Category: Kickboxing

Former Glory kickboxing champ Cedric Doumbe shoots down reports of UFC deal

Posted on by Zane Simon in GLORY, Kickboxing, UFC News

For former Glory kickboxing champion and devastating knockout artist Cedric Doumbe, the UFC portion of his combat sports career was supposed to get started back in September of last year. That’s when multiple sources reported that the 30-year-old Cameroonian-born Frenchman had been signed to take on Darian Weeks at UFC Paris: Gane vs. Tuivasa.

Unfortunately, and despite the fact that Weeks himself was only carrying a 5-2 MMA record (alongside a 1-1 boxing career), the French MMA Federation nixed the booking, on account of Cedric Doumbe’s limited 2-0 bouts worth of experience fighting inside a cage.

The former Glory kickboxing star quickly turned to Twitter after news broke that he’d no longer be on the card, to tell fans that while his debut had been delayed, he was still effectively a UFC fighter. Whatever agreement he may have reached with the promotion, however, it’s clear that getting more experience before stepping into the Octagon was going to be key.

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Doumbe competed twice more in MMA events, defeating 2-0 Florent Burillon via TKO last December and 4-1 Pawel Klimas on March 4th. Those wins took his record to a sparkling 4-0 in 4oz gloves, and it looks like the UFC has once again come calling.

Cedric Doumbe posted a photo of a call from UFC president Dana White

That tweet, along with an interview with French media outlet BeinSports, seem to have caused a lot of confusion, with several sites and pseudo-media accounts posting that Doumbe had now been signed to the UFC. Unfortunately, for fans hoping to finally see Doumbe test his skills on MMA’s biggest stage, it appears he’s still weighing up his options.

Cedric Doumbe has denied reports of a UFC deal

“I never said I signed to UFC” Doumbe wrote in a post to his Twitter account. “I said that the contract was signed (before #UFCParis) and that until I fight I’m not officially in the UFC so I can negotiate with other big organizations. You have to listen well when I speak.”

In a followup Tweet, Doumbe further clarified his stance, adding, “I know you all want to see me at #UFC. I really want to make you happy, but the choice offered to me is really not easy and at 30 [years old] it will be the last choice of my life. It’s not easy!”

Like Adesanya and Pereira, Doumbe was a dominant force in the kickboxing world

Having started his kickboxing career back in 2013, Doumbe put together a stunning 75-7-1 record over his eight years as a pro, including 45 wins by knockout. Having competed in major organization including Glory and K-1, ‘The Best’ holds victories over Murthel Groenhart, Brad Riddell, Nieky Holzken, and Thongchai Sitsongpeenong among many others.

Doumbe picked up his first Glory kickboxing welterweight title back in 2016, with a split decision victory over Holzken, defending it twice before losing the belt to Groenhart in 2017. In 2019, however, he regained the title, with a 3rd round TKO victory over Harut Grigorian. He defended that belt three times, with KO victories over Alim Nabiev, Karim Ghajji and an avenging win over Groenhart in January of 2021. After that win, Doumbe announced his retirement from kickboxing to focus on MMA.

“Kickboxing is done,” Doumbe told the audience at an October 2021 fight event. “My next fight should be in MMA.”

For the moment, Doumbe doesn’t appear to have another fight booked. When he does decide to return to competition, it may just be that he’ll do so with the world’s largest MMA promotion. But that outcome seems far from certain at the moment.

No horsing around! – Alistair Overeem gets 1 year suspension from GLORY over failed drug test

Posted on by Zane Simon in Drugs and PEDs, Front Page, GLORY, Kickboxing, MMA News

The specter of performance enhancing drugs has long hung over Alistair Overeem’s career, even while direct evidence of their use has been fairly limited. Back in 2012, Overeem was flagged by the NAC for an extremely elevated T/E (Testosterone/Epitestosterone) ratio—often a sign of steroid use. The ‘Reem’ claimed the drug test results were the result of a prescribed anti-inflammatory medication, but he was suspended from competition for nine months by the Nevada commission nonetheless.

