SuperKombat: Albert Kraus, Heavyweight Tournament Confirmed for May 21st

Word of a SuperKombat event set to be held in Bucharest, Romania on May 21st has been floating around for some time now. Having seen some real confirmation of the scheduled bouts, this one is going to be pretty significant. The main attraction of the event will certainly be a heavyweight tournament featuring two semifinal match ups and one reserve bout. The competitors? Dzevad Poturak, Vitali Akhramenko, Roman Kleibl, Sergei Lascenko, Rico Verhoeven, and Sebastian Ciobanu. In addition to the heavyweight tournament, fans will be treated to a confirmed bout between Albert Kraus and Marius Tita.

The first semifinal that has been announced for the SuperKombat heavyweight tournament will pit Dzevad Poturak against Vitalia Akhramenko. The bout will mark Poturak's second in a row in Romania, the Bosnian fighter having defeated Ionut Iftimoaie via decision at the Wako-Pro World Grand Prix 2011: Romania vs. Italy event in March. In Vitali Akhramenko, Poturak will have an opponent who is more than capable of putting a halt to his three fight win streak. Akhramenko returned to kickboxing in 2009 after a stint in jail, putting in work in his native Belarus before eventually winning the Tatneft Arena World Cup title last October. The Belarusian secured the tournament win with a sound victory over Ashwin Balrak, punctuating earlier victories over Alexander Vezhevatov and Ramazan Ramazanov. Akhramenko has fought once since the tournament win, advancing to the quarterfinals of Fight Code's ongoing heavyweight tournament. He is actually set to appear in a non-tournament bout under the Fight Code banner this weekend in Hungary.

Roman Kleibl and Sergei Lascenko will meet in the other tournament semifinal. Roman Kleibl was defeated by Alexey Ignashov in the opening round of Fight Code's heavyweight tournament, dropping a decision in Slovakia a couple months back. As for Sergei Lascenko, the young fighter has been training at Mike's Gym and is looking to put together a streak of wins and distance himself from a three fight slide which saw him drop bouts to Ismael Londt, Freddy Kemayo, and Alexei Kudin in 2010. The Ukrainian heavyweight's name has also recently popped up as he is set to face Gokhan Saki in June.

A scheduled reserve bout between Rico Verhoeven and Sebastian Ciobanu offers just as much intrigue as the two semifinal match ups. Verhoeven encountered a real setback in his bout against Jamal Ben Saddik at It's Showtime Sporthallen Zuid in March, as he was knocked out by his relatively unknown opponent inside of two rounds. Another interesting factor for Verhoeven is the anticipation of his mixed martial arts debut. While the planned date of April 23rd never did pan out for the massive heavyweight, he has been training extensively to round out his skill set and it sounds as though it is just a matter of time before we see him in four ounce gloves. Romania's own Sebastian Ciobanu will
 provide an interesting challenge for Verhoeven when May 21st rolls around. Ciobanu is by no means a world-beater, but he has found some success at the international level and has been in the ring with a number of top fighters. Ciobanu is 1-2 in his last three fights, with two losses against French heavyweight Freddy Kemayo.

While the heavyweight tournament promises excellent action and should raise the stock of at least a couple of competitors, a lot of fans are going to be drawn to the SuperKombat event by the inclusion of Albert Kraus. The former K-1 MAX champion will be taking on Romanian Marius Tita in a bout that perhaps isn't fair to call a must-win, but it's not too much of a stretch either. A loss against Batu Khasikov in March has definitely set Kraus back a bit, frustrating fans and leaving some with questions regarding the level of competition that the Dutch kickboxer has faced in recent years. Marius Tita is a solid fighter who has found success within Romania, fighting in regional K-1 events and under the Local Kombat banner. Perhaps he is not the most likely to upset one of the sport's top competitors, but then again does seem all too perfect for the role of spoiler that we've seen develop already in 2011.