Catching Up with Modern Kickboxing: A Viewing Guide

[Arashikage4Life]

I made this for one of my friends and thought I'd share it here. Basically, once the HW K-1 GP died, it seemed like professional kickboxing went into a dormant stage until well into the 2010s, where it experienced a resurgence of sorts. Glory was gaining in popularity; K-1 rose from the ashes, promoting smaller weight classes; promotions like Kunlun Fight, Enfusion, Lion Fight, ONE Championships (later on with kickboxing), etc. popping up around the world -- we were, and are, exposed to a lot of good kickboxing. But it is very difficult to keep track of. So I went back to 2015 and began compiling annual lists to essentially give a summary of the best fights and KOs, with spotlights focusing on some of the best or more notable fighters in each year. I am also not as familiar with the Muay Thai scene but I included some full rules bouts because they were notable in some form or fashion or involved fighters who are or were players on the kickboxing scene. I could have posted many more but wanted to keep the focus on the "Glory/K-1" rules-style kickboxing.

First up is 2015 (I thought it was a good starting point with the proliferation of streaming media really exploding around the same time). I hope to make my way up to the present day and make this an annual thing but it is a lot of work to comb through all of these cards and fights, so we shall see...

Most of these fights are available on the official Youtube page for the organization but there are a few exceptions (which can be found with a little digging, if you know where to look). I included the date, organization, and geographic location of the fight.

