Kyokushin Headlines - 2007

Joy for Brazil as Teixeira braves European surge to become champion as contenders fall away

The 9th World Tournament (IKO 1) ended with a predictable outcome as favourite Ewerton Teixeira of Brazil took the crown but the tournament witnessed a number of shocks on the way. The biggest shock of all was when Lechi Kurbanov of Russia who had been in awesome in previous rounds but lost via an ippon against fellow countrymen Ilya Karpenko with a jodan mawashi geri in the last 32. It was also at this stage that home favourite and All Japan Champion Yoshiaki Uchida lost on boards to Bulgaria's Zahari Damyanov for another major shock. European fighters looked very strong as Spain's' Alejandro Navarro (right) scored ippon in all his fights up to the last sixteen where he defeated former All Japan Champion Kentaro Tanaka on boards on what was the fight of the tournament, as did Armenia's Honbu teacher Artur Oganasian who had literally annihilated his opponents with punches, low kicks and high kicks to storm to the same stage and Jan Sokup of the Czech Republic had quietly advanced using late burst and making full use of some powerful hiza geris to stop his opponents in their tracks. Tatsuya Murata became Japan's lone hope as all fell around him and he was superb as he showed excellent spirit and fitness to defeated Russian Mikhail Kozlov, and then Brazilian's Diogo Da Silva and then Anderson Da Silva to reach the quarter finals. The Brazilian team once again looked as strong as any other country and Eduardo Tanaka advanced confidently to the last eight inlcuding a win over the strong Russian Dmitriy Lunev but the Russians howver stil had a major say as Darmen Sadvokasov had looked imperious as he advanced to the last eight showing the ability to hurt opponents with about just every technique in the book and Kyokushin's very own raging Bull Andrey Stepin smashed his way to the last eight in devastating form.
It was at the quarter final stage where Murata's run came to an end as Texieira was just too strong for the brave Japanese fighter, Sokup outworked and had the Brazilian Tanaka on the back foot to advance and Sadvokasov and Navarro had an excellent fight where by Navarro was unfortunate to lose a genten ichi. The big fight of this round was the immovable object versus the unstoppable force as Stepin and Oganasian squared off, after sizing each other up and a couple of techniques Oganasian landed a scything chudan mawashi geri to down the Russian for an ippon. The semi finals were contrasting fights as Sadvokasov was extremely unlucky as Teixeira got the flags after one round and Sokup versus Oganasian went the distance and with the Czech advancing by tameshiwari. In the third place fight off Oganasian defeated Sadvokasov in a real battle and the final ended all too quickly as a heavily injured Sokup who just about managed to hobble on to the tatami was downed by a low kicks to give Teixeira the World Title.

Simplicity & Power the key for Tsukakoshi's World Crown

The 9th World Tournament (IKO 2 / Shinkyokushin) was a spectacular event with foreign fighters pushing the home Japanese fighters to the limit. The early rounds saw some exciting fights and shocks as Sweden's Collin scored an ippon with a jodan mawashi geri against Hirayama, Russia's Khudiakov gave away 40kg but came through against Ukraine's Kasatanov and Hungarian Balogh defeated Niiho. The big names started to shine in the last 32 Grigoriev scored an ippon against Draganov with a chudan mawashi geri, Nesterenko did the same with a chudan tsuki against veteran Tanigawa and Khudiakov again came through on weight against Sakamoto. Khudiakov came unstuck against Tsukakoshi's power in the last sixteen by yielding to the powerful Japanese fighters low kicks, and Dimitrov, Nesterenko, Grigoriev, Shevchenko and Imbras all joined him in the last eight. The remaining two places were excepted to both be made up of Japanese fighters and the awe inspiring Tsukamoto overcame an excellent Yamada on boards but then there was a major shock as defending champion Suzuki lost to Lithuania's Gudauskas by decision after an extension. In the battle of the last two World Heavyweight champions Tsukakoshi overcame Grigoriev by decision, Dimitrov gained ippon over Gudauskas with a low kick and Imbras overpowered the battle hardy Shevchenko by decsion.
The remaining fight for the last semi final place was the match of the tournament with Nesterenko and Tsukamoto (left) both coming close to knocking each other out in normal time plus two extensions before the Russian edged it through by one board. The semi finals saw Tsukakoshi look strong against Dimitrov and he took the decision after an extension which was possibly unfortunate for Dimitrov who many believed deserved a further extension and Imbras squeezed though against the awesome but tiring Nesterenko. The final had the outcome the home crowd wanted as Tsukakoshi's continuing barrage of left gedan mawashi geri's drove Imbras to a stand still and give Tsukakoshi a much deserved world title.

