Yokkao Boxing has announced that top Muay Thai fighters Saenchai Sinbimuaythai and Sudsakorn Sor. Klinmee will both be competing at the organization's first promotional effort of 2012, which will take place in Milan, Italy on January 21st.

Saenchai has recently been pulled from consecutive Muaythai Premier League events, and has won three bouts since losing against Sagetdao at Lumpinee Stadium in June. Kevin Ross, Kongsak, and Kurt Finlayson have all dropped bouts to the popular Thai fighter.

Sudsakorn has emerged as a non-tournament favorite for Thai Fight, as he has taken wins at the promotion's three events this year in France, Hong Kong, and Japan. Sudsakorn is also primed for the upcoming Fight Code Dragon Series Final 8, where he'll take on Halim Issaoui. Sudsakorn is an early favorite to take home the Fight Code tournament, being contested at 72.5 kg.

The Yokkao Extreme event looks to be promising with the addition of both Saenchai and Sudsakorn. A bout between Buakaw Por. Pramuk and Dzhabar Askerov was also announced for the event recently. There has been no word regarding opponents for either Saenchai or Sudsakorn, but more announcements can be expected soon.

Stars and Stripes, the September 2nd debut of the Muaythai Premier League, is set to stream live from Long Beach, California, beginning at 9:00pm EDT on GoFightLive.TV.

The Stars and Stripes card is filled with top talent from around the world of Muay Thai and kickboxing. The event will kick off the MPL's inaugural season, as fighters from each of the organization's five weight classes will begin their quest to become divisional champion. There will also be two super fights featured on the evening.

Two-time K-1 MAX champion Buakaw Por. Pramuk will defend his WMC junior middleweight world title against South Africa's Warren Stevelmans in the main event. Buakaw has been on beneficiary of a number of showcase bouts this year, while Stevelmans has performed well in recent months with wins over Mohammed Medhar and Zeben Diaz. The veteran Stevelmans also brought Armen Petrosyan to a draw.

The co-main event of the evening will see Baxter Humby meet Zidov Domenik in a bout which is for Humby's WMC junior middleweight intercontinental title.

Nathan Corbett, the long-time Australian Muay Thai standout known for his display against Tyrone Spong, will be meeting Tomas Hron in the MPL's heavyweight division. The other heavyweight bout of the evening will pit Golden Glory's Filip Verlinden against Martin Jahn.

The light heavyweight division will feature a bout between current It's Showtime and WBC Muay Thai champion Artem Levin and Austria's David Keclik. Simon Marcus and Artem Vakhitov will also meet at light heavyweight. Much like Artem Levin, both Marcus and Vakhitov carry very strong amateur Muay Thai credentials along with a wealth of professional experience.

Nieky Holzken and Marco Pique will meet for a second time when they kick off the middleweight action on Friday night. Holzken and Pique fought back in 2008, in a bout that saw Holzken win by third round knockout.

Welterweight action will see two strong but understated bouts, as Denis Schneidmiller takes on Mehdi Zatout and Leo Monteiro meets Michael Dicks.

Female Muay Thai sensation Julie Kitchen will be taking on Martina Jindrova in the super lightweight division - the MPL's only female division. Super lightweights Valentina Shevchenko and Angelique Pitiot are also set to face off.

Omnoi Stadium has put together its next big offering in the world of Muay Thai, as eight of Thailand's top fighters at the 67 kg. mark will meet to the determine the nation's Thai Fight 2012 representative at that weight class. The Isuzu Cup 22 kicked off last weekend, and will be running through the rest of the year. In addition to the spot in the Thai Fight 2012 tournament, competitors will be fighting for a grand prize of one million baht (about $33,000) and an Isuzu vehicle.

Fans are likely to recall that the Isuzu Cup 21, which ran from late 2010 into the early part of this year, was ultimately won by Kem Sitsongpeenong. Kem is now scheduled to take on Yokoyama Shigeyuki in the Thai Fight 2011 quarterfinals on September 25th. You can check out the final bout from Isuzu Cup 21 here.

While the Thai Fight 2011 tournament still isn't over, neither Kem or any of the other fighters who competed in the last qualifier will be present in Isuzu Cup 22. The tournament will still follow the same format, however, with two four-man groups competing round-robin style. The top two fighters from each group will ultimately advance into the tournament final bracket, where an overall winner will be determined.

The groups for Isuzu Cup 22 are as follows:

Group A
Noppakrit Namplatrahoymuk
Singhmanee Kaewsamrit
Ikuysang K. Rungthannakiat
Samranchai 96 Peenang

Group B
Saksurint Kafaesai
Saenchainoi Pumpanmuang
Superbon Lookjaomaasaewaree
Petchasawin Seatransferry

The tournament started off on August 27th with a bout between Noppakrit and Ikuysang in Group A. You can find the video below the jump.

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Tomorrow, August 30th, the Muaythai Premier League will be hosting the final open workout in the lead up to its September 2nd debut in Long Beach, California. Tuesday's open workout will begin at 7:00pm PST, at Sityodtong LA in Pasadena, and is set to feature the upcoming fight card's top fighters like Buakaw Por. Pramuk, Nathan Corbett, Yohan Lidon, Nieky Holzken, and more.

While the Muaythai Premier League is still yet to debut, the promotion is looking quite promising in many regards. They've got top fighters, they're bringing their brand to some important locations this season, and they're at least trying to make the product accessible to fans through the small things like this. If they work out the kinks here and there, they really should have something.

