Recent fights/results/news from Europe

[Shadess]

ah fightsports.tv

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Interesting case study. I was sitting there watching it and the bartender changed the channel to a fucking dog agility competition. I'm like "HEY! I was watching that!" She was like "Sorry, people usually don't watch fights here" (I've NEVER seen Kickboxing on there), so she changed it back. I could hear the couple sitting near me agreeing with me. Right after a guy walked in and was like "Oh cool they got fights on in here" to his friend. He later came up to me seeing me watch it and went on to tell me that Muay Thai is better because they are in better shape from throwing kicks (LOL) and told me about someone he knows just got their Judo black belt (OMG!).

Hahahah wow that’s cool, looks like those other people also enjoyed watching some kickboxing. Getting to talk about fighting with strangers is always fun, lol.
How well known is the sport of kickboxing / are kickboxing organizations over there?
Can “normal” people from where you live name a kickboxer or two?

 

[Snubnoze707]

Hahahah wow that’s cool, looks like those other people also enjoyed watching some kickboxing. Getting to talk about fighting with strangers is always fun, lol.
How well known is the sport of kickboxing / are kickboxing organizations over there?
Can “normal” people from where you live name a kickboxer or two?

Not very well known at all, I was for sure the only one there that knew Enfusion, and I'm sure most people looked at the video and thought it was MMA or Boxing.

Their are quite a bit of gyms throughout the Bay Area though so you'll find people that train/fight know a lot more. There are definitely hardcore fight fans here and a history of martial arts. This is the area where Scott Coker was doing kickboxing events going back to the 80's with Strikeforce.

So pretty much average people don't know much about Kickboxing, but fight fans do and their are quite a bit of them here.

Too bad the last time we got a big Kickboxing related event it was that Glory/Bellator Dynamite show. The few Glory fights sucked and weren', almost like Coker intentionally did that so that he could do Bellator Kickboxing, which he went on to putting zero effort into.

 

[Nova44]

Interesting case study. I was sitting there watching it and the bartender changed the channel to a fucking dog agility competition. I'm like "HEY! I was watching that!" She was like "Sorry, people usually don't watch fights here" (I've NEVER seen Kickboxing on there), so she changed it back. I could hear the couple sitting near me agreeing with me. Right after a guy walked in and was like "Oh cool they got fights on in here" to his friend. He later came up to me seeing me watch it and went on to tell me that Muay Thai is better because they are in better shape from throwing kicks (LOL) and told me about someone he knows just got their Judo black belt (OMG!).

Bartender turned it off because there weren't enough Romanian fighters on the main card.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Not very well known at all, I was for sure the only one there that knew Enfusion, and I'm sure most people looked at the video and thought it was MMA or Boxing.

Their are quite a bit of gyms throughout the Bay Area though so you'll find people that train/fight know a lot more. There are definitely hardcore fight fans here and a history of martial arts. This is the area where Scott Coker was doing kickboxing events going back to the 80's with Strikeforce.

So pretty much average people don't know much about Kickboxing, but fight fans do and their are quite a bit of them here.

Too bad the last time we got a big Kickboxing related event it was that Glory/Bellator Dynamite show. The few Glory fights sucked and weren', almost like Coker intentionally did that so that he could do Bellator Kickboxing, which he went on to putting zero effort into.

Nicee. Cool that there’re also kickboxing gyms out there
Do you think regular Joe’s from the streets have any clue who Badr Hari and Rico Verhoeven are?
And who’s more well known under the guys who actually follow combat sports over there? Do they know about guys like Jamal Ben Saddik and Antonio Plazibat?

 

[Snubnoze707]

Nicee. Cool that there’re also kickboxing gyms out there
Do you think regular Joe’s from the streets have any clue who Badr Hari and Rico Verhoeven are?
And who’s more well known under the guys who actually follow combat sports over there? Do they know about guys like Jamal Ben Saddik and Antonio Plazibat?

Nah regular Joe's wouldn't know Badr and Rico, there is basically no exposure to them. Amongst fight fans they aren't quite as up to speed on the current pool but you'll always hear people bring up guys like Ernesto Hoost and Ramon Dekkers. I even trained Kickboxing with people that knew almost nothing about the sport. That shit always bothered me so I always made a point to educate as many people as possible. Really MMA kind of took the focus over around 20 years ago. Kickboxing was bigger here in the 80's/90's and was on TV quite a bit - be it that above the waste shit or "Oriental Rules" which had leg kicks. Also Scott Coker was showing K-1 on ESPN in the early 2000's before Tanikawa pulled the plug. Then "The Ultimate Fighter" happened and there was no chance for Kickboxing.

