THE BIG KABOSH SONG!

Thanks to singer, songwriter and producer BRETT in Queensland who follows all our Fox Sports broadcasts and penned, sung, produced a song about me! I was very flattered and very impressed how he managed to infuse so many of my one liners into the lyrices.

You can listen to it here and watched a picture montage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y-arZpt1X8

ENJOY!!!

K-1 MAX Gets STACKED!

The K-1 MAX FINAL 8 card to be held at the Budokan Arena in Tokyo on July 7 -- and broadcast LIVE on MAIN EVENT pay-per-view in Australia -- became truly the most stacked fight card of the year today with the addition of a bucket load of new fights.

Most interestingly, former K-1 Max champion Albert Kraus of Holland will square off against Greece's Mike "Zambo" Zambidis. Last time these two met many moons ago, Zambo knocked Kraus out so hard that Kraus almost starved to death rolling. Both men are coming in off losses -- Kraus was pissed after his controversial loss to Buakaw last time and Zambo was doing great against Andy Souwer till Souwer KO'd him with a head kick in the extension round.

Two angry fighters looking for redemption -- Zambo vs Kraus will be CRAZY come July 7!

Also, Andre Dida has gone to Max after having his ass handed to him by Eddie Alvarez at DREAM.1 MMA. Dida will get no favours when he faces Lithuania's Remigius Morkevicius on July 7. The return of the Mork! Wow! Both these guys pack power... Dida is like a Brazilian windmill, swinging wildly for the ropes. It will be a crazy contest.

Also, Alviar Lima takes on Marc Vogel and there's a swag of 60kg fights and youth fights.

The broadcast will go on sale on MAIN EVENT soon... so make sure you all pencil it in your diaries to witness LIVE the FIGHT CARD OF THE YEAR!!

Monday July 7 at 7pm A super 5-hour show! ONLY ON MAIN EVENT (Foxtel, Optus, Austar)

"THE VOICE" MICHAEL SCHIAVELLO'S TOP 10 COMMENTARY LINES OF 2007 1. "Feitosa is a nice Brazilian... I like a nice Brazilian... I used to tell my ex-girlfriend that all the time." 2. "There are two things I know for sure: Britney Spears will never win Mother of The Year and Albert Kraus didn't win that fight!" 3. "He went swimming last week and Japanese whaling boats began firing harpoons at him." 4. "He's been on his back more than my ex-girlfriend." 5. "He wears more hair product than Bon Jovi." 6. "I'm so excited I've got goosebumps on my arm... or some other sort of strange growth." 7. "There are no windows in Mighty Mo's house. If he wants to let a breeze in he just punches a hole in the wall." 8. "He's a stud... there are no such things as lesbians in the world, just women who haven't met Paul Slowinski yet." 9. "He's so tall giraffes are attracted to him." 10. "He's so short he could milk a cow standing up. You know he went to Tokyo Disneyland last week and they wouldn't let him on any of the rides." AND MORE... * "In the words of Martika -- I felt the Earth move!" -- commentary of K-1 Scandivania Battleground 24 * "He's proving harder to catch than Osama Bin Laden!" -- commentary of DREAM.1 in Japan * "Those punches have less weight behind them than Kate Moss." -- commentary of DREAM.1 in Japan * "He's been mounted more times than a taxidermist." -- commentary of DREAM.1 in Japan * "He needs to throw caution to the wind... I mean here's caution... here's the wind... (makes wind sound)... there goes caution." -- commentary of K-1 Scandinavia Battleground 24 * "This would be a big win for Italian kickboxing... if he wins tonight there's a lot of people singing Lascate mi cantare." -- commentary of K-1 Scandinavia Battleground 24 CLASSIC COMMENTARY QUOTES FROM DREAM.3 MMA in JAPAN 1. "He`s been mounted more times than Jenna Jameison!" 2. "Animal from the Muppets just called... tell Eddie Alvarez he wants his eyebrows back" 3. "He`s been on his back more than my ex-girlfriend." 4. "He`s letting fly like Mussolini from the balcony." 5. "This guy is nuts... I mean he`s waaaay off the reservation!"

The Evolution of the Fight Game... We've Done a 360!

DID WE GO SO FAR THAT WE ENDED UP WHERE WE BEGAN?

