - Saturday, February 26th, in Manchester, England

• Paul Daley KO-1 Yuya Shirai
• Ricco Rodriguez UD James McSweeney
• Alex Makhonin TKO-2 Xavier Foupa-Pokam
• Other results: Claudio Henrique da Silva SUB-1 Jean-Francois Lenogue, Mohsen Bahari TKO-1 Lee Barnes, Lee Cohoon TKO-2 Rob Mills, Jason Ball KO-2 Peter Duncan, Michael Johnson UD Paul Cook, Tim Newman SD Diego Vital, Costas Doru SUB-1 Liam James, Jeremy Petley SUB-1 Frankie Slater

UFC 127 - Saturday, February 26th, in Sydney, Australia

• Jon Fitch DRAW B.J. Penn
• Michael Bisping TKO-2 Jorge Rivera
• Dennis Siver UD George Sotiropoulos
• Brian Ebersole UD Chris Lytle
• Other results: Kyle Noke SUB-1 Chris Camozzi, Ross Pearson UD Spencer Fisher, Alexander Gustafsson SUB-1 James Te Huna, Nick Ring UD Riki Fukuda, Anthony Perosh SUB-1 Tom Blackledge, Tiequan Zhang SUb-1 Jason Reinhardt, Mark Hunt KO-2 Chris Tuchscherer, Curt Warburton UD Maciej Jewtuszko

Kickboxing Results

Golden Glory Helmond - Saturday, February 26th, in Eindhoven, Netherlands

• Nieky Holzken TKO-2 Thilo Schneider

R.I.S.E. 74 - Sunday, February 27th, in Tokyo, Japan

• Kousuke Komiyama SD Kan Itabashi: Komiyama wins R.I.S.E. 60kg. title
• Koji Yoshimoto DRAW Yusuke Sugawara: Yoshimoto retains 63kg. title
• Other results: Dyki SD Hiroki Maeda, Hiroshi Mizumachi KO-3 Yuto Watanabe, Kengo Shimizu KO-2 Tsutomu Takahagi

Muay Thai Results

Chelyabinsk Battle - Wednesday, February 23rd, in Chelyabinsk, Russia

• Artem Levin UD Kaoklai Kaennorsing: Levin gains WBC Muay Thai light heavyweight title

Knees of Fury 32 - Saturday, February 26th, in Mile End, Australia

• Paul Slowinski TKO-1 Thor Hoopman
• Kym Johnson TKO-1 Wes Capper
• Flip Street TKO-2 Myles Simpson
• Other results: Charlie Chau TKO-1 Hiki Hanui, Cameron Murcott KO-1 Steve Behan, Sarah O'Connell DEC Tenilles May