Otherwise, it’s always been about the eye test. How did Overeem go from wiry light heavyweight to massive 265 lb juggernaut? Was it really just a steady schedule of heavy lifting and a high protein diet of horse meat, like he claimed?

Whatever the truth of it was, this latest news won’t help his legacy any. Back in November, GLORY revealed that the 42-year-old had failed an in-competition drug test from his recent decision victory over Badr Hari. While Overeem’s team sounded confident that it wasn’t a “performance enhancing” substance, and hoped he might even be cleared by the B-sample, Beyond Kick now reports that Dutch Anti-Doping Authorities—working alongside GLORY kickboxing—have suspended the former UFC title contender for one year.

Alistair Overeem suspended for a year

It’s still unclear exactly what showed up in Overeem’s tests, but apparently it was in his B-sample too. As a result of the drug test failure, Overeem’s win over Hari has been overturned to a no-contest and he has been fined a portion of his fight purse from the event.

“Alistair Overeem has been removed from the GLORY rankings and his fight again Badr Hari is ruled a “No Contest” due to a violation of GLORY’s anti-doping rules,” the promotion said in a brief statement. “His suspension is for 12 months, starting at his last fight – COLLISION 4. And he must return a percentage of his wages.”

While rumors had surfaced earlier this year that he was considering a jump over to ONE Championship for their openweight tournament, Overeem himself confirmed that he’s under exclusive contract with GLORY. Fans will likely have to wait until at least October if they hope to see him back in action.

Tyrone Spong shows off massive anaconda he caught by the road

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, Kickboxing

Tyrone Spong’s combat sports career has been in a weird state of flux lately. The former star kickboxer made a move over to boxing back in 2015, after a brief flirtation with MMA, racking up a 14-0 unbeaten record (and gaining the WBO & WBC Latino heavyweight titles in the process) against the kind of competition that gets someone a 14-0 unbeaten record with zero fanfare.

Having not competed in the ring since 2019, however, the now 37-year-old stepped back into the cage in 2022 for a fight against fellow longtime combat sports veteran Sergei Kharitonov. His bout against the ‘Paratrooper’ ended in a TKO loss in the second round. So what’s the ‘King of the Ring’ been up to in the time since? Catching bigass snakes for no reason, apparently.

In a video posted to his Instagram account, Spong showed off his anaconda handling skills—nabbing the massive constrictor from out of the grass on the side of the road in his home country of Suriname.

It’s days like this when I really miss having Mookie around.

More wild than his snake charming skills, however, is that beautiful mop of curly hair. To think what Spong has been denying us for all these years.

About the author: Zane Simon is a senior editor, writer and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. Host of the MMA Vivisection and 6th Round, he has covered MMA and the UFC since 2013.(full bio)

‘I busted a nut to make weight’ – Israel Adesanya shares deepest, darkest weight-cut secrets

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, Kickboxing, MMA News, UFC 281, UFC News

Cutting weight is already combat sports’ dirty little open secret. A backbone of the industry that has caused countless fights to fall apart due to health complications and even ruined entire careers. But with money, glory, and titles on the line, fighters will often go to just about any lengths necessary to make sure that they’re under the limit when they step on the scales.

With that kind of drive, it’s no surprise that UFC athletes would have a few stories floating around that they’d rather not make public. Back in 2014, former UFC fighter Cody McKenzie even went so far as to donate blood in order to make weight for his bout against Brock Larsen at Battlegrounds MMA 5. Current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya may not have gone quite that far, but in a recent interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks, the City Kickboxing standout admitted that he’s ejected a few more bodily fluids than just sweat and spit when the situation called for it.

“Pause, pause, pause. Let me think if I can say—” Adesanya trailed off, when asked what the “craziest thing” he’d ever done to make weight was.

“Ah f-ck, hold up. F-cking hell,” he continued, trying to buy time.

“Well, back in kickboxing, back in the day, when I was an amateur, when I was really young and had no—I didn’t have the fight dietician, who’s the guy that looks after us with my meals and whatnot. I did not have him on deck, I wasn’t in the UFC.