The Evolution of the Fight Game

It wasn’t that long ago in the scope of mankind’s history that our greatest minds believed the Earth was flat; nothing heavier than air would ever fly; and the Earth was the centre of the universe around which all planets and stars revolved. To suggest the Earth was round; that mankind would one day manufacture machines that could fly; and that the Earth and all planets actually revolved around the Sun, would have been scoffed at (at the very least) and even had you burned at the stake during certain centuries past.

It also wasn’t that long ago that accepted professional fighting consisted solely of the Marquess of Queensberry rules of boxing and any thought of being allowed to do anything other than punch an opponent was scoffed at.

Even in the 1970s during the birth of modern Western kickboxing, the idea of ever kicking below the waist, wearing short trunks or throwing less kicks than the required kick counter was almost unimaginable. Tell Chuck Norris or Joe Lewis to throw a leg kick? Forget about it!

When leg kicks were finally introduced to professional kickboxing’s rule-set in the 1980s they were considered ‘savage’ and ‘undesirable.’ But you can’t halt progression. Long trunks and above-waist eight-kick counters fell by the wayside as the era of short trunks and leg-kicking took over. The likes of Bill Wallace and Chuck Norris had to keep up or fade away.

In the late 1980s/early 1990s Dutch kickboxers began to travel to Thailand and brought back with them knee strikes, elbows and grappling, thus beginning the spread of Muay Thai across the world. By the mid-1990s the sport of kickboxing experienced the next chapter in its evolution as international rules kickboxing (the stuff that made Stan Longinidis famous) began to die and the inclusion of Muay Thai’s arsenal came to the fore. Once again those who thought leg kicking was the final evolutionary development of the fight game were faced with the choice of either embracing the use of knees or fading away.

In 2008 we’re seeing the next great evolutionary leap in the professional fight game. Excitingly or frighteningly – depending on your perspective – it is the biggest evolutional step fight sports have made since the invention of the boxing glove. It is the advent of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Most people date the staging of the original Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993 as the official birth of professional MMA. However over the last few years this next and greatest leap in the professional fight game’s evolution has literally taken the world by storm. Just when we were thinking Muay Thai was by far and away the most complete fight sport with it’s use of the body’s eight weapons, we now have MMA – a sport of such enormous arsenal that it makes boxing look like a comparison between a Van Gogh and my nephew’s kindergarten fingerpaintings.

So where does this leave us kickboxing and Muay Thai fans? Do we turn our noses up at MMA just as boxers once (and many still do) turned their noses at those who kicked? Or do we embrace MMA for even though it may not be our cup of tea, it has given a whole new injection of life into the fight game.

You know what the funny thing is about the “new” sport of MMA? This “revolutionary” spectacle where opponents can punch, kick, knee, elbow, stomp, submit, choke and wrestle one another? This latest “trend” that celebrities and the silver screen have so embraced? This pay-per-view “phenomenon” that will, say most pundits, be the death of boxing? The funny thing is that as much as we call MMA a “new” sport and the “sport of the new millennium”, it’s the very same sport that our ancestors competed in more than 2000 years ago! Clay pots have been discovered in Greece with pictures of men engaging in a sport that looks a whole lot like a scene straight from the UFC. And just look at these words from the Mahabharata, one of the major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It describes a scene between two wrestlers, though it could very well be a journalist in modern-times writing gratuitously flowery coverage of an MMA event: "Grasping each other in various ways by means of their arms, and kicking each other with such violence as to affect the innermost nerves, they struck at each other's breasts with clenched fists. With bare arms as their only weapons roaring like clouds they grasped and struck each other like two mad elephants encountering each other with their trunks".

For the record, scholars believe the Mahabharta to predate around 520BC. So the question has to be asked: if in 2008 we’re so feverishly embracing the “new” sport of MMA that in reality is the oldest sport known to mankind, have we really evolved at all?

Has Muay Thai Killed Kickboxing's Flair?

HAS MUAY THAI KILLED KICKBOXING'S FLAIR?

Is the fight game becoming more enticing and exciting and attractive or is it waning in its appeal? Does it lack characters capable of whipping you into a frenzy with their in-ring appearances and out-of-ring hype?

Today’s kickboxing fans can be thankful of the likes of Wayne Parr who, in 2008, is the embodiment of the media-friendly, easily-accessed and highly-marketable kickboxer that Stan Longinidis was back in the early 1990s. But how many other such stars with these ‘star qualities’ can you list in kickboxing at the moment? Yet if I ask you to cast your mind back, you can no doubt list a dozen or so media-savvy, easily-accessed, mega-marketable and fan-friendly fighters who sparked a range of emotions in fans every time they fought.

