Hinata celebrates after stopping top 5 ranked Artur Kyshenko.

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Huge surprise coming out of Japan today - Hinata has upset Artur Kysehnko.  The two men faced off in the main event at RISE 68.  This was expected to be a relatively easy win for Kyshenko, who is a consensus top 5 fighter.  Instead, the young Hinata scored an unbelievable TKO win in round 3.

With this win, Hinata has now defeated two top 10 opponents this year (Kyshenko and Yuya Yamamoto) and is poised to make a real move in K-1.

We'll have full results and more as they become available.

As we reported earlier, Jerome Le Banner was in action this weekend, taking on Tomas Novack for the WPMF Muay Thai Heavyweight title.  Video of the entire fight is now available:

Round 1:

Check the complete entry for rounds 2-5.

Good showing from Le Banner here, who keeps his 2010 career renaissance going with an impressive KO victory.  At the end of 2009, it looked like Le Banner was not only done, but past the point of needing to retire, but with back to back wins over Tyrone Spong and now Novack, he has shown that fire once again.  And now he's a Muay Thai world champion as well.

While this is not the most action packed fight throughout, I thought JLB looked solid.  He is very relaxed, almost looking like he's taking part in a sparring session.  You can see that he begins to tire a bit during round 2, and he is dropped in that round by a well placed straight right.  But he pushes through and quickly recovers, going almost a full 5 rounds before finally ending Novack's night as the clock winds down. 

As for that KO - it's the kind of classic knock out that is pure, vintage Le Banner.  Once considered one of the top knock out artists in kickboxing, Le Banner has not stopped an opponent in 3 years.  Good to see him get that big punch once again.

Also on the card, the #20 ranked Brice Guidon defeated Frank Munoz to win the WPMF European title.  Full results from the rest of the card in the complete entry.

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Jerome Le Banner competed yesterday, taking on Tomas Novack for the WPMF Muay Thai Championship.  Le Banner defeated Novack via TKO in round 5. 

Only limited fight footage is available so far - we'll have more updates on the fight and full card as they become available.

Masaaki Noiri connects with a hard right, via www.k-1.co.jp

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Former K-1 Koshien fighter Masaaki Noiri won in the main event of Krush Next Generation Fight this weekend, knocking out Yoshihiro Shirakami in the 3rd round.  This marks two straight knock out wins for Noiri in 2010, and continues his hot streak from 2009.  Noiri is the reigning K-1 Koshien champion, having won the 2009 tournament at Dynamite by defeating Hiroya and Shota Shimada.  Sadly, Noiri has been kept out of the new K-1 63kg division so far - hopefully he will get a shot as his continued wins certainly make him deserving.

In the semi main event, Hirotaka Urabe scored a decision victory to rebound from his loss in the 63kg GP opening round.

Krush will host their next event, Krush.8, on July 9.

Albert Kraus, victorious in Poland. More great photos at Mixfight.nl.

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Results are in from this weekend's Beast of the East show in Gdynia, Poland. 

In the main event, #5 ranked Albert Kraus continued to build his momentum from last year, defeating Tevik Sucu in the opening minute.  It took barely 30 seconds for the former MAX Grand Prix champion to hit a beautiful two punch combo that sent Sucu to the mat, out cold, in one of the cleanest knockouts of the year. After looking like his time at the top may have been done in 2007 and early 2008, Kraus has quietly put together a very impressive win streak, taking 11 of his last 12 fights, with the sole loss coming against Giorgio Petrosyan.  The veteran continues to show that he is still a factor and can not be overlooked in MAX.  His next fight should be a good one as he takes on the young Hiroki Nakajima in Final 16 action on July 5.

Also at Beast of the East, Markus Oberg scored a nice win over Faldir Chahbari via decision after an extension round.  After sitting out much of 2009 waiting for The Contender Asia Season 2 to film (still hasn't happened) Oberg is looking to rebuild his momentum.  He's gone 2-1 since returning, with two solid wins against Chahbari and Gago Drago.  Chahbari meanwhile is a fighter who consistently puts on entertaining fights, but seems to always find himself on the losing end - a sort of MMA Clay Guida if you will.  He's had great fights lately with Nieky Holzken and Andy Souwer among others, but keeps coming up short.  Still, he remains a fighter I am excited to see on cards, and hopefully will continue to get good match ups.