The gyms are a bit more Muay Thai focused now overall, likely the influence from Fairtex when they came out here. A guy from my hometown Rick Cheek has fought in K-1 with not so great results- he did fight (and got KO'd) by Gokhan Saki.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Nah regular Joe's wouldn't know Badr and Rico, there is basically no exposure to them. Amongst fight fans they aren't quite as up to speed on the current pool but you'll always hear people bring up guys like Ernesto Hoost and Ramon Dekkers. I even trained Kickboxing with people that knew almost nothing about the sport. That shit always bothered me so I always made a point to educate as many people as possible. Really MMA kind of took the focus over around 20 years ago. Kickboxing was bigger here in the 80's/90's and was on TV quite a bit - be it that above the waste shit or "Oriental Rules" which had leg kicks. Also Scott Coker was showing K-1 on ESPN in the early 2000's before Tanikawa pulled the plug. Then "The Ultimate Fighter" happened and there was no chance for Kickboxing.

The gyms are a bit more Muay Thai focused now overall, likely the influence from Fairtex when they came out here. A guy from my hometown Rick Cheek has fought in K-1 with not so great results- he did fight (and got KO'd) by Gokhan Saki.

Okay cool, thanks for the reply.
Do you think the Amazon deal will attract more potential viewers?

 

[Tayski]

Okay cool, thanks for the reply.
Do you think the Amazon deal will attract more potential viewers?

No, but more Romanians on the card would.

 

[Shadess]

Glory doesn't really have any amazon deal. They're just putting their "internet tv channel" on amazon's freevee same as it's already been on plex and pluto tv etc. Means very very little.
It's not at all like ONE, who's actually being paid for their content by amazon.

 

[Blazeblack]

Interesting case study. I was sitting there watching it and the bartender changed the channel to a fucking dog agility competition. I'm like "HEY! I was watching that!" She was like "Sorry, people usually don't watch fights here" (I've NEVER seen Kickboxing on there), so she changed it back. I could hear the couple sitting near me agreeing with me. Right after a guy walked in and was like "Oh cool they got fights on in here" to his friend. He later came up to me seeing me watch it and went on to tell me that Muay Thai is better because they are in better shape from throwing kicks (LOL) and told me about someone he knows just got their Judo black belt (OMG!).

Where was this? Looks like Frogbelt.

I remember going into 8 ball some years back with Rick, and caught one of the last It's Showtime cards.

 

[Blazeblack]

Nah regular Joe's wouldn't know Badr and Rico, there is basically no exposure to them. Amongst fight fans they aren't quite as up to speed on the current pool but you'll always hear people bring up guys like Ernesto Hoost and Ramon Dekkers. I even trained Kickboxing with people that knew almost nothing about the sport. That shit always bothered me so I always made a point to educate as many people as possible. Really MMA kind of took the focus over around 20 years ago. Kickboxing was bigger here in the 80's/90's and was on TV quite a bit - be it that above the waste shit or "Oriental Rules" which had leg kicks. Also Scott Coker was showing K-1 on ESPN in the early 2000's before Tanikawa pulled the plug. Then "The Ultimate Fighter" happened and there was no chance for Kickboxing.

The gyms are a bit more Muay Thai focused now overall, likely the influence from Fairtex when they came out here. A guy from my hometown Rick Cheek has fought in K-1 with not so great results- he did fight (and got KO'd) by Gokhan Saki.

My experience is almost exactly the same. Most of the people I have met who train are familiar with the ufc and may have only heard of K-1 in the abstract.

 

[Tayski]

My experience is almost exactly the same. Most of the people I have met who train are familiar with the ufc and may have only heard of K-1 in the abstract.

Here in Europe people who train Muay Thai are aware of One FC, in some cases of Glory too but not as much. I always find it mind bugling when you have people who train a lot and even compete but they don't know much about the big organisations or fighter's names. I appreciate they're doing it as a hobby but if you're serious enough to compete in it even at amateur level how can you not even research some of the top dogs in your sport.

 

[Snubnoze707]

Where was this? Looks like Frogbelt.