Awesome Anzor crowned King of Russia

Tanigawa triumphes again
Reigning World lightweight Champion (IKO 2) Kou Tanigawa claimed his third All Japan lightweight title an amazing thirteen years after taken his first way back in 1994, he beat Yoshiaki Kikuhara in a close final with Hirokazu Iwahara and Tetsuya Abe third and fourth respectively. Kazuhito Yamada continued his dominance in the middleweight section as he claimed his third consecutive middleweight title after defeating Tomikazu Yoshida with Kazufumi Shimamoto and Tsuyoshi Takezawa, who is now in his forties, made up the last four.
Kiyohide Kuno regained his heavyweight title as he held of the challenge former middleweight champion Kenta Mori who has now stepped up a weight. Taishi Watanabe and Shinji Sakamoto were the losing semi finalists in this section.

Title at last for Savelyev
The 17th Russian Championships held in St. Petersburg Russia saw fighters from the host city dominate. After a titanic semi final, with two previous champions in the lightweight were S> Peterburg's Roman Uzunyan defeated Emil Bitkash on weight before withdrawing with injury to leave his younger brother Artem Uzunyan to take the lightweight title. The big names were again dominating the middleweights as defending champion Arsen Hachatryan defeated former champion Alexander Erokhin, again of St. Petersburg in a titanic final that went the full four rounds, three time former champion Alexei Gorokhov took third place. The biggest cheer for the home crowd was for heavyweight Dmitriy Savelyev who finally took the title after his third consecutive final where he beat former champion Sergey Mikhailin.
In Moscow, Russia a ground breaking event was held in the form of the 1st AKR Russian Championship in openweight. Fighters from all the main organisations; IFK, IKO 1, IKO 2, IFKK, participated in a thrilling event that contained a number of World, European, and Russian Champions from across these organisations. Famous names in the draw included many of Russia's modern day stars in Osipov, Kozlov, Grigoriev, Stepin, Nesterenko, Gatashev, Ibragimov, Shikhabakhov, and Abdurashidov to name just a few. The tournament started with some major shocks for IKO 1 fighters as Lunev, Pukas, Sadvokasov and pre tournament favourite Kozlov all lost in round one.
Another clash of two major players saw former IFK Russian heavyweight champion Ibragimov score a spectacular ippon against former IKO 2 World Heavyweight Champion Grigoriev with an ushiro geri.  Unfortunately the last sixteen saw some big names pair of against each other as in the fight of the day Nesterenko defeated Gatashev in a split decision as did Shikhabkhov against Kapanadze in an equally enthralling fight. Titkov overcame Melyuk on boards, Protsenko scored ippon against Novruzov, Tatrakov came through on weight against Ibragimov and the superb Abdurashidov defeated the excellent Karasyuk. Stepin was busier against Osipov and got the decision and the surprise of the day in was the youngster Kosumov who had earlier defeated Sadvokasov now defeated Shevchenko by decision. The quarter finals saw all the big guns advance as Shikhabakhov was far too strong for a gallant Kosumov, as was Stepin for Tatrakov, and Nesterenko against Protsenko. Abdurashidov was unlucky as he lost on boards to Titkov in the last quarter final, and again had boards in his favour as he overcame Nesterenko in the semi final. Shikhabakhov fought superbly to defeat Stepin in the last extension of a gruelling fight to reach the final.
The final saw two heavily battered fighters carry out a subdued first one and a half rounds before Shikhabakhov burst into life to put pressure on Titkov with some strong knees and punch combinations plus some very strong elbows, he continued this pressure in the extension to deservedly be crowned the first AKR Champion of Russia.

