Issue 008

October 2005

Ahoy Arena, Rotterdam. October 9th

Tyrone Spong vs Vincent Vielvoye

Spong is a 19-year-old Thai fighter from the Lucien Carbins club. He’s known for his explosive fighting despite appearing relaxed, his clinch work and his powerful low kicks, and he’s been picked as a star of the future. Vincent Vielvoye is another quality striker with excellent boxing skills who has recent wins in Hungary and Croatia, including a four-man tournament win earlier this year. He also took a brief step into the MMA arena where he lost to Ronny Rivano and went straight back to kickboxing/Muay Thai. He had to abandon his last match as he dislocated his kneecap. I’m gonna go with Spong on this one, by decision.

Rodney Faverus vs Tsuyoshi Tajima

Faverus’s MMA record (23-10-3) includes wins over Joe Riggs, Melvin Manhoef, Cyrille Diabaté, Paul Cahoon, Valentijn Overeem and Ricardo Fyeet. He had one fight in Pride Bushido where he lost to Chalid Arrab, he was then relegated back to Too Hot 2 Handle and It’s Showtime. Faverus was originally scheduled to fight Gokan Saki, but his opponent was changed, and despite his impressive MMA record — and the fact that he comes from a striking background — there were rumours that he was afraid. The rumours took on such amplitude that the promoters felt it necessary to address them on the event’s website. In striking he held the IKBO world title in 2001 and was European Kickboxing Champion in 1997. Tsuyoshi, on the other hand, has a K-1 record of 1-5-0. 

It seems that this fight has been set to give Rodney a win and hopefully a shot in K-1 somewhere in the near future.

Imro Main vs William Diender

Main is another fighter from Lucien Carbins; he’s got a lot of talent and is tough as hell. He’s coming off a K-1 rules tournament win in Gran Canaria and should be confident coming into this fight. William Diender comes from the Fred Royers gym. He already has a decision loss to Tyrone Spong, so he will be looking for revenge against the same camp. 

I don’t think he’ll get it — Imro ‘Murder’ Main is meaner and more powerful than Spong — and will make it 2-0 for Carbins.

Jerrel Venetiaan vs Ashwin Balrak

Jerrel Venetiaan may be the next great Dutch hope. He’s got a 9-2 record in K-1, with losses only to the legendary Peter Aerts and Sergei Gur, as well as a 4-3 MMA record with wins over Joop Kasteel, Dave Van der Veen and Daijiro Matsui. Holland has been churning out top heavyweight kickboxers for years and today Jerrel is right at the top of the food chain.

Ashwin Balrak hails from the Sitan Gym in Holland, a gym well known for producing talented fighters, so it is expected to be a close fight. What might work against Balrak though is that he’s a former under-76kg fighter who’s come up in weight in the last few years. I don’t expect him to have the same power as Venetiaan but he makes up for that with technical ability and pure toughness. 

Venetiaan by decision or late TKO. Whatever happens, expect fireworks.

Gegard Mousasi vs Stefan Klever

The only Gegard Mousasi win that might mean something to British fans is the one over Ireland’s John Donnelly in Bushido Ireland. He also has a loss to Petras Morkevicius from Rings Lithuania. Gegard is a stand up fighter from Jurojin, Holland, and is confident that he’ll win in the first round. Stefan Klever is the undefeated Rings Holland Champion: he’s tough as nails and his wins have come over better opponents. 

I’m going with Klever on this one, just because he’s got wins over higher quality opponents and the rules will suit him better than Mousasi.

Antoni Hardonk vs Valentijn Overeem

Hardonk’s most significant wins are over Wil Elworthy and, most recently, Wes Sims — right in the middle of Sims’s downward spiral. His two losses came in the finals of La Resa dei Conti four-man tournament and were decisions given to the very tough Polish fighter Grzegorz Jakubowski and the undefeated Claudineney Kozan. The two losses were also the only two times he really stepped up in competition, with Sims being the only opponent he’s beaten that has a winning record, just barely.