“Ah f-ck, man,” Adesanya exclaimed, trailing off again.

“I—f-ck, how do I put this? I busted a nut to make weight,” he finally admitted.

“You really wanted to know?” Adesanya responded when asked how much that could even weigh. “At the time, I was young and on that whole no [sex] before a fight—before I knew it was a myth. And yeah, I just—yeah. And then a few grams came off. 100 grams.”

“Yeah, I made weight.”

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Considering Adesanya’s post fight celebratory humping of Paulo Costa, this may not be the most surprising answer coming from the UFC champ, but it seems clear that it’s a technique he’d rather not rely on in the future.

“But, I wouldn’t advise it,” Adesanya admitted. “I was younger back then—I was, like, 21 or 22—I didn’t know what I was doing with weight cutting, and yeah, that was something.”

Adesanya faces off against former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira in the main event of this weekend’s UFC 281 PPV event at Madison Square Garden in New York. Alongside the middleweight title fight the card will feature a strawweight championship bout between reigning belt holder Carla Esparza and former champ Zhang Weili.

Kickboxing’s biggest superfight has a date: Tenshin vs. Takeru set for June

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, Kickboxing

It feels as though the moment Tenshin Nasukawa captured his first Rise kickboxing title, back in 2015, the stage was set for him to take on K-1 champion Takeru Segawa. Both men were fighting at 55kg, both making their names as stars of the Japanese kickboxing circuit, and both competing in a sport that has consistently provided top tier sporting rivalries between legendary talents.

Somehow, however, that fight just never seemed to materialize. Takeru has kept his career almost entirely limited to the K-1 stage, while Tenshin bridged his success in Rise over to a consistent spot with Japan’s premiere MMA platform, Rizin. For a sport where multiple meetings between the best fighters in the world – over careers that often stretch into triple-digit ring appearances – are a commonplace occurrence, it almost felt like this was a fight that was never going to happen.

Thankfully, though, that no longer appears to be the case. Rizin CEO, and former mastermind behind PRIDE FC, Nobuyuki Sakakibara made an announcement on Friday, December 24th, that Tenshin vs. Takeru will take place in June of 2022.

Assuming everything goes to plan, the bout will take place at Tenshin’s consistent fighting weight of the last several years, 58kg (128 lbs). That will require a bit of extra cutting and weight management from Takeru, who has been competing at 60kg (132) lbs since 2018.

As part of the announcement, the two men faced off during a press conference for the assembled media.

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According to a report from MMA Fighting, an exact date, venue, or even hosting promotion has not yet been finalized. In fact, the two men have yet to even settle on the exact rules or number of rounds. With The-Fighter.net reporting that Takeru has requested the bout have an unlimited number of rounds in case of a draw, until a clear winner can be declared.

During the press event, Takeru spoke about the delays in getting the fight booked, and his desire that the bout be held on a “neutral” playing field (transcript via The Fighter).

“Due to a number of reasons, it took a lot of time for this fight to happen. I’m sure both Tenshin and I have had a lot of painful experiences [as a result of this]
In order for this fight to come to fruition, I’ve been saying for the longest time that it has to be in a neutral ring. By having it in a neutral ring, things like barriers between the promotions [will be knocked down]. In the past, fighters used to face strong fighters regardless of which promotion they came from – I want to present a stage like that. That’s why I thought it was paramount to have it in a neutral ring and at the same time, it was one of the reasons why it took so long.”

At just 23-years-old, Tenshin has also made it clear that he expects this bout to be the final fight of his kickboxing career before he transitions to professional boxing. ‘TEPPEN’ infamously made his exhibition boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather at RIZIN 14, back in 2018. He lost that bout via TKO, just 2:20 into the first round.

Tenshin is currently undefeated as a professional kickboxer, with a record of 42 wins and 0 losses (with 30 of those victories coming via TKO/KO). Takeru (42-2) has not lost a kickboxing bout since 2012, when a broken nose prevented him from continuing past round 1 of a fight against Yuki Kotani. The only decision loss of his career came in his debut bout against future IBF flyweight boxing title contender Eaktwan BTU Ruaviking.