Whether or not you can make it out to Sityodtong LA tomorrow, we've got something else for you. The MPL has released the first episode of their series, Into the Fire. The series touches on Muay Thai in general and highlights some top fighters - MPL fighters - in the current Muay Thai scene. The episode has some misinformation in it, as the fight card has changed a bit since the video was edited (most notably, there is no bout between John Wayne Parr and Baxter Humby and Germaine de Randamie isn't fighting in the super lightweight season). Even so, it's worth the watch. Check it out.

Yodsanklai Fairtex will not be competing against Yohan Lidon at the Muaythai Premier League's debut event, Stars and Stripes, next week in Long Beach, California. The news came in at the start of the weekend that Yodsanklai has a lingering hamstring injury which will keep him out of the September 2nd bout.

Muay Thai Authority had more on the injury:

The injury has slowed Yodsanklai down significantly in training and forced him to withdraw from his fight with Yohan Lidon. Muay Thai Authority has confirmed that the entire bout has been scrapped, but will be re-scheduled for the next event the MPL will hold in California.

Yodsanklai, however, is making the trip to America and will be in attendance on September 2nd as well as for the press conference, currently scheduled for Wednesday, August 31st. Fans will still have a chance to meet Yodsanklai as he will be accessible to them at the event.

While the news may be a bit of a blow to the MPL's event, their card remains strong with bouts featuring Nieky Holzken against Marco Pique, Buakaw Por. Pramuk against Warren Stevelmans, Nathan Corbett against Tomas Hron, and many more.

The real trouble here is for Yodsanklai himself. Though it seems he was already injured, Yod was thoroughly beaten by Yasuhito Shirasu at the Thai Fight Extreme Japan event on August 7th, even being floored twice in the opening frame of the bout. More than anything, Yodsanklai could use a quick turnaround from the massive upset loss to Shirasu. Were he injury-free, next week's bout against It's Showtime 73 kg. MAX champion Yohan Lidon could have certainly offered such a chance.

It looks as though fans will have to wait a little while longer to see if the King's Cup winner and former Lumpinee Stadium champion will be able to return to form.

The Muaythai Premier League has announced that four-time K-1 Word Grand Prix champion Ernesto Hoost will be handling commentary at the organization's first event, in Long Beach, California on September 2nd.

Hoost's commentary role was announced by the MPL on their Facebook page:

One of the MPL commentators for the Stars & Stripes event, Will be Living Legend, and 4X K-1 GP Champion, 'Mr.Perfect' Ernesto Hoost. Ernesto will be meeting fans as well.

There's no word whether or not Ernesto Hoost will be commentating other MPL events, or if the inclusion of former kickboxing and Muay Thai stars more generally will become a trend, etc.

While Hoost is most known for his success in K-1, the long-time kick boxer really got his start in the burgeoning Dutch scene of the late 1980's. Mr. Perfect won titles in Muay Thai and full contact, with victories over the likes of Peter Aerts and Branko Cikatic, all before he helped establish the K-1 brand.

Roughly a week away from their inaugural event, the Muaythai Premier League has released the full schedule for their first season. Spanning eight events in three continents over the course of nine months, the MPL's opening season will feature five weight classes full of international Muay Thai competitors.

Per a press release sent out by the organization, the opening season schedule looks like this:

September 2, 2011 - Los Angeles, California
October 8, 2011 - Venice/Padova, Italy
November 5, 2011 - Amsterdam, Netherlands
December 5, 2011 - Bangkok, Thailand
January 17, 2012 - Los Angeles, California
February 20, 2012 - Marseilles, France
April 6, 2012 - Canada (Semi-Finals)
May 25, 2012 - Los Angeles, California (Finals)

Of course, the opening event is happening in Long Beach, California next week. The promotion's sophomore event on October 8th seems as though it will be held in northeastern Italy rather than the capital city of Rome, where earlier reports indicated it would take place.

Given the locations that the Muaythai Premier League is taking their brand to in the coming year, it is apparent that they are making a conscious effort to take the sport to well-developed and/or important markets early on. In addition to four events in North America, they'll be hitting the major spots in Europe - the Netherlands, France, and Italy - as well as the center of all things Muay Thai in Bangkok, Thailand.

Furthermore, the release of this full schedule is a sign that the Muaythai Premier League will honestly be sticking to their planned league format. With each of their five divisions including eight fighters split into two groups, a six-event regular season accounts for the round-robin stage just as it should.

While it looked as though John Wayne Parr would be competing twice in short order this fall, the Australian fighter has been forced out of his September bout with Frank Giorgi.

Dave Walsh at LiverKick reports that Parr has injured his right hand, and will accordingly be withdrawing from the September 3rd bout at Evolution 24 in Brisbane. Parr posted about his withdrawal from the bout on Facebook a few hours ago, and included some pictures showing the injury he sustained to his hand.

The bout against Frank Giorgi was to mark the second time in a row that John Wayne Parr would be facing a cast member from the upcoming WMC-backed reality series, The Challenger Muaythai. Parr stopped Mostafa Abdollahi, another of the show's featured fighters, in the second round of a July bout.

There is no word yet on what this injury might mean for Parr's October bout against Giannis Sofokleous at Powerplay Promotions' Payback Time: National Pride event. Regardless, given Parr's recent decision to continue competing past of the end of this year, it seems we'll definitely be seeing him in the ring again before too long.

Look for related updates in the near future, as Evolution Promotions will either need to scramble to find a new main event or bump up a co-feature between domestic standouts Philip 'Flip' Street and Dane 'Daddy Kool' Beauchamp.