Murthel Groenhart vs Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (1/3 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Andy Souwer vs Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (1/3 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Artur Kyshenko vs Bai Jinbin (2/1 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Nieky Holzken vs Alexander Stetsurenko (2/6 Glory) (USA)
Joe Schilling vs Robert Thomas (2/6 Glory) (USA)
Nieky Holzken vs Raymond Daniels (2/6 Glory) (USA)
Rico Verhoeven vs Errol Zimmerman (2/6 Glory) (USA)
Andy Souwer vs Hideya Tanaka (2/6 No Kick, No Life) (Japan)
Gaston Bolanos vs Caleb Archer (2/20 Lion Fight) (USA)
Kevin Ross vs Tetsuya Yamato (3/27 Lion Fight) (USA)
Dustin Jacoby vs Mourad Bouzidi (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Artem Vakhitov vs Saulo Cavalari (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Jason Wilnis vs Alex Pereira (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Gabriel Varga vs Mosab Amrani (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Simon Marcus vs Jason Wilnis (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Robin van Roosmalen vs Andy Ristie (4/3 Glory) (UAE)
Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Marat Grigorian (4/12 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Zabit Samedov vs Danyo Ilunga (4/17 GFC) (UAE)
Andy Souwer vs Jonay Risco (4/18 Enfusion) (Spain)
Takeru vs Alexandre Prilip (4/19 K-1) (Japan)
Takeru vs Shota Takiya (4/19 K-1) (Japan)
Takeru vs Taiga (4/19 K-1) (Japan)
Artur Kyshenko vs Jonatan Oliveira (4/26 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Hamish Willey (5/2) (Thailand)
Raymond Daniels vs Justin Baesman (5/8 Glory) (USA)
Artem Levin vs Simon Marcus (5/8 Glory) (USA)
Artur Kyshenko vs Dmitry Valent (5/15 Kunlun Fight) (Slovakia)
Thanonchai Tor Sangtiennoi vs Saeksan Or. Kwanmuang (6/4) (Thailand)
Mourad Bouzidi vs Filip Verlinden (6/5 Glory) (France)
Davit Kiria vs Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (6/5 Glory) (France)
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs Josh Jauncey (6/5 Glory) (France)
Rico Verhoeven vs Benjamin Adegbuyi (6/5 Glory) (France)
Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Dzianis Zuev (6/7 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Takeru vs Hakim Hamech (7/4 K-1) (Japan)
Kaew Fairtex vs Yasuomi Soda (7-4 K-1) (Japan)
Ilias Bulaid vs Simon Santana (7/11 Kunlun Fight) (Ireland)
Buakaw Banchamek vs Khayal Dzhaniev (7/28 Top King World Series) (China)
Anderson Silva vs Jamal Ben Saddik (8/7 Glory) (USA)
Dustin Jacoby vs Ariel Sepulveda (8/7 Glory) (USA)
Dustin Jacoby vs Casey Greene (8/7 Glory) (USA)
Nieky Holzken vs Raymond Daniels (8/7 Glory) (USA)
Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Marco Tentori (8/8 Origins) (Australia)
Ryuji Horio vs Ryuma Tobe (8/14 K-1 Krush) (Japan)
Chris Ngimbi vs Ilya Usachev (8/30 W5 Grand Prix) (Russia)
Burneng vs Zheng Zhaoyu (9/4 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Artur Kyshenko vs Cedric Tousch (9/12 Its Fight Time) (Germany)
Tayfun Ozcan vs Fran Palenzuela (9/19 Enfusion) (Spain)
Daniel Williams vs Charles Bongiovanni (9/22 K-1) (Japan)
Chris Mauceri vs Nicolas Parlanti (9/25 Lion Fight) (USA)
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs Jonay Risco (9/28 Kunlun Fight) (Thailand)
Benjamin Adegbuyi vs Jahfarr Wilnis (10/9 Glory) (USA)
Joe Schilling vs Jason Wilnis (10/9 Glory) (USA)
Maxim Vorovski vs Igor Lyapin (10/17 KOK) (Estonia)
Cosmo Alexandre vs John Wayne Parr (10/23 Lion Fight) (USA)
Artur Kyshenko vs Ruben Lee (10/24 IFC) (Spain)
Danyo Ilunga vs Artem Vakhitov (11/6 Glory) (Italy)
Karim Ghajji vs Murthel Groenhart (11/6 Glory) (Italy)
Robin van Roosmalen vs Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (11/6 Glory) (Italy)
Qiu Jianliang vs Mosab Amrani (11/7 Wulinfeng) (China)
Julio Pena vs Tim Anorim (11/20 Lion Fight) (USA)
Charles Bongiovanni vs Takeru (11/21 K-1) (Japan)
Koya Urabe vs Hirotaka Urabe (11/21 K-1) (Japan)
Kaew Fairtex vs Minoru Kimura (11/21 K-1) (Japan)
Artur Kyshenko vs Hicham El Gaoui (11/21 Enfusion) (Netherlands)
Karapet Karapetyan vs Yoann Kongolo (12/4 Glory) (Netherlands)
Rico Verhoeven vs Benjamin Adegbuyi (12/4 Glory) (Netherlands)
Mosab Amrani vs Maykol Yurk (12/4 Glory) (Netherlands)
Nieky Holzken vs Murthel Groenhart (12/4 Glory) (Netherlands)
Artem Vakhitov vs Loren Javier Jorge (12/19 Muay Thai Moscow) (Russia)
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenon vs Marat Grigorian (12/19 Kunlun Fight) (China)
Artur Kyshenko vs Dmitry Valent (12/19 Kunlun Fight) (China)

 

[Icanseeu]

I thank you for taking the time to post this. Your post shows just what happened to kickboxing after K-1 to many orgs top fighters in 5 different places you would have to be jobless to keep up with them all even then still would be hard to do.

 

[Tayski]

There's also this website where it rates the best Kickboxing / Muay Thai fights per year with a star system (there's also Boxing and MMA):
https://www.allthebestfights.com/best-k-1-muay-thai-fights-of-2011/

You can choose the year on the side.

 

[Arashikage4Life]

There's also this website where it rates the best Kickboxing / Muay Thai fights per year with a star system (there's also Boxing and MMA):
https://www.allthebestfights.com/best-k-1-muay-thai-fights-of-2011/

You can choose the year on the side.

View attachment 708629

Yeah, I actually used that site as a checklist to see if I was overlooking anything. It also made for handy copy-pasting, too.

 

[Tayski]

I thank you for taking the time to post this. Your post shows just what happened to kickboxing after K-1 to many orgs top fighters in 5 different places you would have to be jobless to keep up with them all even then still would be hard to do.

It's not that hard to keep track especially with this forum and to be honest if you follow Glory, One FC and K-1 you already cover a big chunk of all the best fights in Kickboxing.

 

[Mob69]

Thanks TS!