Alex Pereira, only man to KO Israel Adesanya, to feature at UFC 268

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, Kickboxing, UFC 268, UFC News

The news is finally official. World class Brazilian kickboxer and former multi-division GLORY champion Alex Pereira has signed with the UFC. ‘Po Atan’ first rose to fame in the MMA world following the 2018 signing of now-champion Israel Adesanya. Pereira faced Adesanya inside the ring twice over their long kickboxing careers, defeating the ‘Last Stylebender’ both times.

Their second bout, a KO win for Pereira, marked the final fight of Adesanya’s kickboxing career before turning to MMA full time. And following the Nigerian-born New Zealander’s signing to the UFC, talk of Pereira’s own potential move to MMA started to pick up stream.

Pereira (33-7 kickboxing record) will hit the Octagon with just a 3-1 tally competing with 4oz gloves. After taking three MMA bouts between 2015-16 he didn’t return to the sport until a 2020 fight with the LFA organization. Although he lost his MMA debut via submission, all Pereira’s other bouts have resulted in KO victories.

The Glover Teixeira trained fighter will make his UFC debut on November 6th at Madison Square Garden against Andreas Michailidis. He made the news official with a short video released to Instagram.

“Hello guys, now it’s official,” Pereira told fans after signing his UFC contract for the camera. “UFC, thank you! I am so happy to be part of the family.”

UFC 268 is set to be headlined by pair of title fight rematches, with Kamaru Usman taking on Colby Covington for the second time, in defense of his welterweight belt, and Rose Namajunas facing Weili Zhang once again after beating ‘Magnum’ back in April for her second stint as strawweight champ. A lightweight top contender’s bout between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler has also been planned for the event.

Alistair Overeem returns to kickboxing against GLORY king Rico Verhoeven

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, GLORY, Kickboxing

When Alistair Overeem announced that he had signed with GLORY Kickboxing back in June, after a nearly ten-year run with the UFC, it came as something of a surprise. A decorated kickboxer in the past, Overeem hadn’t competed inside the ring since his legendary 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix run—capped off by a win over Peter Aerts in the finale.

A year later, Overeem stepped into the Octagon for the first time, limiting his combat sports career purely to MMA for the next decade. Speaking to Ariel Helwani back in June, however, the ‘Demolition Man’ explained his desire to return to kickboxing, now, after so many years away.

“For me, it would be awesome to finish my career where it started,” Overeem said of his contract with GLORY, “which is here in the Netherlands. And yeah, there’s some unfinished business there, right? With some of the fighters in GLORY; there’s been some words said back and forth. And yeah, I think let’s throw myself in that mix.”

As for the unfinished business with different fighters under the GLORY banner? The first name that sprang to mind was none other than Rico Verhoeven.

“If it’s up to me, I would immediately gun for gold, right? I would immediately go for the title. That’s me. So that would be Rico [Verhoeven]. We had a little bit of back & forth, scuffling, so that’s something I’d be looking for.”

At the time, Overeem refused to say whether or not a bout with Verhoeven was already in the works (or potentially even finalized for his debut), but now it appears that that is indeed the plan that Glory has in mind for the former Strikeforce & Dream champion. Speaking once again with Helwani on the MMA Hour, Overeem made the announcement official: that he will be facing the ‘King of Kickboxing’ on October 23rd at GLORY: Collision 3.

The event is set to take place at the 34,000 seat GelreDome in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and will be available on iPPV through GLORYFights.com (h/t MMA Fighting).

“Alright, so, next fight is announced. Next fight is booked, next fight is final,” Overeem told Helwain on Monday, August 23rd. “We will be challenging for the GLORY heavyweight kickboxing title. October 23, in the Netherlands, in my backyard. And yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. It’s gonna be versus Rico [Verhoeven], and I’m very excited.”