Russia reign on home soil as Hachatryan shines

Normal Service resumed in New York for Texieria
The 4th IFK European Championships held in Samara Russia again witnessed Russia's dominance in an intriguing tournament. The lightweight saw an enthralling fight with Britain's Darren Stinger, who is the reigning IKO 3 World Champion and a former British Open Champion defeat current Russian lightweight Champion Artem Uzunyan. Stringer then lost in a close fight to Kyokushinkan Russia's Emil Dzhafarov who went on to take third place with former IFK European lightweight runner up Vjacheslav Lukjanov. The final was the second time this year Emil Bitkash and Roman Uzunyan met with Uzunyan again coming out on top and joining an illustrious group Maxim Dedik and Jakov Zobnin to hold IFK World & European titles. Normal service resumed in New York at the Americas Cup as after last years second place Brazilian Ewerton Teixeira took the title for a fifth time by beating last years champion and reigning World middlweight champion Andrews Nakahara in the final. European fighters made up the last four as the very strong Zahari Damyanov of Bulgaria was third and Poland's Kryzystof Habraszka gained his third fourth place finish in as many years. In fifth place was Slawomir Was of the USA, who in the tameshiwari broke Kiyofumi Abe's record by achieving 33 boards broken - Abe's record was set in the record from the 24th All Japan Tournament in 1992 with 31 boards.
In the middleweight section Arsen Hachatryan looked the class act as he took the title after comprehensively beating Vladimir Tiunov in the final. Alexei Gorokhov again took third place in this tournament after his podium place in Valencia nine years ago. Promising youngster Soliman Kosumov from Kyokushinkan Russia took the other third place. The heavyweight section saw the star name of the day Sergey Osipov withdrew after winning his first fight, his team mate from the IFKK Magomed Mistaev suffered the same fate. This left the door open for reigning IFK Heavyweight Champion Dmitry Savelyev who looke manacin all day ad dropped Timofei Tsyganov in the final with a jodan hiza geri. The remainder of the last four was old stalwart Sergey Mikhailin and Ukrainian Dimitry Alexandrov The remaining places in the top eight were predictably made up of Brazilian fighters with former champion Eduardo Tanaka again looking strong, along with  Anderson Da Silva and Claive Cordeiro who both reached the last eight for the second time in a row in a tournament dominated by the South Americans. The Brazilian squad is looking very strong for the upcoming World Tournament in Tokyo and and will be battling it out for places on the last day along with the home nation Japanese and the ever menacing Russian squad, and fans all over the globe are hoping for the dream final of Teixeira versus Kurbanov.

Gogonel continues amazing run

Dimitrov dominance continues & welcome return for Imbras
Romanian Lucien Gogonel continued his dominance at the European Championships (IKO 1) in Volos Greece, as he won his second heavyweight title to add to his two lightweight and two middleweight titles. Gogonel defeated former champion Habraszka of Poland in the final with Spain's Navarro and Pryhdko third. Czech Jan Soukup won his first European title in the heavyweight division as he overcame last years champion Petar Martinov in the final. As has become the recent trend, Russian fighters dominated the lighter divisions, as Hussein Elikhanov won the middleweight section by denying Spaniard Javier Lezcano in the final, and another Russian Shamil Lakaev claimed the lightweight title as he edged out the excellent Piotr Moczydlowski who was in his fourth consecutive final. Bulgaria's machine Valeri Dimitrov continued his complete dominance in the European Championships  (IKO 1) as he completed a hat trick of heavyweight titles after beating Eduard Janoashvili of Georgia in the final. Lithuanian's Pavilionis and two time champion Guduaskas shared third place. Double Super heavyweight champion Lithuanian Donatas Imbras returned and fought for the fist time since causing a major stir by at the World Cup and took the Super Heavyweight title convincingly. Denmark's Christian Christiansen regained his middleweight title in a very close fought division, it came down to a repeat of last years final we he came out on top against Frenchman Johnny Desmedt. The lightweight section saw the legendary five time Dimitar Popov absent and this lead the way for the excellent Gabor Rozsa of Hungary to take the title by defeating Popovych of Ukraine.