Kyokushin Headlines - 2006

British Success Down Under

Uchida holds of Oganasian's onslaught
British fighters took the plaudits down under in the World Cup (IKO 3) held in Sydney, Australia. Darren Stringer was in awesome form as he gained an ippon in the last sixteen against Mndzebele of Swaziland, and then beat last years European Championship runner up Imre Gyarmati of Hungary and then Masayuki Sakamoto both by decision. On the other side of the drawn Kanat Rakhimov looked awesome as he advanced including and ippon against Mortajaei of Germany in the quarter final and overpowering the valiant Canadian Leblanc in the semi final. The final began with Rakhimov again looking very strong by putting Stringer on the back fought, but Stringer started picking of Rakhimov with inside low kicks that lead to the Kazak fighter going down and and stringer being awarded an ippon and the title. The 38th All Japan Tournament (IKO 1) saw another strong onslaught of foreign fighters with competitors from outside of Japan taking three of the top four places. The last sixteen witnessed former champion Tanaka progress along with former European Heavyweight Champion Poland's Habraszka who score who scored an ippon against an injured Sumitani and Armenian Oganasian defeating the excellent Spaniard Navarro. Champion Uchida scoring a wazari against Harada with a chudan mawashi geri. The quarter finals created the real excitment as in a major shock Habrazska gained an ippon for a jodan mawashi geri against Tanaka. Ikemoto then beat Kato on weight as did Kidachi over Taniguchi
The middleweights saw home favourite Jason Baltovska have some hard fights as he battled to the semi final where he beat the very strong Ukrainian Sergey Doronin. Britain's Chris Odunakan progressed convincingly and scored an ippon in the quarter final against Australia's Rubenstein and then beat another antipodean in Hinch in a scrappy fight. The final saw Odunakan's tactics of moving an counter attacking work perfectly as evaded Baltovska's and hit back with strong techniques. After an extension that saw both fighters struggle to keep the pace, Odunakan took the middleweight title. The Heavyweight section saw the very strong Hungarian Zsombor Magosi defeat Kazakhstan's Bulat Nurabyev in a hard fought final. Ukrainians Volodomyr Saenko and Dmitri Goncharov took third and fourth place. The remaining fights saw the large fighters use their strenght advantage as Oganasian, Lunev of Russia, and Uchida defeated Beppu, Ikemoto and Kidachi all by decision after on round. Habrazska's superb run halted when he was defeated in the semi final against the excellent Oganasian and Uchida beat Lunev. The final between Uchida and Oganasian saw a foreign fighter in the final of the All Japan for the first time in ten years since the legendary Garry O'Neill. A titanic fight that went into a second extension saw the title stay in Japan as Uchida wore down the brave Oganasian an exhausting fight to claim his second title.

Tsukamoto finally claims third All Japan Title

Major upset shock in New York as Nakahara upsets Teixiera
At the 38th All Japan Tournament (IKO 2) two time former champion finally claimed his third title after a spectacular display of knockdowns. Tsukamoto who first won this event back in 1996 and then again 1997, had the title 2000 title taken away following marijuana use and a subsequent ban followed.
The Americas Cup saw a major shock as reigning World Heavyweight Champion (IKO 1) and four time champion Ewerton Teixiera was defeated in the final by the World Middleweight Champion Andrews Nakahara of Brazil. This was Teixiera's first defeat and the tournament saw him struggle with his new extra weight and encourages all his rivals prior to next years World Tournament. The excellent Artur Oganasian continued his successful year by taking third place with Poland's Kryzystof Habraszka repeating last years feat by finishing fourth. The top eight as so often in recent years feature many Brazilians with the remaining places in the last eight being made up of Claive Cordeiro, defending champion Eduardo Tanaka, Anderson Da Silva and also the strong Czech fighter Jan Soukup.

Danish invade Britain again
The 31st British Open held in Crystal palace, London again witnessed many of the top fighters from the Europe and Russia. In the lightweight section Danish Champion Kim Holm came out on top after stopping Russian Starodubstev in the final. Holm had previously beaten Russian Open Champion Afanasyev in a fight that saw him on the back foot on a number of occasions. Former champion Kostenko of Russia and young Welsh fighter Lundregan took third place. The middleweight section saw Russian Champion Hachrtyan lose to European Champion Christeansen on boards in the quarter final, along with Russian Open Champion Andrey Noskov lose to Holland's Tim Haverkamp on a split decision, and veteran Kenny Jarvis lose to Russia's Andrey Donov on weight. Christeansen then defeated Donov by decision and British fighter Chris Odunakan who had advanced confidently through the draw defeated Haverkamp by tameshiwari. The final saw Odunakan pull off a technique not seen in many a year when he swept Christeansen to gain a wazari and earn him the title. The heavyweight section was equally exciting as Brian Jakobssen took the title after scoring ippons for jodan hiza geris's in his semi final against Pavlov of Russia and then in the final against Britain's Fernandez who had previously knocked out Malcolm Scott with a superb rolling kick in the other semi final.
His much anticipated return in 2002 saw him reach the final where he lost to old rival Kunihiro Suzuki in a dramatic final. Tsukamoto sensationally scored ippons in his last sixteen, quarter final and semi final fights against Sakai, All Japan Heavyweight Champion Kun, reigning World Champion Suzuki, all with jodan Hiza geri. In the final Tsukamoto avenged his loss in the last years World Cup semi final by defeating World Heavyweight Champion Takayuki Tsukakoshi.

