MMHK 5/23 to 5/29: Gokhan Saki Victorious at Glory World Series; JWP Tops Zambidis

As always, my focus here will be kickboxing and Muay Thai (MMA will surely pop up now and then). Those sports have a global presence but remain underreported, so if you have news related to fighters and events from your part of the world, chime in. Use the fanpost function on the front page; I'd like to feature some of our reader's thoughts here but they need to be shown first.

I would also like to get some more feedback about what other things should be incorporated in this series specifically. Any ideas for improvement, gripes about omissions or stories being underreported, and general statements on how things look can be left in the comments, emailed to me, or communicated any other way you see fit. Also, since Twitter is what the kids are doing, here you go: @thedutchbaby.

Stories of the Week

Mark Miller Triumphant at Glory World Series Final: While Gokhan Saki was able to top Brice Guidon and win United Glory's heavyweight kickboxing tournament, Mark Miller returned to kickboxing in a way that was almost unimaginable. Miller was able to knock out Nikolaj Falin just a few seconds into their heavyweight contest. Absolutely amazing moment, the sort of thing that fans of the fight game really should be talking about.

John Wayne Parr Stops Mike Zambidis, Trilogy Complete: After splitting two bouts that went to decision, Parr was able to put Zambidis away in the first round of their rubber match over the weekend in Melbourne, Australia. This is a pretty good happening in the world of kickboxing, as the Parr and Zambidis rivalry is the sort of thing that combat sports thrive on. What's more, Parr is doing all this in his final year of competition. Great stuff. Check out some more thoughts here.

Nakajima, Matsukura Advance in Krush 70 kg. Tourney: Hiroki Nakajima and Shintaro Matsukura won their opening round bouts as the Krush 70 kg. tournament got underway on Saturday. Nakajima walked away with a third round knockout over his opponent, Yoshi, while Matsukura scored a considerable upset in defeating Yuya Yamamoto.

Yutaro Yamauchi and Kenta were also able to advance, with Yamauchi avenging an earlier career loss to Yuji Nashiro and Kenta topping Masakazu Watanabe.

Akhiro Gono Advances in Thai Fight Qualifier: News came in through Nightmare of Battle that the veteran mixed martial artist was able to top the four-man field of his 70 kg. qualifier. The win puts Gono through to the Thai Fight 70 kg. final. Awesome for Gono insofar as it's an achievement of some sort, horrible for him insofar as it sets him up for some real dangerous bouts.

Ondrej Hutnik Tops Redouan Cairo in the Czech Republic: This bout had some intrigue to it, particularly in light of Cairo's recent win over Romanian super-prospect Andrei Stoica. Either way, the Dutchman dropped a unanimous decision to Ondrej Hutnik at the Grand Prix Chomutov event in the Czech Republic on Saturday.