Khem Sitsongpeenong and Giorgio Petrosyan at the weigh-ins

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Full results are in for It's Showtime Milan and there's definitely some interesting outcomes to look at:

Giorgio Petrosyan def Khem Sitsongpeenong, DEC
Cosmo Alexandre def Dmitry Shakuta, TKO rd 2 (doctor stoppage due to cut)
Orono Vor Petchpoon def Egon Racz, TKO rd 3
Sudsakorn def Chahid Oulad El Hadj, DEC
Armen Petrosyan def Dzhabar Askerov, DEC
Brice Guidon def Hesdy Gerges, DEC (ext. round)

Julian Imeri def Fabio De Marco, DEC
Luca Panto def Wendel Roche, DEC
Yavuz Kayabasi def Hicham Bettani, DEC
Ali Cenik def Bruno Franchi, DEC
Federico Pacini def Robert Van Nimvegen, DEC
Sergeio Wilzen def Mattio Luppi, KO rd 3

The biggest news here is Guidon defeating Gerges in a pretty big upset.  Guidon has been knocking on the door of the top level for some time, and this win should really propel him upwards.

I look forward to seeing footage of Giorgio Petrosyan's victory to see if he dominated, or if Khem was able to mount any effective game.

Cosmo Alexnadre has really been on a terrific roll lately with a number of big wins.  Would love to see him rematch Yod.

Finally, what else can be said about Chahid?  Four straight loses, the last 3 of which came against previously unranked opponents.  These aren't cans he's losing to by any means, but he's really fallen apart in the last year.  I hope he takes some time off to figure out how to fix his game, as whatever he's doing right now just is not working for him.

More results from It's Showtime in Milan: reigning #1 fighter Giorgio Petrosyan continued his 3 year, 20+ fight win streak, defeating Khem Sitsongpeenong.  Khem put up a tough fight, taking Petrosyan the distance in a decision loss. 

Giorgio's brother Armen Petrosyan also won, defeating Dzhabar Askerov, while Yavuz Kayabasi defeated Hicham Bettani via decision.  No word yet on the title fight or Chahid's fight.

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Today's It's Showtime show from Milan is not airing until later tonight, so results will be somewhat slow coming, although we do have one somewhat surprising result.

According to one live report, Brice Guidon defeated top 10 HW Hesdy Gerges via decision.  Gerges turned a lot of heads in late 2009 with his big win over Ruslan Karaev and has picked up steam since then, earning himself a headlining fight against Badr Hari at the May Amsterdam ArenA show.  This loss is a major setback for Gerges, who will need to build himself back up over the remainder of 2010.  The fight with Guidon was a late addition to the card.

Interestingly, this marks the second time in a row Guidon has defeated Hari's already announced It's Showtime opponent, as he beat Mourad Bouzidi late last year while Bouzidi was already set for his bout with Hari.  With wins now against Bouzidi, Gerges, and Rico Verhoeven among others, Guidon is undoubtedly a top 20 fighter.  If he does indeed face Jerome Le Banner this summer as planned, it could be the kind of breakout win Guidon needs to take a big step forward in his career.

We'll have more results as they become available.

Hesdy Gerges with trainer Thom Harinck

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Though not yet officially announced by It's Showtime, it appears Hesdy Gerges's opponent has been set for this weekend's Milan show.  Gerges will be facing French fighter Brice Guidon.

A training partner of Jerome Le Banner, Guidon may be familiar to K-1 fans for his appearance in last year's Tokyo GP (the event won by Daniel Ghita).  There, Guidon defeated Rico Verhoeven via decision in the quarterfinals before losing to Sergei Lascenko in the semis.  He comes in to this fight off a win over Chris Knowles at the UKC France event on February 6 where he won by TKO in round 1 due to cuts. 

