Kickboxing, combat sport’s premier showcase. We’ve had a pretty good year in the world of “standup” fighting and there is plenty to talk about going into the new year. To celebrate 2014 in the kickboxing and muay thai circuit, MMA PLUS have put together the best kickboxing panel out there, to talk about all the greatest moments, bone crushing spills, and jaw crunching thrills of this year. Enjoy.
Fighter of the Year
John Joe O’Regan (@JohnJoeORegan) Bloody Elbow: Tough category depending what your criteria is, but for me it’s probably Robin van Roosmalen. His campaign suffered an unexpected blow when Andy Ristie knocked him out in New York at the end of 2013 but he bounced back from that with a win over the very good Marat Grigorian in a Fight of the Year contender in April. Then at GLORY 18 in November he took the lightweight belt from Davit Kiria with another blistering performance.
Van Roosmalen is one of my favorite fighters. He’s never in a boring fight, his pace and power are ferocious and I feel like most of his fights in the last few years have been Fight of the Year contenders. He came back from that loss to Ristie in fine form, which shows mental strength. In 2015 I think we will see rematches with Ristie and also Giorgio Petrosyan, who was Ristie’s other victim that night in New York. If Van Roosmalen can beat both of them that will be a huge statement as to his quality.
Outside of Van Roosmalen, in terms of sheer impact my Fighter of the Year is Zack Mwekassa. People were literally laughing out loud at the thought of some random African guy being brought in to face the big-name Pat Barry but they got the smiles wiped from their faces when he starched the UFC veteran in the first round.
Mwekassa then won hearts and minds with his incredible charisma and he ended his year by making it to the final of the Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 18. Saulo Cavalari won the tournament and the title shot but to be honest I feel like that was a good thing for Mwekassa. The professional boxer needs time to work on his kickboxing game and he has that now. Cavalari can challenge Saki for the belt while Mwekassa hones his skills and makes himself into real contender material.
Dave Walsh (@Liverkickdotcom) Liverkick: Look, there is a lot going on in kickboxing in 2014, but Artem Levin taking the GLORY Last Man Standing tournament was a feat. In fact, it was the feat of the year and saw him overcome that loss to Joe Schilling that left some doubts as to Levin’s claim to the throne of kickboxing greatness. Oh yeah and he fought a tune-up fight the month before as well just to fill out his GLORY contract. That’s one bad ass dude, right there.
Last Man Standing was a murderer’s row and he walked away as the undisputed king of the division. That’s enough for me.
Fraser Coffeen (@FCoffeen) Bloody Elbow: Artem Levin. Like Dave said, he won the most stacked tournament of the year, and reminded us that he is indeed one of the world’s very best. He doesn’t always get the credit he deserves, but this was a great year for him.
Michael Stets (@Michael_Stets) MMA Mania: Artem Levin. I could argue he deserves it for the simple fact that he walks out to Beau Williams “Feeling so good today” like a boss, but I’ll stick to what he does in the ring. Levin not only won GLORY Last Man Standing, but he did so in convincing fashion. While Joe Schilling was almost beat up beyond repair in the final, “The Lion” was never in trouble against the always game Schilling and made the quarter final vs. Alex Pereira and the semi final vs. Filip Verlinden look rather easy. And as Fraser mentioned, took a tune-up fight a month prior to the eight-man tournament. He is a beast and while, yes, he did lose to Schilling at GLORY 10 to show he is human, he is unbeatable and quite superior to his peers on most nights.
Andreas Georgiou (@AGeorgiouMMA) MMA PLUS: Is there any doubt? Artem Levin is fighter of the year without question. The Russian prodigy went 4-0 this year, and bested some top fighters, most notably Joe Schilling. Winning the Last Man Standing Tournament itself was special enough, and Levin showed he was without a doubt the best middleweight on the planet. Yes, he had a bit of an easier run to the finals than Schilling, but even so his technical ability is unparalleled by anyone at the minute.
Promotion of the Year
Dave: Nobody — That’s right, nobody.
