Category — Moo-ee tie

The 2009 K-1 World GP Final 16 takes place tomorrow in Seoul, South Korea. Among the big kickers and heavy hitters to watch for are Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt, Melvin Manhoef and Alistair Overeem, who has written a blog post here and done an interview (below) explaining (sort of) why he’s kickboxing and not defending his Strikeforce heavyweight belt and how he’s looking forward to fighting Fedor Emelianenko.

Fighters Only is reporting that ace Muay Thai instructor Mark DellaGrotte and his top student, UFC lightweight and Joe Rogan wannabe Kenny Florian, have parted ways.

“There are no hard feelings. Me and Kenny have been good friends for a long, long time. We did good thing together. I think this is a good decision for both of us,” says the Boston-based Sityodtong head coach. “It wasn’t a bad break or anything like that, it was just a mutual decision we made in order for us both to move forward. It was necessary for Kenny to move forward with his career and me to move forward as a coach.”

There has been a “constant power struggle” between DellaGrotte and Florian’s brother, Keith, who is also his head coach, for some time, DellaGrotte explained. “We worked well together at first but over the last few camps and fights we put together, there were differences and I am just the type of guy that if I can’t steer the ship, if I can’t be the captain, I would prefer not to be onboard.”

Dellagrotte says he likes to be 100 percent in control of his fighters’ camps. “I felt over the last couple of fights, I have not been able to be me or say what I wanted to say because I have not been in the position of head coach.  Going into the BJ Penn fight, I really didn’t feel like I had all that much control over the camp. Over the last couple of fights in fact, since Kenny made it public that Keith was the head coach.”

As Georges St. Pierre’s Muay Thai coach, Kru Phil Nurse has kind of slipped under the radar a little bit. GSP has become better known for his wrestling than his striking of late and when his stand-up is discussed his kyokushin karate background is usually mentioned before his Thai boxing. In fact, most of the attention Nurse has received is a result of the BJ Penn “greasegate” incident. Which is too bad considering Nurse, a former British and European Muay Thai champion and boxer, is in the same league as Mark DellaGrotte, Kenny Florian’s MT instructor.

All this by way of introducing this interview with Nurse, which is a really good piece despite Fox Sports‘ Mike Straka’s best efforts to be a bad interviewer. I had no idea Nurse was 46. He doesn’t look more than 36 or 37. Anyway, this is definitely worth checking out to hear him talk about how he trains GSP and Rashad Evans, how he works with GSP’s other coaches, including Greg Jackson, his thoughts on the Thiago Alves and BJ Penn fights, etc.

I have no idea how legit this story is but it’s too bizarre not to pass along. Apparently, Jean-Claude Van Damme has signed to fight a professional Muay Thai bout in March 2010. The Muscles from Brussels’ opponent will be Thailand’s Somluck Kamsing, a 1996 Olympic gold medal winner in boxing. The fight will take place in Las Vegas and be contested under Muay Thai rules with five two-minute rounds.

I’m thinking Van Damme has taken a few too many helicopter kicks to the head.

A few days ago I wrote that I was sick of Alistair Overeem not defending his Strikeforce heavyweight title. It’s been almost two years, during which he went 3-0 in MMA in Japan and 1-1 in K-1 kickboxing. I was particularly irked by the fact that Overeem was forced to withdraw from two Strikeforce events this year due to a hand injury but had agreed to fight a few more kickboxing events this year. Add to that the fact that Strikeforce has just acquired Fedor Emelianenko so at some point I’d like to see the Russian fight for the championship.

Well, Strikeforce has announced that after Overeem fights at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final 16 on September 26 in Seoul, Korea, and another kickboxing match a few weeks later in Amsterdam, he will defend his title. That’s still pretty oblique. I’d like to see a date set and an opponent named. Like yesterday.

What the hell is going on with Alistair Overeem?! He hasn’t defended his Strikeforce heavyweight belt since he kneed Paul Buentello into the ground to capture it in November 2007.

He has fought since then, though, including three DREAM bouts, one bout in Holland against Gary Goodridge and a bar brawl with his brother in which he broke his hand. That injury prevented him from fighting Brett Rogers at Strikeforce in June and Fabricio Werdum in August.

And now that he’s all healed up, what is he doing? Going off to compete in a couple of kickboxing event, according to Five Ounces of Pain. He will face fellow Dutchman Peter Aerts at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 on September 26 for a chance to qualify for December’s championship. Overeem is also expected to fight Mighty Mo, Siala-Mou Siligia, during a separate kickboxing event set for Amsterdam on October 17.