I remember going into 8 ball some years back with Rick, and caught one of the last It's Showtime cards.

Not Fogbelt, a newer spot in Rohnert Park called Parliament. Much better beer than Fogbelt.

I live right by the 8-ball. Dive bar for sure, that's cool they had on Its Showtime! What's Rick been up to? I know he was at NorCal FA for quite a while.

 

[Blazeblack]

Here in Europe people who train Muay Thai are aware of One FC, in some cases of Glory too but not as much. I always find it mind bugling when you have people who train a lot and even compete but they don't know much about the big organisations or fighter's names. I appreciate they're doing it as a hobby but if you're serious enough to compete in it even at amateur level how can you not even research some of the top dogs in your sport.

It honestly feels a little frustrating from my perspective. I feel like if you are going to invest the amount of time it takes to compete, you should be studying the best at it.

 

[Blazeblack]

Not Fogbelt, a newer spot in Rohnert Park called Parliament. Much better beer than Fogbelt.

I live right by the 8-ball. Dive bar for sure, that's cool they had on Its Showtime! What's Rick been up to? I know he was at NorCal FA for quite a while.

You know it's been a few years man. Rick and I were tight, he took me under his wing and treated me like his little brother.

I'm going to leave it vague, because alot of this real isn't my story to tell, but there was a point where he became alienated from the training camp we were at. We still hung out, but he was focusing on sorting out some things in his personal life.

I was moving around and got a job that took up all my time that I wasn't training. And I live a pretty introverted life style, so If I'm not in regular contact I tend to loose focus and fall out of touch.

Last I heard, he was doing some work at a boxing club and would occasionally work with Dave Dennison's camp before Dave moved out of state. Not sure if he still does some work at Norcal, he and Terrell have butted heads and parted ways on bad terms more than once.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Here in Europe people who train Muay Thai are aware of One FC, in some cases of Glory too but not as much. I always find it mind bugling when you have people who train a lot and even compete but they don't know much about the big organisations or fighter's names. I appreciate they're doing it as a hobby but if you're serious enough to compete in it even at amateur level how can you not even research some of the top dogs in your sport.

I once went to a Fabio Pinca seminar and tried talking to people about some of his fights. There was one guy who watched a HL of his Saenchai fight and the rest just came because they heard that he was some champion of some sort. Its almost not surprising the martial arts community are prime targets of charlatan fake gurus.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Not Fogbelt, a newer spot in Rohnert Park called Parliament. Much better beer than Fogbelt.

I live right by the 8-ball. Dive bar for sure, that's cool they had on Its Showtime! What's Rick been up to? I know he was at NorCal FA for quite a while.

It honestly feels a little frustrating from my perspective. I feel like if you are going to invest the amount of time it takes to compete, you should be studying the best at it.

Do you guys know each other IRL?

 

[Tayski]

Do you guys know each other IRL?

Seems like not yet but they'll meet soon enough

 

[Tayski]

It honestly feels a little frustrating from my perspective. I feel like if you are going to invest the amount of time it takes to compete, you should be studying the best at it.

I can't agree more, but oh well, their loss. Some peeps train and compete for the fitness and challenge of it but don't actually care that much about who's doing what on the highest level of it.

 

[Snubnoze707]

You know it's been a few years man. Rick and I were tight, he took me under his wing and treated me like his little brother.

I'm going to leave it vague, because alot of this real isn't my story to tell, but there was a point where he became alienated from the training camp we were at. We still hung out, but he was focusing on sorting out some things in his personal life.

I was moving around and got a job that took up all my time that I wasn't training. And I live a pretty introverted life style, so If I'm not in regular contact I tend to loose focus and fall out of touch.

Last I heard, he was doing some work at a boxing club and would occasionally work with Dave Dennison's camp before Dave moved out of state. Not sure if he still does some work at Norcal, he and Terrell have butted heads and parted ways on bad terms more than once.

First class I ever took was with Dennison at NorCal back when David Terrell was still in the UFC when the gym was super tiny.

Ya I think Rick parted ways with them quite a while ago. The guy they got running their Muay Thai Ryan Houston seems to have a good program. A girl I used to train goes there, I've gone to a few open mats that gym is huge and super nice these days.

I've kind of gotten out of training the last 3 or so years outside of some random sparring/pad holding. I get my fix for contact at Thrash Metal shows now...