I love GLORY, I really do, but at some point there needs to be a splash of cold water (and no, I don’t mean an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge) and understand that they’ve done a lot of good, but also a lot of bad, for kickboxing. We all wanted fighters to get paid a living wage, for all of the best fighters to be under one roof and for a major television deal to happen. GLORY made all of those things happen (some of which began in 2012, some in 2013). This year felt like all of that slipping away.
I run a kickboxing site, I’m not sure if its the biggest site in the world dedicated to just kickboxing or the most popular, nor do I care. I do know that people take my site seriously (maybe more than I do at times) and that I’ve seen the numbers, I’ve seen the drop in audience and I’ve seen the fans come and go. Fans were believers in GLORY, now they don’t believe anymore. It’s going to take time to mend this wound and I’m not sure that the time or money is available to mend all of the wounds on the soul of kickboxing.
Other promotions have done some okay things and made some good strides, but it’s hard to look back at 2014 and walk away with anything positive. SuperKombat isn’t going anywhere, Enfusion isn’t making waves, there are how many Thai Fight clones now putting on mockery fights? K-1 is trying but they have their own sins to atone for, both old and new. So yeah, nobody is the promotion of the year. Nobody.
Andreas: It’s been a up and down year for all promotions in 2014, GLORY had a brilliant Spring-Summer period and it really looked like they were going to become a dominant force in combat sports. Obviously there were a few problems that haven’t been disclosed by GLORY, but many believe it is down to monetary issues and the Last Man Standing PPV not doing number they were expected to do. Superkombat, Enfusion and K-1 have had a few good shows this year, and muay thai promotions such as Lion Fight, Yokkao and The Main Event have also had a few decent outings. Despite GLORY’s slow end to 2014, there is still no doubt that they were the gold standard this year, and I hope they can improve on that in 2015.
JJ: The obvious choice is GLORY; they didn’t stage as many events as they wanted to in 2014 but it is far and away the leading kickboxing organization at present, with almost all the top names and the widest global television distribution. It’s the UFC of kickboxing.
Michael: GLORY, due to the fact that they are attempting to make kickboxing break through in the U.S. Yes, the recent lull in action does not help things, but they are the only promotion pushing to make it happen. Out of the five televised cards on Spike television, three were in U.S. cities and that is a very good thing. As is the first card in 2015, which will be in Virginia.
Fraser: GLORY, because they put on the best fights with the best shows.
Knockout of the Year
Michael: Raymond Daniels two-touch spinning back kick, or however you want to describe the technique, KO over Francois Ambang at GLORY 16 is far ahead of the pack. It was crazy to see live. It was crazy to see on television. And it’s still crazy to watch the replay. One of the most amazing finishes in not only kickboxing history, but combat-sports history.
Dave: Daniels — I mean, this one is easy. Too bad Schilling’s KO of Manhoef happened in MMA, though.
Fraser: Daniels vs Ambang, no question at all. One of the best I’ve ever seen. Plus, on a personal note, the fact that not only did I have the good fortune to see this live, but also to see it live alongside most of these fine panelists, made it extra sweet.
Andreas: I think we all know the answer to this question, but my special mention goes to Alex Filip who scored an unbelievable rolling thunder kick against Roman Palamar back in August at Superkombat WGP in Constanta, that was an awesome finish to the fight but is no where on the level of Raymond Daniels. As everyone has said, it’s just an awesome finish, two-touch spinning back kick or whatever you want to call it, it was super impressive, and is exactly what kickboxing needs in its quest for the mainstream.
JJ: Raymond Daniels’ finish of Francois Ambang at GLORY 16 DENVER was absolutely insane. That was the craziest thing I think I have ever seen in fight sports. Apparently if you’ve followed Daniels’ karate career he’s done it before but for me that was brand new. If you thought that the ‘Showtime Kick’ Anthony Pettis put on Ben Henderson in the WEC was amazing, you will lose your mind over this Raymond Daniels kick. They’ve called it the Knockout of the Century and they are probably right. If you saw it in a movie you’d pull a face and go, “That’s so unrealistic.”
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That wraps up part one of the kickboxing panel’s 2014 awards, we’ll be back Monday the 29th with the second part, where we will reveal our: fight of the year, UK and US fighter of the year and 2015 prospect.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