At 6'6", Guidon brings in the size needed to fight with some of the bigger heavyweights, and with a 19-5 record he definitely is a fighter to watch.  Still, taking a fight against Gerges on such short notice is a tough call, and he'll have to come in with a strong gameplan if he hopes to score the upset win on Saturday.

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Reports out of the Golden Glory camp indicate that Nieky Holzken will no longer be participating in the big May It's Showtime show coming from the Amsterdam ArenA.  Holzken was scheduled to face MAX champion Giorgio Petrosyan, however due to some contractual disputes, it appears Holzken has opted out of the fight.  It's Showtime has yet to make it official, so details and specifics remain uncertain at this point.

This is an unfortunate turn of events for Holzken, who quietly snuck into the top 10 with solid performances throughout 2009.  Undoubtedly Petrosyan reprsents a huge challenge, and Holzken would have been considered a massive underdog, but fighting an athlete of Petrosyan's caliber can only help your career, and it is a shame to see that opportunity disappear for Holzken.

Holzken is very popular in Amsterdam, and many fans are upset to see him removed.  In addition, this is the second recent change to the May card to cause some irritation among fans, coming fast on the heels of Khalid Bourdif being pulled from Rayen Simson's retirement fight.  Considering how early It's Showtime announced these match-ups, some shuffling of the card was inevitable, though that is little consolation to fans who wanted to see their hometown star take on the best in the world.

UPDATE: New word is that Holzken and It's Showtime management have worked things out and Holzken v. Petrosyan is still set for May 29.

Giorgio Petrosyan, back in action in Milan

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We're a little over a week away from the second It's Showtime card of 2010 and the first real blockbuster fight of the year.  On March 13, It's Showtime comes from Milan with a strong card headlined by #1 fighter Giorgio Petrosyan v. Khem Sitsongpeenong.  As we've said before, Khem provides a nice challenge for the unstoppable-looking Petrosyan, and this is a main event many are looking forward to.

In addition to this fight, It's Showtime has finalized the rest of the card, adding in a fight with K-1's Chahild Oulad El Hadj.  Chahid will meet Thai fighter Sudsakorn sor Klinmee.  For Chahid, this is a must win as his career has been on a massive slide in the past year.  Once pegged as a potential breakout star of 2009, Chahid has gone 1-5 in his last 6, including a current 3 fight losing streak to Murat Direkci, Chris Ngimbi, and Hafid el Boustati.  He desperately needs to turn it around and get back to winning here.  His opponent, Sudsakorn, is a 23 year old traditional Thai fighter, whose biggest fight to date was a loss to Khem at Lumpinee Stadium last year.  He'll bring a strong Muay Thai game to the table, and it will be interesting to see how he does in a featured bout.

The main card also includes Hesdy Gerges facing an opponent yet to be announced.  Gerges comes in off his win over Ashwin Balrak last weekend and looks to continue building momentum before his May showdown with Badr Hari. Dmitry Shakuta defends his It's Showtime 77kg title against Cosmo Alexandre, who comes in off a pair of impressive tournament victories in 2009.   Armen Petrosyan, brother to Giorgio, faces the man Giorgio defeated in his K-1 debut, Dzhabar Askerov.  And Hicham Bettani faces Yavuz Kayabasi.  The undercard includes an additional five fights featuring Wendell Roche and Orono vor Petchpoon among others. 

Look for more from us next week in anticipation of this event.

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Is Khalid Bourdif (right) being unfairly punished by It's Showtime?

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There's an interesting story making the rounds in European kickboxing circles regarding the big It's Showtime Amsterdam ArenA show in May.  One of the original scheduled fights was Rayen Simson v. Khalid Bourdif in Simson's retirement fight.  Now, It's Showtime has announced that Bourdif is off the card and instead it will be Simson v. Sahin "Kass" Yakut.  Here's the official statement on the switch:

Rayen Simson will face a new opponent in the Amsterdam ArenA on May 29. The reason is that the opponent he was supposed to fight, Khalid Bourdif, accepted a fight which will take place 4 weeks before his match in the Amsterdam ArenA. We at IT’S SHOWTIME always agree that a fighter can’t/won’t fight at another event minimal 5 or 6 weeks prior to the ArenA event, this to prevent injuries. Exceptions will be made for K-1 fighters but this will always be discussed first, and put in a contract. Regarding the management of Bourdif, we at IT’S SHOWTIME find this not professional and we have expressed we will not use Khalid Bourdif’s services.