Some of those fighters included: Gurkan Ozkan – our sport’s bad boy, slightly crazy, with enormous heart and a stubborn head; Ian Jacobs – a flashy pin-up boy, eye candy for the ladies, but remained a man’s man, strong as an ox; Steve Vick – the real life Karate Kid, a dynamic performer, put his heart before his health in every fight; Tibor Vermes – humble, polite, respectful and flawless in the ring; Scott Bannan – paved the way for the new generation of Queensland fighters to take the spotlight, eloquent and energetic, a real showman; Paul Briggs – a ferocious fighter who epitomised young brutality and knockout style, well-spoken, good-looking; the list goes on and on.

Do our Muay Thai fighters of today match the pizzazz and the flair of the kickboxers of yesteryear? Outside of Dane Beecham and his pimping ways; Bruce MacFie’s fluorescent hair colours; Corbett’s grim-reaper ring entrance; and Wayne Parr’s gun-slinging struts, does Muay Thai’s current generation possess marketability and style beyond die-hard fans of the sport?

Australia is now predominantly a Muay Thai country. Kickboxing is effectively dead. You’d be hard pressed to see a fight without knees any more. While this is the result of fight sports’ progression (just as MMA is now becoming a hit) it begs the question as to whether Muay Thai has effectively killed the flair once associated with kickboxing? In taking so many aspects of Muay Thai directly from Thailand -- where showmanship, pizzazz, flair, pomp, pageantry, smack-talk and hype is not high on the agenda -- have we killed off a large part of what made kickboxing in Australia so damned exciting in the 1990s? Have we gone too far? Have we tried to become Thais and forgotten that as Western audiences we need a dose of Super Bowl-style sensationalism and hype to keep things truly interesting?

Muay Thai is still a relatively new sport in Australia and Average Joe need only see a Muay Thai fight to realise just how exciting the sport is. But getting Average Joe to put his beer and smokes money into a ticket to a Muay Thai show, or flick from the rugby or AFL to watch Muay Thai on television takes more than just an awesome fight.

While the fight itself will always be of the highest importance, we shouldn’t forget that sports today is as much about entertainment as it is about the competition itself. The humility of the Muay Thai fighter is admirable but the low-key attitude of most fighters who “do it like they do in Thailand” doesn’t translate as excitement for mainstream audiences. We’re not Thai; we don’t bet on fights as the Thai’s do and our fighters don’t fight as a means of transcending poverty. Our fighters compete for the passion, for the excitement, for the challenge and for the potential purses to sustain themselves as professional athletes. But so long as there are television cameras rolling and audiences paying a premium to watch we shouldn’t forget the importance of character-building, excitement and exhilaration.

Addicted to Kickboxing...

YOU KNOW YOU’RE ADDICTED TO KICKBOXING AND MUAY THAI WHEN…

30. You hate people who say they’re a “kickboxer” after doing a Tae Bo class

29. You’re five-feet tall but no longer suffer from “little man’s syndrome” thanks to Michael Zambidis

28. You subscribe to Foxtel just for the kickboxing broadcasts

27. Your house suddenly goes up in flames and you scramble to save what’s most precious to you – your kickboxing DVD collection

26. You were the guy who would always hire the one copy of Stan Longinidis vs Charlie Archie video at Video Ezy

25. Your scout facebook.com and Myspace.com searching for kickboxers who you can add as “friends”

24. When watching AFL and seeing a player go down from a corked thigh you roll your eyes and say, “Step into the ring son!”

23. You think Bridget Woods and not Angelina Jolie is the hottest woman in the world

22. You only have sex with your partner Dane Beecham style, whereby during the throes of passion you look at her and say, “Whose your Daddy Cool!”

21. You name your first-born son “Wayne” and your second-born son “Nathan”

20. You begin putting random Thai words in your daily speech

19. You refuse to eat at any restaurant except for Thai

18. You wear a gold Buddha around your neck even though you’re not Buddhist

17. You don’t shake hands any more but instead greet family, friends and business associates Thai-style by putting both hands together in front of your face

16. You argue that Stan Longinidis and not Sir Donald Bradman deserves to be recognised as Australia’s greatest sportsman

15. You take salsa classes but are expelled when you instinctively start grappling as your salsa partner puts her arms around your waist