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Verhoeven stopped by the MMA Hour as well to talk about the bout, telling Helwani that Alistair Overeem is “a name that I’d like to have on the list.” Adding that, while he feels Overeem stepping straight back into a title fight for his first kickboxing match in a decade might be a bit overambitious, “…that’s the fighter mentality and the fighter heart that he has. And he’s been fighting for so long. For my part, I think he knows what he’s getting into.”

Tenshin ready for Conor McGregor fight: ‘Watch your diet and wait for me’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Asian MMA, Boxing, Front Page, Kickboxing, UFC News

Is there a chance for yet another major crossover fight in the combat sports world? Conor McGregor got his opportunity to box with Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in 2017. A little more than a year later, kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa followed suit with what was intended to be a 3-round exhibition boxing match, at RIZIN 14, against the recently retired multiple-time world champion.

Tenshin ended up on the canvas three times in the opening round against Mayweather, before his corner threw in the towel to have the fight stopped. Hardly the highlight RIZIN or Tenshin were looking for out of the fight. But, even in defeat, the 20-year-old appears to have gotten a significant boost in global recognition. And it just so happens that one of the people taking notice is none other than the ‘Notorious’ UFC superstar.

McGregor and ‘TEPPEN’ exchanged a few barbs over social media before the NYE exhibition bout, but now that the Rise Kickboxing champion’s fight with Mayweather is over, McGregor has taken a stronger interest in setting up his own bout with the young star from Japan.

“I wish to go to Tokyo to face Tenshin Nasukawa in a Mixed Martial Arts exhibition bout in Japan,” the former two-division UFC champion wrote on Twitter. “Before this summer. Please arrange this, this instant.
Yours sincerely
The champ champ.”

While convincing the UFC to let McGregor fight under the RIZIN banner may be a near impossible task, the call-out has – seemingly, at least – been eagerly received by Tenshin. He fired back a response on Twitter, that a 58kg (127 lb) kickboxing bout would be most likely to get them both in the ring on the Irishman’s desired timeline.

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Considering that McGregor has fought as high as 170 lbs in the not too distant past and has never fought below 145 lbs, this ‘superfight’ may have hit a major technical snag right off the bat.

And even supposing that the UFC had any interest in easing McGregor’s contract for another event outside the Octagon, it’s hard to imagine that the fighter who told reporters he was stepping into the ring against Mayweather at around 170 lbs – for their contracted 154 lb fight – could get anywhere below 145 without losing a leg at least. On the other hand, having seen the obvious power differential on display between Tenshin and Mayweather, maybe it’s better for all involved if this fight is left in the realms of fantasy.

What happened to Mayweather’s RIZIN fight? Chael Sonnen says Floyd made a ‘tremendous mistake’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Asian MMA, Boxing, Front Page, Kickboxing, MMA News

To start from the beginning, back in September Floyd Mayweather Jr. began teasing the idea of a Manny Pacquiao rematch. However, before that fight would happen, he said, he’d be taking part in a “huge boxing event,” in Tokyo. Adding that fans should “stay tuned” for more details.

Two months later and it seemed that the huge tune-up fight had come to fruition, but in a way that entirely shocked the combat sports world. Mayweather wasn’t going to be ‘boxing’ – at least not entirely. Instead he’d be competing in a ‘special rules’ bout against 20-year-old phenom, and world-class kickboxing champion, Tenshin Nasukawa. And he’d be doing so under the promotional banner of the heir to Pride FC’s mantel, RIZIN Fighting Federation.

Floyd even started promoting the event in a – since deleted – Instagram post; a picture of himself in a pair of RIZIN MMA gloves.

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He traveled to Japan for a photo-shoot with Tenshin, promotional materials were printed, and the date was set for RIZIN’s annual NYE spectacle. It all seemed too weird to be true. And apparently it was.

In a bizarre followup message to fans, Mayweather announced that the bout had been cancelled as soon as his trip to Japan was over. He claimed the fight was intended to be “an exhibition put on for a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee.” And that it was a “‘Special Bout’ purely for entertainment purposes with no intentions of being represented as an official fight card nor televised worldwide.”