Awesome Dimitrov retains title as Popov again reigns supreme

Sadvokasov keeps up foreign tradition in Japan
Bulgaria's Valeri Dimitrov was again unstoppable in Budapest, Hungary as he won all of his fights with ippon as he defended his heavyweight title at the European Championships (IKO 2). Former two time champion Darius Gudauskas of Lithuania took second place with compatriot Mindaugas Pavilionis who was runner up last year taking third along with Hungary's Roland Fülöp. The middleweight section had a surprise winner as Christian Christiansen of Denmark defeated the experienced Frenchman Johnny Desmedt in the final. Third place went to Bulgaria's Milush Draganov along with Orest Proc of Lithuania. Defending Champion Super Heavyweight champion Daniel Torok of Hungary retained his crown after defeating the young Lithuanian Lukas Kubilius in the final. Former podium placer in the IKO 1 European Championships; Semen Garan of Ukraine, took third place along with his experienced compatriot Olexiy Kasatanov. The 23rd All Japan Weight Tournament (IKO 1) saw for the third time in a row a foreign fighter take the Super Heavyweight title. This year it was the turn of the excellent Russian Darmen Sadvokasov who narrowly defeated Armenia's Artur Oganasian in the semi final after two extensions before convincingly defeating Makoto Akaishi in the final. Another Russian in Oleg Lukyanenko made up the last four. In the -85kg section Osamu Sumitani won his second title after defeating former middleweight champion Toshihiro Kanamori in the final having previously beaten Yoshitatsu Beppu in the semi final. Runner up in last years World Weight Tournament, Yuzu Suzuki looked very strong as he beat reigning champion Makoto Ozaki in the final to win the -65kg section. The remaining -75kg section had some very strong Russian lightweights competing in Murakaev and Startsev. Dmitriy Startsev fought well before falling to Zenjyurou Mori in the semi final. Mori then defeated Tomohiko Matsuoka, who was trying to regain his title, in the final.
The lightweight section was never in doubt as Dimitar Popov (above left) cemented his claim to arguably be the world top lightweight as he won his fifth consecutive title. Lithuania's Andrius Miseckas took second with shared by Elnur Rafailov of Azerbaijan and Gabor Rozsa of Hungary.

Kikuhara, Yamada and Kuno stop Russian Advance

Amazing Gogonel wins Euro title at third different weight
The 23rd All Japan Tournament (IKO 2) witnessed a strong field of fighters from both Japan and other countries. As predicted it was Russian fighters who provided the strongest challenge. Former finalist Viktor Karasyuk was defeated by Yoshiaki Kikuhara in the last eight and then went on to defeat Tetsuya Abe in the semi final. Reigning World Lightweight and European middleweight champion Lucien Gogonel (right) of Romania stepped up a weight in order to compete in the heavyweight section of the European Championships (IKO 1) in Barcelona, Spain. Despite a very strong field that contained two time former Champion Habraszka, former Russian Champion Sadvokasov, Gogonel eventually took the title after hard fights against Spaniards Alejandro Navarro and then Pablo Estensoro in the semi final and final respectively. A truly staggering feat by the Romanian who could have a major part in next years World Tournament. A surprise winner of the super heavyweight section was Petar Martinov of Bulgaria who defeated Russia's Sergey Nikishaev in the final with Poland's Piotr Banasik and Alexei Kiushkin of Russia shared third. In the lightweight category the excellent Pole Piotr Moczydlowski took his second title in three years after beating Russia's Alexander Shikhaleyev in the final. The ever improving Viktor Teixeira of Holland and Alexei Linchenko of Russia were third.

The other semi final was surprising an all foreign match as Vasily Khudiakov of Russia defeated Australian Yasunari Yahiro to reach his second final, there was however no title for Khudiakov as Kikuhara was became champion. There were no surprises in the middleweight section as Kazuhito Yamada retained his title, with Ryutarou Hirayama second and Tomikazu Yoshida third. A shock in the heavyweight section saw former Champion Naohiro Nomoto defeat three time former winner Norichika Tsukamoto in the semi final.
The other semi final saw Russian Maxim Shevchenko take on Kiyohide Kuno with the home fighter taking the win. Kuno went on to defeat Nomoto in the final to seal his first major tournament win. The middleweight section was as always a very close with Russian Yevgeniy Shevnin triumphing in the final against Ukraine's Volodymyr Mashov. Nicolae Stoian of Romania again reached the podium as he shared third with Otto Megrelishvili of Germany