Valentijn Overeem’s opponents, on the hand, are like a who’s who of MMA pioneers and current champions. At 38 years old he’s been fighting in MMA since 1996 and has wins over good fighters such as Faith Kocamis, Dennis Reed, Dexter Casey, Chris Haseman, and Milco Voorn, as well as top fighters like Randy Couture, Ian Freeman, Marc Emmanuel, Jerrel Venetiaan, Renato Sobral and Brad Kohler. Unfortunately he’s also the most unpredictable fighter in MMA, in that he can lose to anyone on any given day. His career has its huge highlights and equally impressive low points. In recent fights he’s lost by submission to Gilbert Yvel and Shungo Oyama and has gone 1-4 since October 2004, with his only win coming over Ross Pointon — perhaps age is catching up with him. 

I’m going to predict a win by Hardonk — putting the final nail in the coffin of Overeem’s career.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs Kevin Randleman

Igor has lost his last two fights, a close decision to Nakamura and falling foul of Alistair Overeems’s guillotine. Before that he was on a five-fight winning streak. During a career that dates back as far as 1995 he’s beaten Daniel Bobish, Bob Schreiber, Masaaki Satake, Gilbert Yvel, Mark Kerr, Enson Inoue, Daijiro Matsui, Sakuraba, Gary Goodridge and more. The drop to 93kg seemed to have worked for him and his career was back on track until his recent losses.

Randleman’s last win was in April 2004 against Cro Cop. People have called it a lucky win and, when you consider that his last win before that was in December 2002 against Ninja, they have a point. Like Igor, he has fought at both heavyweight and light-heavyweight and has had mixed results in both weights, until now. 

Igor may be coming off a couple of losses but they’re a blip on an otherwise upward streak, his power will be too much for Randleman and although Randleman will most likely get the fight to the floor, Igor won’t get subbed by the wrestler.

Chico Martinez vs Ronnie Rivano

Chico Martinez is a kickboxer with a 6-6-2 MMA record, his best results being a draw with Evert Fyeet in 2001 and a win over Cristos Petroutsos. His last fight was in December 2004, a win over Dennis de Rus. Between 1996 and 2002 Ronnie Rivano fought in nearly every event in Holland, Russia, and once in Aruba. He has an even 13-12-3 with three losses to Sergei Bytchkov, two to Raffles la Rose and one to Hayato Sakurai. The last time he fought was in 2002, that year he went 1-3-0 with his last fight against Robbie Nelson — the only opponent that they have in common, they both lost against. 

Since Rivano last fought, Chico has gone 2-4, so while he’s been more active he hasn’t impressed. Rivano has the advantage on the ground, but this fight is too close to call.

Rene Rooze vs Aleksander Emelianenko

Rooze is a 6’7”, 230lb kickboxer from Team Aerts, who’s been fighting in MMA since 1995. His record includes two wins over Tadao Yasuda, one over the UFC’s Ivan Salaverry and losses to Enson Inoue, Heath Herring and, most recently, former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett. Rooze is known for being explosive, powerful and a dirty fighter. He was disqualified against Heath Herring for excessive fouling when he consistently grabbed the ropes and head stomped the Texan who was trying to take him down, even the ref pulling him off wasn’t enough to dissuade the Dutchman!

At 6’6” and 253lbs the Russian won’t be at a disadvantage. Lil’ Fedor, as I’m sure he hates being called, has only one MMA loss and its to top-ranked Mirko Filipovic. Impressive as that is, Aleks hasn’t fought any other top heavyweights — though Assuerio Silva and Ricardo Morais are no pushovers. He showed a good chin and striking ability in making quick work of James Thompson, and coming from the same Sambo background as his brother, he has solid ground skills. 

Expect this fight to be hard and fast. There’ll be fireworks but in the end Aleksander will come out on top.

As I’m writing this article, Vos productions, Fedor’s Dutch management team, have announced that Bob Schreiber will be taking on Fedor. To me, this fight makes no sense, but to a Dutch promoter there could be no better. Fedor is the best fighter in the world today and the toughest man on the planet, and Bob is the Dutch favourite. Everyone, including Bob, must know that he doesn’t stand a chance, but he’ll sell tickets and, if god shines on him that day, maybe ‘Dirty’ Bob will do the impossible and a few thousand Dutch people will go home happy.

As we draw closer to the event, the card doesn’t look quite like what was originally expected: Gilbert Yvel’s fight with Mark Coleman was cancelled when Yvel injured his knee and Ernesto Hoost addressed his fans via the event website explaining that he’s injured and won’t be able to fight. We’re left with a handful of Pride veterans, two of which are fighting Thai Boxing, and a host of Dutch fighters on one of the biggest shows ever held in Europe.