While the UFC was making its return to Fox with a disappointing main card filled with decisions the best combat sport event of the evening had taken place hours beforehand in the northern town of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. I had made the trip from London with a friend for a chance to see the last kickboxing fight of former K1 superstar Badr Hari as well as a card packed with top names in several weight divisions. The event bizarrely contained two It’s Showtime fight cards (54 and 55), presumably this was done so that they can sell the two cards separately to TV stations while not having to worry about filling two arenas.
The first card of fights, essentially just an undercard, was a bit tame at times. With a few fighters content to lose decisions after failing to get the better of the first round. The one fighter who stood out the most in terms of excitement was Andy Ristie who absolutely devastated the more favoured Japanese fighter Hinata Watanabe in the first round. From the opening bell where Ristie landed a hard teep that sent Watanabe staggering back to his corner, you could see the Ristie’s intentions to finish the contest early. Which is what happened when referee called a stop to the fight after three quick knockdowns.
This would be the only knockout of the undercard as the remaining four fights all went to decision including a title clash between the Frenchman Yohan Lidon and the Moroccan L’houcine Ouzgni. It was strange that ‘It’s Showtime’ put its 73kg title fight so early in the event, which shows that ‘It’s Showtime’ don’t really value their belts that highly. Perhaps they value their belts higher than Lidon who put up a poor effort in retaining his title and was easily defeated by a decision. The heavy Moroccon contingent in the crowd were really supportive of Ouzgni, for obvious reasons. However they cheered loudly for him before and after the fight but not during, possibly from lack of clear action in the bout.
The biggest fight on the undercard was between Tyrone Spong and Melvin Manhoef, a match up which many people viewed as guaranteed to produce a knockout. Manhoef was clearly the more popular amongst the crowd and even enjoyed two entrance songs (‘Por Una Cabeza’ hilariously followed by ‘Niggas in Paris’). However when the fight began he was clearly overmatched against disciplined Spong, while not finishing in a knockout the fight was still far more entertaining than the 5 round title fight that preceded it.
The action picked up considerably, as did the crowd, for the first fight of the main card between Anderson Silva and Michael Duut. The fight got a bit feisty at the end of the first round with Duut throwing a few deliberate shots after the bell, which the crowd loved because it was one of the first times we had seen real emotion from the fighters. Silva made the Dutchman pay in the second round, battering him and dropping him for an 8 count on his way to a clear decision win.
The next fight was between It’s Showtime 70 Max champion Chris Ngimbi against the Armenian Marut Grigorian. Nigimbi’s belt wasn’t on the line as this was perhaps a stroke of good fortune for the Congolese fighter as he was absolutely picked apart by the faster Armenian. Grigorian’s constant forward movement and technical combinations offset Ngimbi’s usual game that mostly revolves around repeated flying knees. The fight was stopped in second round due to cuts and saved Ngimbi from further punishment.
Another fight that took place in the 70kg division was a thriller between Robin Van Roosmalen and Murat Direkci. The fight was quiet even throughout but I felt the decision was awarded to the right man in Roosmalen. Robin seemed able to generate ridiculous snap in his leg kicks from very close range and landed several clean punches to the solid jaw of Direkci, who announced his retirement from kickboxing after the fight. It’s Showtime announced that their next event would take place on the 30th of June and would feature a fight between Grigorian and Roosmalen, this will no doubt be a very exciting match up.
A heavyweight fight between Errol Zimmerman and Rico Verhoeven produced the first clean knockout of the night, with Verhoeven being flattened by a Zimmerman left hook. I said in my pre-fight preview that Verhoeven’s lack of knockout power could prove costly against the powerful Zimmerman, especially since heavyweight kickboxing is essentially ‘Kill or Be Killed’. Rico seemed content to stand directly in front of Zimmerman which proved a huge mistake, and possibly an equal mistake by organisation who seemed to want to push Verhoeven as a potential star. A possibly reason for this is that Rico had a huge vocal support from the women in the audience (who had kept quiet until he appeared) as well as him being purely Dutch which makes him a more marketable in the Netherlands, as this is quiet rare among top kickboxers. I doubt that Verheoven has the power to be the next Peter Aerts as he is touted as, despite weighing in at over 117kg. However he is still young as could gain some success should he be matched more carefully by the promotion until he’s ready to take on such a hard hitting heavyweight. A match up with the resurgent Zimmerman was always a huge risk for any opponent, who now extends his streak of knockout victories to five fights.
The ‘It’s Showtime’ Heavyweight Title was on the line in a much anticipated rematch between the champion Hesdy Gerges and the challenger Romanian Daniel Ghita. In a similar vein to the Shogun-Machida sequel, Daniel Ghita removed all possible controversy out of the rematch by knocking the champion clean out in the first round with a sharp left hook. Ghita showed crisp boxing in this fight and didn’t rely on his usual bombardment of leg kicks which probably caught Gerges off guard. With this win Daniel Ghita emerges as one of the top heavyweights in the world, now with a complete arsenal of strikes to go with his iron chin. A fight with Badr Hari would be great if Badr wasn’t leaving the sport.
The main event was somewhat anti-climatic yet at the same time a suiting tribute the best of Badr Hari, his ferocious knockout power. His opponent Gokhan Saki had been sat at ringside for most of the event and seemed very relaxed going into the bout. This attitude proved costly as he was caught with a huge uppercut in the first round, which he bravely got up from but never recovered, two more knockdowns and the fight was stopped. While Saki is a great fighter, the size difference between the two meant it was also going to be hard for him to get anything going without being caught by the power shots of Hari.
For what its worth Hari’s boxing looked very good on the night, finding nice angles to penetrate Saki’s guard. The Moroccan fans in attendance where going wild during the fight with chants of ‘Hari Boombaye’, which really added to the atmosphere of the fight. Hari’s star power was evident the entire night with huge cheers from the crowd every time he was shown backstage on the big screen. After the fight Hari gave a long speech in Dutch which I didn’t understand, but the speech did appear to show Hari in a more noble light as he thanked not only his trainers but also his opponents throughout his career, he also made a light hearted joke about Manhoef which everyone seemed to enjoy.
There were lots of Kickboxing legends in the crowd such as Ernesto Hoost, Peter Aerts and Remy Bonjasky. Aerts at one point received a larger ovation while leaving the Arena than Marut Gregorian did while he was making his ring entrance at the same time.
Overall, the event proved to be a hugely exciting and far eclipsing the supposedly stacked card that the UFC, which leads to question; why is kickboxing dying when it can put of great fights like these? No doubt political pressures in the Netherlands have a huge effect on its growth there. Where as the continued failure of Japanese fighters to break into the top of the sport slowly but surely cost K1 its existence in Japan, similar to Pride. However, the audience for these events does exist, I have no doubt that if you put this card on instead of the recent UFC 138 I attended in Birmingham (which was still a fun card) the entire crowd would have enjoyed this more regardless of their familiarity with any of the fighters, the same would apply in America or Canada for other events. I’m not saying the Kickboxing is better than Mixed Martial Arts as it is essentially a less complete sport, however it does guarantee action in a way that UFC’s second show on Fox didn’t. There is room for growth in the sport which constantly creates such good entertainment yet at the moment no promotion has been successful in getting the product to a western audience which would surely enjoy the stand up action. With this event being the last ‘It’s Showtime’ will hold in the Netherlands for the foreseeable future it seems unlikely they will be able to get the audience their product deserves.
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