Ibragimov claims another prestigious title

Noskov wins in Yamburg again
The 16th Russian Championships (FKR-IFK) was held in Tambov and contained one of the strongest fields in recent years as the fighters battled it out for the top places in this hugely prestigious event. The lightweight section saw Emil Bitkash from Nalchik take on Artem Uzunyan, younger brother of IFK World lightweight Champ Roman Uzunyan, in the final with Bitkash getting the decision. Bitkash had beaten former champion Alexander Afanasyev of Perm amongst others to reach the final. Third and fourth place went to Tomsk's Konstantin Rodin and Chelyabinsk's Pavel Cherepanov respectively. In the middleweight section rising star Arsen Hachatryan improved on last years third place to defeat three time champion Alexei Gorokhov in the final. Artur Tilov of Nalchik emulated his third place of two years ago and Moscow's Dzhamal Sydiev took fourth. A major international event was held in Yamburg north Russia with a high quality fighters from a number of countries. The lightweight section was won by former Russian Champion Alexander Afansyev who defeated Komendantov of Kazakhstan in the final. Kyurchiev of Bulgaria finished third with Darren Stinger of Great Britain in fourth who was extremely unlucky after being knocked out with an illegal blow in the quarter final that made him unable to fight in the semi final. A small but very strong field saw a Russian dominated podium as the ever menacing Anzor Shikhabakhov too first with Alexander Ibragimov second and Sergey Pavlov taking third. Sergey Zhidko of Belarus too fourth place.
The heavyweight section had its largest field since 2002. Dmitriy Savelyev of St. Petersburg received a bye before battling past strong opponents in Valeriy Cherevan and then Sergey Pavlov before beating Akbolat Appaev in the semi final. Appaev now has the honour of having received a podium in all three categories of the Russian Championships as he added the third place to the titles he had won at lightweight in 1997 and middleweight in 2001. Defending champion Tahir Nasypiev looked in good form before running into Alexander Ibragimov in the semi final. Ibragimov, now fighting out of Perm, had hard fights that included a victory of former champion Mikhailin and was too strong for Nasypiev and then defeated Savelyev in the semi finals. Ibragimov went on to defeat Savelyev in the final and add the Russian Championship (FKR-IFK) title to add to his Russian Open (FKR-IFK), Russian Championship (IKO 3), Russian Openweight Championships (IKO 3) and European Championship (IKO 3) wins plus a top eight finish in the 8th World Tournament (IKO 3) and a third place in the 1st Rengokai World Tournament (IKU). The middleweight section of the event created the most excitement in the crowd with a number of enthralling fights. Britain's Chris Odunakan looked in excellent form as he battled to the last four before injuring his hand in the tameshiwari. Despite the injury Odunakan fought an excellent fight against Russia's Andrey Noskov where the Russian was under considerable pressure but held on to take the fight on the number of boards broken. Noskov went on to defeat Odinstov of Kazakhstan in the final whilst Odunakan had another hard fight in the hard place fight of before losing on weight to the ever durable Andrey Donov.

Zlenko, Knysh and Mitsaev take honours
The Russian Championships (FKKR-IFKK) saw established fighters take the top awards. Ruslan Zlenko improved on his runner up position of the last two years to take the lightweight title, with Maxim Knysh of Ukraine taking the middleweight title and Magomed Mitsaev added another heavyweight crown to the IKO 1 title he won in 2004.

Hat trick for Collin in Copenhagen

Briton's take the plaudits in France
Sweden's Jimmie Collin continued his successful year after his win at the French Open as he claimed his third consecutive Danish Open and equalled Dennis Truelsen's record. Truelsen himself finished third with last years runner up Almen of Sweden, with Christensen of Denmark second. Brian Jakobsen (right-centre) dominated the heavyweight title after beating Britain's Fernandez in the semi final and Hungary's Roland in the final. Dane Kim Holm, who was in his fourth final in a row, triumphed again after beating the strong Gabor Ròzsa of Hungary in the final. Odergaard and Koller of Switzerland took third place. At the French Open organised by Shinkyokushin (IKO 2), fighters from Great Britain took two of the three titles. Darren Chanagasubay won the lightweight title after spectacular knock outs in the ealry rounds and then via a disqualification in the final against three time defending champion Dericke. Also Miguel Fernandez won the heavyweight section after defeating Tomas Vik of the Czech Republic. Jimmie Collin of Sweden took his first French open title after two previous podium positions as he defeated Holland's Tim Haverkamp in the middleweight final as France's Dhorme and Caron took third. There was more success for Czech Republic as Hovorka shared third place with Frenchman Cal in the lightweight category. 

Victory for Artem as he keeps title in Uzunyan family
Artem Uzunyan, younger brother of IFK World lightweight champion and defending Moscow Open Champion, kept the Moscow Open title in the family after beating Murad Ramazanov in the final after a debatable win on weight over Dzaganiya in the semi finals. Adalbi Mamhegov won the middleweight section with Umarov in second place and Zverev in third and in all St. Petersburg final Anton Solovyev defeated Dmitriy Savelyev.