It's Showtime Madrid: The Aftermath and Post-Fight Thoughts

Another It's Showtime card is in the books, so let's take a look back and reflect on what happened today and where the event ranks amongst other It's Showtime cards this year. Big thank you to Brent Ducharme for his Play By Play. For those that enjoy his kickboxing coverage, pop into those every so often. 

- This was the first card where I didn't have much issue with the video quality. This is great because I'm often left with almost an unwatchable feed that continually buffers, this only happened twice and it was during the second bout on the card. 

- The crowd was absolutely fantastic. The best comparison I can make would be to say it was much like a European Soccer crowd during the Champions League. I wish I was there because the atmosphere was absolutely electric.

- It's pretty obvious at this point that It's Showtime is far and away the most consistent HIGH LEVEL Kickboxing show in the world. They've built a great product and even on this card, one that didn't have much press, the fighters delivered. 

- The fight between Yavuz Kayabasi and Zeben Diaz was fun to watch but what was up with Kayabasi? I expected him to be the better fighter and have the far better showing but man, what a disappointment. Diaz looked good but I'm not sure how good this kid is when Kayabasi looked so bad. Is it that I overrated Yavuz or did I underrate Zeben?

- Moises Ruibal is a fun fighter, but come on man, quit sticking your tongue out. That never works out well for anyone and it surely didn't work in your favor. You lost to Sahak Parparyan and looked like an absolute clown doing so. Big win for the Armenian fighter. He looked good, especially in the third. 

- The crowd during Murthel Groenhart and Rafi Zouheir should be the precedent for all Combat Sports crowds. Zouheir was hurt early and never really got back into it. Groenhart is a monster of a fighter. Good on the Spanish crowd for giving their fighter support despite the loss. 

- Karim Bennoui and Javier Hernandez put on an absolute classic for the It's Showtime 61kg MAX title. Seriously, this was one of the most back and forth fights I've seen in kickboxing and I'm happy it was a 5 rounder. Hernandez brought it home for Spain in the end by just being a little crisper with his hands. I'd love to see these guys rematch again, this time in France. 

- Abraham Roqueni is far better than I expected. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the hype of a fighter and disregard the accomplishments of his opponent. I did that and I'm sorry. 

- Was it just me or did Gago Drago look super sluggish? What happened to the exciting fighter that we all love? I hope he comes back in time for the MAX tournament in Belgium or he'll be hurt badly in the first round of the tournament. 

- Speaking of Drago/Roqueni, what was up with the commentary being extremely one sided? I know that Gago is managed by Black Label but ignoring the action in the ring really isn't a good standard to set when going forward. It's Showtime has an opportunity to become a more house hold name, but this kind of bias won't get them there.

- Tyrone Spong won a decision. That's really all I'm going to say. If the guy who showed up today fought either Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghita, or Badr Hari, he'd be severely hurt. Tentative would be the word to use. Hopefully it was just a one off type thing and he'll be back to his explosive self in the future.