This was followed by the announcement that Yakut would indeed take Bourdif's spot.  This news has been met by some harsh criticism of It's Showtime, and has caused some to raise questions about this policy.

To give some background, Simson v. Bourdif was first discussed late last year as an option for Slamm VI, but was then pushed back to this show.  Simson, a Muay Thai legend in Amsterdam, hand-picked Bourdif as his final opponent for a number of reasons, including their history as training partners, personal friendship, and his belief that Bourdif was the best fighter in his weight class.  There is no doubt this is the fight Simson wanted to go out on, and for many fans, It's Showtime is acting disrespectfully by not honoring his wishes in his final fight.  To further complicate matters, there are accusations from Bourdif's camp that It's Showtime has not handled this properly, refusing to discuss options with them before removing Bourdif from the event.

For It's Showtime and matchmaker Simon Rutz, the argument is that this is a question of practicality.  If Bourdif is hurt in his earlier fight (against Ali Gunyar in a main event fight on May 2) he could be forced to drop out of the Simson fight, forcing a late change to the card.  As Rutz states, this is the It's Showtime policy, and it is one you can see the rationale behind.  Where things get murky and somewhat controversial are in regards to the exceptions to the rule, and the choice of Yakut to replace Bourdif.

As their statement says, It's Showtime is willing to bend their rule for K-1 fighters.  Why then would they not make such a concession for Bourdif?  The obvious answer is that he does not have the same star power as a K-1 fighter and, like it or not, being an in demand fighter allows you to have more pull in your contract negotiations.  But the real trouble comes in the fact that their replacement opponent, Sahin Yakut, is a fighter represented by It's Showtime management, leading some to argue that Rutz and company have used Bourdif's May 2 fight as an excuse to drop him and move their own fighter into a higher profile fight.

The question then becomes, is it a conflict of interest for a matchmaker and promoter to also manage his own stable of fighters?  Looking specifically at Yakut, he has not been given a tremendous amount of high profile fights by It's Showtime, and this will be his biggest fight in quite some time, maybe ever.  So you can't say that the company has been giving a huge advantage to Yakut previously.  Still, the potential conflict of interest is enough to make many fans cry foul. 

So far, Rutz has not officially addressed this controversy, and he may not.  They've made their policy clear, and Bourdif violated that policy, so for them, there's not much else to say.  I can see why some disagree with this move, but provided this policy was made clear in Bourdif's contract, I don't see It's Showtime acting in an unfair manner here.

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After a long process that saw both Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky courted, It's Showtime has finally landed on an opponent for Badr Hari for their huge Amsterdam show.  On May 29, it will be Badr Hari v. Hesdy Gerges. Gerges was rumored as the opponent a few weeks ago, but this finally makes it official. 

While this may lack a bit of the punch of either Hoost or Bonjasky, this is still a tremendous fight.  Gerges is on a huge roll, defeating Karaev and Slowinski among others and looking very strong as of late.  He's training with Thom Harinck these days and has all the tools to become a major player.  He's already seen competition at this level, having faced Semmy Schilt last year for K-1, but Hari will clearly pose a very stiff challenge for the rising star.  There's no denying that Hari is the favorite here, but this is not the mismatch Hari v. Bouzidi was - Gerges is a true threat and if he comes in with a flawless game plan and executes it perfectly, a win is not out of the question.

Gerges was originally set to face Daniel Ghita at this card - Ghita's opponent now moves to the elusive "TBA".