14. You walk around in kickboxing promotional t-shirts that are more than five years old

13. You get Thai writing tattooed on your arm or back even though you don’t read or speak Thai

12. Everything you do is timed in three-minute brackets

11. Your girlfriend asks for a massage and you rub her down with Tiger balm

10. You think ‘Ong Bak’ and not ‘The Departed’ deserved the Oscar for Best Movie

9. You and your mates sit around reciting Michael Schiavello’s one-liners

8. While walking down the street you naturally size people up and think “I could drop him with a leg kick.”

7. You ask your mates to call you “Kru”

6. You go out clubbing and begin doing moves from the Ram Muay on the dancefloor

5. You believe Nugget should run as an Independent Member of Parliament for the Queensland government

4. You would actually vote for Nugget as an Independent Member of Parliament for the Queensland government

3. While waiting in the doctor’s surgery you demand they stock back issues of International Kickboxer for you to read

2. You write your university thesis on the bio-mechanics of the Thai roundhouse kick

1. You’re a member of at least five different kickboxing internet forums and you spend most of your day thinking of something intelligent to say.

Sample Me On YouTube

Hit the link to youtube to see a sampling of "The Voice" Michael Schiavello...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aqdf8ssCzM

Interview with Kakutougi.info

Check out this interview I did in Tokyo recently with Stuart Tonkin from kakutougi.info entitled "You're The Voice!"

http://kakutougi.info/content/view/375/2/

The Olympic Games -- Beijing

HEADING TO BEIJING

I'm thrilled to be commentating my first ever Olympic Games come this August in Beijing.

I'll be calling all the boxing for TVNZ and their affiliates and I can't wait. I worked with the team at TVNZ during the Commonwealth Games in 2006 where I commentated 226 fights in eight days!

I also got to work with their great crew for several years doing all the former K-1 broadcasts on Tv2 in New Zealand.

TVNZ is sending over their biggest Olympic Games crew ever. I can't wait!

The Contender Asia Comes to Fox 8

THE CONTENDER ASIA COMES TO FOX 8

The world's most watched reality television series -- THE CONTENDER ASIA -- starts on Fox 8 in June.

I was elated to have hosted and commentated the two-hour CONTENDER ASIA FINALE in Singapore on April 12. I won't spoil it here by telling you who wins, but will say that the entire series is addictive and the final fight is extraordinary. Indeed I felt like I was part of a movie set that night, sitting ringside, a screaming Singapore Indoor Arena, and working with the team from OmniMedia and Mark Burnett Productions from the USA.

This is Muay Thai's chance to hit the spotlight in Australia, with Fox 8 giving in PRIME TIME airing.

The show has already been a smash hit across 22 Asian countries via AXN and Channel 5. I believe it will be shown on ESPN in the USA and ITV4 in the UK.

www.contenderasia.com

A Viewer's Guide to K-1 MAX on MAIN EVENT

A VIEWER'S GUIDE TO ...

K-1 MAX ON MAIN EVENT

Who's Who in the K-1 MAX FINAL 8

MASATO

Japan’s favourite fighting son and the apple of every Japanese woman’s eye remains the hands-down most popular fighter in the Land of the Rising Sun. A man with rock star status, his face is plastered over billboards, magazine covers, newspapers and television advertisements.

Winner of the K-1 Max belt in 2003, and runner up in 2002 and 2007, you’d be forgiven for thinking Masato is a lot older than his 29 years such is his experience. Taking on Max’s best for more than six years hasn’t slowed down the fastest hands in the business, and if recent form is any indication Masato is faster, more aggressive and hungrier than ever before.

In his last fight Masato laid waste to former IBF Intercontinental Champion Virgil Kalakoda of South Africa, knocking the Springbok out in stunning fashion with hands in the third round. In doing so Masato once again proved himself as the nemesis of the boxer, adding Kalakoda to his list of victims that includes former world champions

A Muay Thai stylist with a rounded game based on speed, accuracy and overwhelming workrate, Masato’s other major strength is his mental resolve and sheer hunger. There is probably no other fighter who wants to win the Max title in 2008 more than Masato – and there’s certainly no fighter FEG would like to see crowned more than the Japanese pin-up.

WATCH MASATO FOR…

His awesome speed and brilliant boxing combinations. It’s also fun to see the cutaway shots of crying ladies in the crowd every time Masato is in the ring.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

His ego. ll Masato’s ego get the better of him and make him trade with Drago toe-to-toe to prove a point? This would be a dangerous gameplan against a fighter of Drago’s raw power.

