TYRONE Spong produced a world title masterclass, Buakaw Por Pramuk received the rawest of raw deals and
middleweight talents old and new dazzled on a night of top-drawer kickboxing and controversial decisions in Eindhoven.
A capacity crowd of 6,000 packed into the Indoor Sport Centre and Spong showed in the main
event exactly why he is tipped to become a major player on the K-1 heavyweight scene as he gave Zabit Samedov a one-sided
beating to win the It's Showtime 95 kg world title.
Spong, pictured above, is only new to the big boys' division after moving up in weight but convincingly
won all five rounds against the brave but outclassed Belarussian, who did well to hang in and go the distance.
Many fans thought Samedov was unfortunate to lose to Errol Zimmerman in the K-1 Amsterdam final earlier
this year and he is a seasoned K-1 campaigner with victories over Ray Sefo and Doug Viney.
But he never recovered from some heavy left hooks to the body in the first round and Spong teed off on him
at will to claim an eye-catching scalp.
Spong is just 23 and has everything - speed, skill and timing, a tight defence and a deep arsenal of kicks,
knees and punches - although only time will tell if he has the power to put a dent in the really big K-1 heavyweights.
Critics were busy writing Buakaw's K-1 Max obituary after he lost by heavy knockout to
Yoshihiro Sato.
But the two-time champion looked back to his best as he coasted through his chief support bout with Albert
Kraus, only to see a shamefully bad decision go against him.
Buakaw gave the Dutchman three rounds of low kick stick, knocked him to the canvas four times with sweeps
and low kicks and found the target with knees and occasional straight rights throughout.
Credit Kraus for sticking to the task and he landed a few boxing combinations, but nothing to write home
about, which made the result so baffling.
Kraus was booed by his home crowd as he returned to his dressing room while Buakaw received a standing ovation,
which said it all.
Fight of the night by a country mile was a furious middleweight rematch between Chahid Oulad El
Hadj and Gago Drago, with Chahid running out a deserved points winner after three action-packed
rounds.
The Dutch rivals (pictured below) - who had previously fought to a draw in Tilburg - exchanged from first
bell to last, with 'Pitbull' Chahid mauling Drago in the second round as he blasted him from one side of the ring to the other.
Drago always gives his all and roared back to win the final round, but it was too little, too late. On this
evidence, Chahid looks capable of reaching the very top of K-1 Max, although he did show distress signals when he turned away
a couple of times from a cut left eye.
Another fighter seemingly destined for the K-1 Max elite is Giorgio Petrosyan, the razor-sharp
Armenian southpaw who looked very impressive in claiming a landslide points verdict over reigning K-1 Holland Max champion
Warren Stevelmans.
Petrosyan is like a young Winky Wright - tall, long-armed and compact and blessed with a surgical precision
that has earned him the nickname 'The Doctor'.
Italy-based Petrosyan dished out some painful medicine to the stocky Stevelmans, who is usually so explosive
but was generally on the back foot shipping heavy low kicks and pinpoint left crosses.
Veteran Joerie Mes continued his middleweight revival with a scary second round, left hook
knockout of Chris Ngimbi.
Ngimbi came out firing quick left middle and high kicks but Mes began to get on top in the final minute
of the first round, diping the African warrior's knees with a left hook to the body.
Up-and-comer Ngimbi tried a high knee in the next session, only for Mes to read it like a book and counter
with a savage shot to send the Helmond youngster crashing, his head bouncing off the canvas as he slumped.
Ngimbi was motionless and down for a while but recovered to leave the ring under his own steam, while
Mes proved he is still a 70kg force to be reckoned with after rebounding from a run of defeats with a second straight win
by big left hook KO.
Veteran Dutch muay thai legend Perry Ubeda, 37, proved class is permanent in the opening
round of his fight with Murat Direkci, forging ahead as he rolled back the years with some flashy spinning
back kicks.
But Direkci's extra freshness and youth told as he steadily climbed on top of Ubeda to claim a unanimous
decision.
Buakaw's compatriot Orono vor Petchpoon could also count himself unlucky to lose on points
after outworking Faldir Chahbari.
Orono is something of a fans' favourite in Holland after reducing William Diender to a quivering wreck with
a high kick, and used his principle rear leg weapon to pile up points, also throwing in a couple of acrobatic efforts which
were blocked for good measure.
Chahbari tried to retaliate with right hands as he adopted Orono's southpaw stance and did enough in the
eyes of the judges to pinch the fight.
Poor Orono looked flabbergasted when the decision was announced, while a tearful Chahbari took the
house microphone to dedicate victory to his uncle, who died a few days before the fight.
Imro Main's points win over Sahin 'Kaas' Yakut was also unpopular with
the crowd, 'Kaas' getting close and scoring away with low kicks in the first round before Main began to get going behind his
trademark winging overhand right.
Main had mixed feelings after the fight, telling Fightnewz.net that he struggled to find any flow.
"The fight was messed up for me, the jabs kicks and knees didn't come and I don't know why," he said.
"K1 rules isn't really my game because you can only land one knee before breaks."
Main also said he is unlikely to make a run at K-1 Max next year, preferring to fight at around 77kg.
Best performer on the 10-bout undercard was It's Showtime Reality series winner Sem Braan,
who claimed a convincing points win over Murthel Groenhart.
Braan is not particularly hard-hitting or fast, but is super-fit and sets a terrific high tempo, which had
Groenhart, 22, constantly on the retreat.
Heavyweight talent Mourad Bouzidi made mincemeat of out-of-shape Turk Hassan Gul,
reeling off three eight counts for a quick first round stoppage.
Rico Verhoeven, another Dutch heavyweight hopeful, laboured to an unimpressive points win
over Dennis Stolzenbach after taking a series of low knees.
And Polish heavyweight Lucasz Jarosz bounced back from his first round demolition by Aziz
Jahjah to destroy late substitute Peter Mulder with low kicks, also in the first round.
Other results:
Robert van Nimwegen wop Rodney Doorje; Henri van Opstal wop Chakib Ben Azzouz; Salahdine Kadoussi wop Ralf
Blewanes; Twan Aerts wop Rinie van Gelder; Marat Grigorian rsc1 Freddy van Duffelen; Yousef Adgam drew Jordy van der Sluijs;
Walit El Morabit wop Niels Vrese.