In the other featured bouts, 2009 MAX Final 16 fighter Aalviar Lima rebounded from his loss to Warren Stevelmans to defeat Lukasz Rambalski by decision, while Beast of the East tournament champion Shemsi Beqiri continued his winning ways, defeating Lukasz Schultz via decision.  Beqiri was slated to fight Michael Glogowski, but Glogowski had to drop out at the last minute.

Complete results available in the full entry.

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With all the focus on It's Showtime, one big result from this weekend kind of slipped through the cracks.  Buakaw Por. Pramuk returned to action over the weekend, competing for the first time since the MAX finals last October.  The two time MAX champion faced England's Jordan Watson under Muay Thai rules at a London event from MSA Muay Thai Premiere League.  Buakaw won via 5th round decision, in what reports are indicating was an excellent fight.  It's always welcome to see Buakaw compete under Muay Thai rules - hopefully footage from this will become available.

Thanks to muaythaiphotos for the picture - check out their full gallery online for more great shots of the event.

Glogowski and Morkevicius in Warsaw

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Tons of shows this weekend to catch up on, so let's get to it:

K-1 ColliZion ran a show from Croatia.  The main feature of the event was two 4 man tournaments.  In the HW tournament, Agron Preteni was victorious, while Mirko Vorkapic won the MAX bracket.  A few super fights on the show were definitely of interest.  Iounut Ifitmoaie defeated Milan Dasic in round 1.  This helps build some much needed momentum for Ifitmoaie as he readies to face Ray Sefo in Bucharest in May.  Two of Eastern Europe's biggest rising stars met, as Mladen Brestovac defeated Mihaita Golesco in round 2.  These two met late last year in the ColliZion tournament, with Brestovac gaining the win there as well.  Finally Bob Sapp defeated Sascha Weinpolter in MMA action, though by all accounts looked absolutely terrible in the fight.  Partial footage is available here.  Despite winning, Sapp's poor physical shape has caused the promoters of the K-1 Bucharest show to pull him from the card and his planned fight with Alexandru Lungu.  No word yet on Lungu's new opponent.

In other K-1 action, the K-1 Warsaw event took place yesterday.  This event was capped off by an 8-man tournament with the winner qualifying for the East Europe GP in Bucharest in May.  In the end, Estonia's Daniil Sapljoshin walked away with the tournament victory and a chance at making the Final 16.  Tournament favorite Dmitrij Bezus was eliminated in the semi-finals by Tomasz Sarara.  Also on this card, former K-1 star Remigijus Morkevičius returned to action, facing the tough Michal Glogowski, who has a very impressive win at last year's Europe GP in Lodz.  The two men fought to a three round draw.  Paul Slowinski was also on the card, looking to bounce back from a rocky 2009 against Konstantin Gluhov.  Slowinsky earned the KO victory in round 2.  Footage of many of the fights can be found here.

Finally, MSA Muay Thai Premier League (the same organization hosting Buakaw in May) presented an international level Muay Thai event in London on Saturday.  In the co-main events, it was the Thai fighters who came out on the losing ends, as England's Liam Harrison scored a huge win over Anuwat, while Michael Dicks defeated Bovy.  Great wins for both Harrison and Dicks.

Full results from all three events after the jump.

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Iron Mike Zambidis

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Some late results in from this weekend: a number of internationally known fighters took part in the Kickboxing Superstar event in Milan, Italy on Saturday.  Full results are not yet available, but there are definite highlights to mention.

In one of the biggest fights on the card, K-1 fighter "Iron" Mike Zambidis defeated Warren Stevelmans via decision.  Zambidis was last seen on the big stage last October, where he lost a controversial fight to Hinata and was all but written off by the K-1 commentary team.  Since then he has bounced back with two straight wins, first over Dzhabar Askerov, and now over Stevelmans.  Zambidis scored a knockdown in round 2, though some live reports claim this should have been ruled a slip.  Footage is not yet available, so we'll have to wait and see.

Also bouncing back on this show - Yodsaenklai Fairtex, who returned from his shocking upset loss to Vusi Colossa last month by defeating Abdel Halim Issaou.  The fight was contested under Muay Thai rules and took place at the 76 kg weight limit.  Yod took the fight via a TKO due to cuts in round 3. 

Finally, Stefan "Blitz" Leko defeated Moussa Sissoko via TKO.  At just 1-5 in his last 6 fights, Leko definitely needed the win here to show that he's not entirely done just yet.