DRAGO

An Armenian refugee who escaped his war-torn country as a child, Gago Drago brings his never-say-die attitude to centre ring every time he fights.

Voted as the Fan Favourite to fill the eighth of final spot in last year’s K-1 Max final tournament, it’s no surprise that fans worldwide have embraced Drago. He is, to say the least, excitement personified, both with his crazy ring-entrance antics and his breath-taking fight style.

Drago is an animal in the ring boasting a high workrate and every shot thrown with enormous power and the intent to knock an opponent’s block off. His last Max fight against USA’s Gori was arguably his best performance to date in Max as Drago pounded the American with vicious boxing combinations and a previously unseen array of turning back kicks, axe kicks, leg kicks and spinning hook kicks.

Drago’s mercenary attitude and his willingness to constantly engage provides headaches for any opponent: when you fight Drago you know you’re not going to come away unscarred. A fight with Drago is a pure war of attrition.

A Muay Thai stylist who has become an all-rounder and puts massive power behind his combinations, Drago could be a real threat to stop the Masato bandwagon come July 7 in Tokyo.

WATCH DRAGO FOR…

His awesome ring entrance in which he looks like a madman flailing his arms about crazily.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

His total offensive ring nature leaves gaps that precision artists like Souwer, Buakaw and Masato can pick apart.

YOSHIHIRO SATO

A former world kickboxing and world Muay Thai champion, when Sato arrived in K-1 Max he was instantly humbled by the enormous talent pool on hand. That humbling experience took a lot of time for Sato to get used to, as he freely admits that as a world champion prior to Max he thought he was a world-beater, only to be brought back down to Earth in losing three of his first 10 Max fights.

There was a time when Sato didn’t feel the warmth of Max’s embrace, nor the embrace of Japanese fans. Those days are gone, he now says, and he fights solely for the purpose of becoming the Max champion, even though he is yet to crack through the Max’s top four.

The fighter from Nagoya, who recently opened his own chiropractic clinic (we’re sure it’s for the free massages) will once again have to get past his nemesis Buakaw on July 7 if he wants to break Max’s top four. Last time the two met in February at the Budokan in a super fight, Sato took the Thai star an extra round before losing via decision.

WATCH SATO FOR…

His phenomenal workrate. The guy just doesn’t stop. Like Semmy Schilt in the heavyweights, Sato works and works and works and gets the points on the board.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

Slow starts and not believing in himself. Sato has already lost twice to Buakaw and may resign himself to the fact that he will never beat the Thai machine.

BUAKAW

What can you say about Thai star Buakaw that hasn’t been said before? Only that in 2008 the Muay Thai Machine has once again found the bone-crunching form that has made him one of the most feared fighters on the planet for the past few years.

Buakaw is a machine. If you stripped away the skin on his face you wouldn’t find blood vessels and sinew, but wires and microchips. Arguably the best fighter pound-for-pound on the planet, there is seemingly nothing that this Muay Thai powerhouse can’t do.

A two-time Max world champion, Buakaw pulled off the greatest victory in K-1 history when he last won the title in 2006. He was bundled out in the quarter finals of last year’s championship tourney by a rampaging Masato, but in 2008 Buakaw is once again looking his deadly self.

In his last fight against Albert Kraus in the Final 16, Buakaw looked sensational, consistently cracking away to Kraus’s forearms with the world’s hardest lead and rear leg roundkicks. Nothing Kraus threw at Buakaw seemed to faze the Thai, who just smiled every time Kraus landed a combination and then fired back with hands of his own and kicks.

“I only know that he’s human because once I saw him limping backstage,” says Nicholas Pettas. “Other than that I’d assume that Buakaw is a machine. The guy is just incredible. Watching him is one of the greatest pleasures you can have. His kicks are just so hard – even harder than the heavyweights.”

WATCH BUAKAW FOR…

His roundhouse kicks to the ribs, liver, forearms and legs. If the producers of SAW V are looking for new forms of torture, they could just lock a victim in a room with Buakaw kicking their legs.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

His ego. Big star, big ego. Buakaw’s only undoing could be if he chooses to let his defence down for a split second. Other than that, it’s hard to pick a weakness in The Machine.

ANDY SOUWER

The current and two-time K-1 Max world champion is, without a doubt, pound-for-pound the best fighter on the planet.

The question is: how can Souwer be stopped? The Dutch ace, trained by the genius Andre Manaart out of Meijiro Gym in Amsterdam, is a flawless fighter. He hardly gets hit, his workrate is high, his boxing is sublime, his kicks are precise and lethal and his knees effective. His footwork is deceptive, his speed is blistering and his composure is eerily relaxed.