A strange turn from what was originally called a “huge boxing event,” and seemingly in the works for months out; plenty of time for Floyd and his team to figure out what RIZIN was about and who Tenshin was. Whether RIZIN really thought they could pay Floyd an appearance fee to perform in a ‘mixed rules’ fight, or whether Mayweather just got cold feet once he realized it wasn’t going to be just boxing, or whether the whole thing was just a months long con on all sides, either way, the match appears to be off.

And Floyd’s actions throughout have drawn some unsurprising criticism. Chael Sonnen gave his feelings on ‘Money’ Mayweather’s decision making, and how Floyd seems to have mishandled the whole spectacle from the start.

“It was a tremendous mistake,” Sonnen said on a recent episode of Ariel and the Bad Guy (transcript via MMA Fighting). “The retirement just so you can use that to market the comeback. You can never have the comeback if you don’t have the retirement. Floyd knows this, Floyd tries to copy this, but Ariel, the one miss that he had, the ingredient that has to be there if you’re going to pull a stunt like this . . . it has to be at a time when people all come out saying, ‘Why?! Why would you retire? You’re so good! You have more left!’ When you retire at a time when people are looking at you going, ‘You should retire,’ you can’t get that feel, you can’t get that buzz back.

“This is what happened to Floyd. When Floyd went in there and boxed Conor, what was happening was the greatest of a generation took on an amateur, and when it took 30 minutes to get the amateur out of there, it was easier for the boxing world to go, ‘well yeah, but he was retired anyway.’”

To Sonnen’s way of thinking, the move smacked of the idea that Mayweather may be running low on cash. And that that’s the only reason he’d “go and offer his services in a stunt fight over in Japan.”

Whichever way it breaks down, ultimately – and even if RIZIN paid him a large upfront appearance fee – it looks a lot like Mayweather got used to help build steam for the promotion’s end of year event. Even without him on it, the connection is likely to drive more interest than just about any the Japanese fight organization could make, short of actually securing Mayweather for the bout.

Nasukawa promises to ‘avenge’ Conor’s loss to Floyd Mayweather in response to McGregor’s trolling

Posted on by Zane Simon in Asian MMA, Boxing, Front Page, Kickboxing, MMA News

Never the man for subtlety outside the cage, Conor McGregor leapt at the news of Floyd Mayweather’s upcoming ‘special rules’ bout against Tenshin Nasukawa with his typical flare.

“Who is this little prick next to you?” McGregor gibed, posting a photo of Mayweather and Tenshin at the RIZIN.14 fight announcement on Instagram. “That’s mad sh-t. Like something out of rush hour 5 or something. Chris Tucker and Jackie f-cking Chan back in this b-tch.”

Perhaps McGregor was slightly put out that his own plans for a ‘modified rules’ Mayweather rematch seem to have taken a back seat to Floyd’s other plans. “If he has the bottle to come over and do it, like he said he would, like he said he has,” McGregor said, when asked if he was interested in a second Mayweather fight back in October. “So let’s see, I don’t necessarily think he does. But we’ll see what happens. I would also like to box him again. Everything is being discussed.”

Even if those discussions don’t appear to be happening any time soon, however, that doesn’t mean that McGregor can’t still get a win back, vicariously. In response to McGregor’s Instagram post, Tenshin sent out his own olive branch to the former UFC ‘champ champ.’ And with it, an offer to do what the Irishman couldn’t.

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“Hello, Mr. McGregor,” Nasukawa wrote on Twitter. “My name is Tenshin Nasukawa. I am not Jackie Chan. I promise to avenge your loss, so please watch my fight.”

Who knows, maybe he could even get RIZIN to comp McGregor a couple ringside seats for the bout, just so he gets the chance to take it all in, in person.

RIZIN.14 takes place on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena, in Saitama, Japan. The event will be headlined by the mixed rules contest between Floyd Mayweather vs. Tenshin Nasukawa. Kyoji Horiguchi is also expected to compete at the event, but an opponent has not yet been announced.