The Big Kickboxing News & Rumors Thread [2021]

[lero]

Apr 12, 2021 15:55:24 GMT 1 K1power said:

Spong has been rumored to return to kickboxing for a while now and his usual response when asked is 'for the right price'.

I'm not sure what his idea of the right price is, but at 35 and his last (boxing) fight being in 2019 time isn't exactly on his side.

Not if he intends to have a serious run at a title in any sport.

Early Glory deals spoiled those guys more than it should.

[K1power]

Yeah, the 2012 Glory vs. K-1 bidding war for talent only hurt the sport in the long run.

[samurai1]

Personally I don't know what spong really wants. He will end up poor when he retires if he continues like this. In his boxing matches he made basically nothing, as you make basically nothing in boxing until you reach top 50, which he did not. I guess he could teach striking after he retires... If I was him I would accept whatever glory offers. Or onefc.

Saki,Spong and Ghita were paid 150k back then... which now only Badr and Rico makes sense to be paid anything like that. I don't think glory is willing to pay spong more than 40k and saki 60k.

[K1power]

While Spong never held a belt in Glory or K-1, he really is one of the most accomplished kickboxers due to his career before moving up in weight. He also did very well in both K-1 and Glory, despite never winning a title.

At well over 100 fights in kickboxing - which is a crazy number for a non-Thai at his age - I suspect Spong may have been interested in exploring new avenues in boxing and MMA for a while. Hurting his leg in kickboxing probably only sped up his decision.

While he did well in his MMA fights, I don't think he looked very comfortable there due to the danger of the takedown and perhaps the smaller gloves. So the move to boxing seemed like a logical one. I just don't think he moved up the ranks fast enough and when he finally got to the big step-up fight with Usyk he pissed hot and the fight was off.

Now, two years later with no fights his career seems to be on ice. It's too bad, but Spong really didn't accomplish anything meaningful since he moved away from kickboxing 7 years ago. If he fought Usyk, even if he lost you could have said he took his boxing career as far as it could have gone. If Spong's boxing career ends here it just feels incredibly unsatisfactory as he didn't gain much from it. At least not in terms of legacy or financial gain. I'm sure his boxing technique improved, but I wonder if Spong may be overestimating his value at this point of his career.

That said, I hope something can be worked out as I would like to see Spong return to kickboxing and finish his career in style.

[K1power]

Thai Boxing Great Namkabuan Dies at 48

blackbeltmag.com/namkabuan-muay-thai

RIP.

[Fox]

RIP to Namkabuan. Good thing Sylvie did her videos with him when she did.

[K1power]

Not really news or anything, but Ghita just changed his profile pic on Facebook:



I can't be the only one who sees the irony in this coming from someone who quite literally gave up fighting.

[kickboxer (Banned)]

Fighting as a politician. There are rumours though Ghita is training, planning a good retirement fight.

[kickboxer (Banned)]

kickboxingz.com/old-friendship-leads-to-new-collaboration-for-dutch-promoter-schut/

[kickboxer (Banned)]

Saki has probably signed with GLORY, according to some reports.

[K1power]

Considering JWP had hip replacement surgery (!) less than a year ago and is 44 it's a surprise
he was fighting at all, let alone be somewhat competitive with Holzken.

While I understand JWP loves to fight, I hope he's getting well compensated for putting his
body through the wringer like that.

[kickboxer (Banned)]

Bad news! The Carpathian Death was ruled out of the Survivor series with a meniscus tear. He will need surgery.

[Shadess]

[samurai1]

lol

[Shadess]

Hey...someone made a nice looking list, it must be right. How dare you lol at it!