It's Showtime Fast and Furious Tournament Match Ups Set, Rematches Abound

First round match ups for the It's Showtime Fast and Furious 70 kg. tournament were drawn today in Brussels, Beligum. Set to be held on September 24th, the eight man tournament is likely to be the premier one-night kickboxing tournament of 2011.

With today's drawing, it has been determined that the first round will feature the following match ups:

Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Chahid Oulad el Hadj

Chris Ngimbi vs. Murat Direkci

Andy Souwer vs. Harut Grigorian

Artur Kyshenko vs. Gago Drago

The most apparent quality of the tournament's opening round is that it will feature three rematches of relatively recent bouts.

Giorgio Petrosyan, the defending K-1 MAX champion, opened 2011 with decision victories over Sudsakorn Sor. Klinmee and Cosmo Alexandre. The Armenian-Italian fighter was well on his way to another victory against Chahid Oulad el Hadj when an inadvertent low blow led to their bout being declared a no contest. Before Petrosyan can turn his attention back to el Hadj, however, he will square off against Japanese standout Hinata at the July 18th show being co-promoted by It's Showtime and REBELS Muay Thai.

Though Chris Ngimbi has only appeared once since defeating Murat Direkci to win the It's Showtime 70 kg. MAX title, he scored yet another impressive knockout victory when he defeated Willy Borrel in May. For his part, Direkci has not appeared since dropping that title bout to Ngimbi in December of last year. Come September, Direkci will look to get back on the right path and regain the title he once held.

Andy Souwer has bounced back from his February loss against Abraham Roqueni with successive wins over L'houcine Ouzgni and Yoshihiro Sato. In Harut Grigorian, the former K-1 MAX champion will square off with the least known competitor in the Fast and Furious eight man field. Be that as it may, Grigorian holds a career victory over champion Chris Ngimbi.

After defeating Gago Drago in March, Artur Kyshenko put on a real dominant performance against Nieky Holzken at the Ultimated Glory World Series final in May. While Kyshenko has looked prime to flourish at a higher weight, he'll return to 70 kg., to meet Drago once again. Drago was recently defeated by Abraham Roqueni at It's Showtime Madrid.