Kickboxing Rankings: Heavyweight Division, August 2011

Reintroducing kickboxing rankings to Head Kick Legend this month, we'll move on to the other major weight class in the sport today: Heavyweight (95 kg.+).

Given the fact that heavyweight continues to be one of the deepest divisions in kickboxing, we'll stick with top 25 rankings here. Other divisions may require rankings which are not as extensive.

Feel free to discuss the rankings. This sort of thing is inherently subjective and, in a sport as wide open as kickboxing, really lends itself to discussion. Enjoy.

The Rankings:

The top spot in the heavyweight rankings is guaranteed to be a bit more contentious than the top pick made at middleweight. While we truly cannot be certain that Alistair Overeem will be entering the kickboxing ring in 2011, his K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final tournament win is enough to keep him in at number one.

Badr Hari's 2011 has so far consisted of an anti-climactic mugging of Gregory Tony. Gokhan Saki has done as expected, and topped the United Glory 2010 - 2011 heavyweight tournament with a decision win over Brice Guidon in May.

Hesdy Gerges and Daniel Ghita engaged in the biggest heavyweight bout of the year thus far, as they went all out for three rounds at It's Showtime Sporthallen Zuid on March 6th.

Inactivity has been an issue with many of the fighters in the top half of our rankings. Semmy Schilt is yet to compete in 2011. Peter Aerts may very well have competed for the last time. Ewerton Teixeira has been competing in Kyokushin tournaments. We've seen nothing of Kyotaro.

Vitali Akhramenko and Freddy Kemayo have both qualified for the Fight Code Rhino Series Final 8, posting some quality results under that promotion's banner. Elsewhere in the world of heavyweight tournaments, Sergei Lascenko and Ismael Londt were the winners in the first two SuperKombat World Grand Prix mini-tournaments.

Igor Jurkovic and Ali Cenik both sneak onto the rankings given their performances at the United Glory World Series Final on May 28th. There, Jurkovic scored a surprising win over Pavel Zhuravlev while Ali Cenik drew with Zabit Samedov. Neither Jurkovic or Cenik are terribly well known fighters, but Jurkovic has shown real promise and Cenik holds some good wins at lighter weight classes (namely, over Murthel Groenhart and Bruno Franchi).

What's next:

The big news is that K-1 is very likely to make a return with a K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 event in October. No details yet, but many of our top-ranked fighters would be expected to compete at such an event.

The Fight Code Rhino Series Final 8 is set for October 22nd in Russia. As mentioned, that tournament is showcasing Vitali Akhramenko and Freddy Kemayo. While it seems unlikely that either of these fighters will be upset at this stage, anyone who manages a victory over them could very well sneak into the bottom part of our rankings.

Errol Zimmerman will meet Nicolaj Falin in Germany on August 28th. Zimmerman is 2-0 on the year, while Falin was knocked out in a matter of seconds by American heavyweight Mark Miller in May.

Ismael Londt is set to take on Raemon Welboeren of Mejiro Gym at the Soema na Basi event in Suriname on August 26th.

Nathan Corbett was scheduled to meet UFC veteran James McSweeney in a kickboxing bout, but that has evidently been called off.

Paul Slowinski, who stands just outside the top 25 at the moment, will be meeting fellow K-1 veteran Peter Graham on August 20th. Slowinski and Graham have split two fights in the past.

Ranking-related information

A word on weight classes: In the absence of unified weight classes in kickboxing, divisions are being identified as appropriately as possible. Identification of divisions is informed by both convention among some kickboxing organizations and analogous weight classes in professional boxing (very loosely informed, in many cases, on the latter - i.e. Giorgio Petrosyan would be the top super welterweight in the world if really adhering to that standard). Furthermore, weight classes themselves will evolve in kickboxing, and rankings may need to be adjusted down the line to reflect that.

Fighter activity: A fighter must compete in a given division within the last year to be considered for that division's rankings. Those with fights scheduled just outside the year time frame may still be included.

The matter of Muay Thai: Those fighters who have competed primarily under a Muay Thai rule set will still be included if they've had sufficient activity in the kickboxing arena as well. A fighter's ranking isn't going to be driven by Muay Thai bouts, but in the event that they are already present on the rankings, it's difficult to say Muay Thai results won't inform our conception of where that fighter stands.