So what about the Strikeforce heavyweight title? We know Fedor Emelianenko will challenge for it and that Strikeforce wants to build up to that bout by having Fedor fight at least one warm-up against Rogers. But we need to see Overeem in action, the belt on the line. It’s been way too long. Why not threaten to strip Overeem of the title to force him to fight on the same card as Fedor-Rogers against Werdum? That would be a helluva card.

Let’s face it, if you didn’t start hitting the Thai pads before you hit puberty then you don’t have much of a shot at being a world champion. This is the kid’s fourth round and his technique looks pretty crisp and sharp. And he’s probably not even the best at his school.

In all the post-UFC 100 madness the quarterfinals of the K-1 World MAX 2009 tournament kind of slipped under my radar a little bit. Man, I do loves me some Muay Thai. If you’re interested in the full results go here.

If you just want a few highlights, check out Thai legend Buakaw Por Pramuk’s three-rounder with Nieky Holzken (looks like Buakaw has been doing a little boxing; his hands are pretty crisp, although nothing compared to his legs) and Artur Kyshenko vs. Andy Souwer, who fought a battle for three rounds and had to fight an extra round to break the judges’ deadlock.

Spotted K-1 standout (and Toronto BJJ Muay Thai coach) Andre “Dida” Amado and his brother, Mauricio Veio (TBJJ’s fulltime striking instructor), among Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez’s entourage during tonight’s Ultimate Fighter Finale. Also there were jiu-jitsu legends Saulo and Xande Ribeiro. Sanchez just got his brown belt under Saulo (after giving up his Greg Jackson-awarded black belt to start over as a white belt under the Ribeiros).

But it was his striking that stood out in the fight with Clay Guida, especially that opening round that saw Sanchez go ape-shit on Guida, whom  Joe Rogan called a wild chimpanzee. Within seconds the two went at each other with a barrage of punches, kicks and knees. Sanchez landed the heavier blows driving Guida back and pounding him with what looked like 30 or 40 unanswered strikes. Somehow, Guida survived the onslaught and gave back as good as he got for the full three rounds.

Sanchez won a split decision but it was Guida who had the fans chanting his name during the fight and Guida who was still bouncing like Tigger during the entire post-fight interview. Guida can take a hell of a lot of punishment and he’s got  gas tank that could fuel a jumbo jet. He keeps fighting like that Guida will always have a job in the UFC no matter how often he loses.

Andre “Dida” Amado’s absence around Toronto BJJ the last couple of weeks has nothing to do with the Brazilian knockout specialist’s loss last month to Muay Thai legend Buakaw Por Pramuk at a K-1 World Max kickboxing event in Japan. No, Dida (6-3-1) hasn’t been licking his wounds (if you saw the fight, you probably noticed the beating Dida put on Buakaw in the opening round before gassing in the later going; if you haven’t seen it, check out the first round, embedded below). He’s actually back in Brazil training for return to the ring at Dream 10 against DEEP champion Katsunori Kikuno (according to a report on Tatame.com).

The event is scheduled for July 20 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Dida, as everyone around TBJJ calls him, is the former Chute Boxe prodigy and teammate of brothers Mauricio and Murilo Rua at their Universidade Da Luta camp. He’ll be looking to bounce back from two consecutive MMA losses at the hands of top lightweight fighters Eddie Alvarez and Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante. The Brazilian had been undefeated in his past seven contests, including a September 2007 decision win over Caol Uno and a March 2007 TKO win over Hiroyuki Takaya.

Dida will be in San Diego for the next couple of months to train at the University of Jiu-Jitsu under six-time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion and two- time ADCC champion Saulo Ribeiro and his brother Xande, the current open weight wold champ. (If you’re looking for the connection between Dida and the Ribeiros, TBJJ is a member of the Ribeiro jiu-jitsu family and its head instructor, Jorge Britto, is a black belt student under Saulo Ribeiro, who comes to teach at the Toronto club several times each year.)

Here are some of Dida’s thoughts on training at the University of Jiu-Jitsu, according to Tatame: “Kikuno is from wrestling, then I’ll be well advised at Saulo’s academy. I’ll never run away from my game, I’ll always go ahead and look for the knockout, but if the fight goes to the ground I will be well-prepared, because I’ll train with the best.” Check out the Tatame story for Dida’s thoughts on his loss to Buakaw as well as a possible rematch.

As for Dida’s Dream opponent, Kikuno is 11-1-1 in his career and has won his last eight straight bouts. Like Dida, he’s got knockout power, with six of his eleven victories either coming by way of knockout or TKO.

Also on the Dream card are lightweight champ Joachim Hansen vs. grappling phenom Shinya Aoki for the belt and occasional TBJJ drop-in Andre Galvao vs. Jason High.