Souwer comes into July 7’s final 8 on an amazing 10 fight winning streak, including a non-Max win over The Contender star Yodsanklai, and Max wins over Mike Zambidis (who he knocked out with a head kick), Masato, Kraus, Sato and Kalakoda.

We’d like to sit here an closely analyse Souwer’s game and break down the fine points of his weaknesses but in all honesty, there are none!

“He’s pretty much perfect,” says Nicholas Pettas. “He doesn’t have any weaknesses from what I can see. He has only ever been beaten twice in 18 fights, he hasn’t been touched in a long time and he is, well, flawless.”

WATCH SOUWER FOR…

Everything. If you want the definition of a flawless fighter with excellence of execution, Souwer is it.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

Nothing. His ego is in check. His defence is water tight. His mental and emotional state is always calm and in control.

WARREN STEVELMANS

New kid on the block Stevelmans has taken the K-1 Max by storm. The South African is trained out of Amsterdam under the tutelage of the great Muay Thai veteran Ivan Hippolyte at Vos Gym.

Undefeated in his four fight Max career, Stevelmans qualified for the Top 16 by way of winning the K-1 Max European championship. He then went on to defeat Italy’s Saro Presti in the Final 16 to qualify for the final eight.

Although out-pointed by Drago in his last fight (non Max on Its Showtime in Amsterdam), Stevelmans will be ready to war with Souwer come July 7.

The chances of Stevelmans defeating the flawless Souwer are long, but stranger things have happened in the K-1 world and Stevelmans should not be underestimated. A powerful boxer and formidable kicker, Stevelmans boasts a high workrate and lots of guts and determination.

With Ivan Hippolyte formulating the gameplan in the corner, Stevelmans will be looking to pull off Max’s biggest upset if he can solve the riddle of the Souwer perfection.

WATCH STEVELMANS FOR…

His fast hands and his constant workrate and determination.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

His inexperience in the top flight of K-1 Max.

ARTUR KYSHENKO

The new pin-up Westerner of K-1 Max, 22 year old Kyshenko of the Ukraine is touted by most pundits to be a future K-1 Max world champion.

The tall, formidable Muay Thai stylist is reminise of a young Alexey Ignashov and the days when Alexey tore through K-1’s upper echelon heavyweights with ease utilising technique and crunching power.

Since his loss to Masato in the semi finals of last year’s K-1 Max championship tourney, Kyshenko has won two fights including his devastating first round destruction of Shingo Garyu in February and his recent tough points win over Shingo Garyu in February and his recent tough points win over Jordan Tai in April.

Kyshenko has the size and the weapons to be the real darkhorse in this final 8 line-up. Fans are attracted to him not only for his boyish looks but his Ignashov / Aerts lanky style of knock-out looping punches and vicious headkicks that is sure to earn him the K-1 Max strap some time in the future – maybe even this year.

WATCH KYSHENKO FOR…

His unassuming attitude and ability to sniff a knockout and execute it in devastating fashion.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

Kyshenko likes to stand and trade and while he has one of K-1 Max’s toughest chins, good boxers like Jordan Tai and Masato have exposed it.

YASUHIRO KIDO

Japan’s new sensation has set the K-1 Max world on fire since winning the K-1 Max Japan tourney in February in stunning style.

The Muay Thai stylist is on an amazing winning streak of seven fights including his last outing where he knocked out Korean K-1 Max champion Chi Bin Lim in only 30 seconds with a jumping knee to the jaw!

Kido may not have the movie star looks of Masato nor the experience of Sato but the kid has immense hunger, beautiful use of his leg kicks, hands and knees, and a certain charm that fans are flocking to in their droves.

Kido’s undefeated streak since 2005 includes names such as Kozo Mitsuyama, Andy Ologun and Hayato, but now he steps into the Top 8 for the first time ever and must trade with Kyshenko’s power and iron resolve.

Will the jump to Top 8 be too much for Japan’s new Muay Thai darling? Only time will tell but we think that Kido may yet again shock the world and keep his amazing winning streak alive.

WATCH KIDO FOR…

His sheer passion and his beautiful use of the jumping knee. Jaw-shattering stuff! He also knows how to stick to a gameplan.

HIS WEAKNESS COULD BE…

His inexperience at the top level.

K-1 MAX LIVE ON MAIN EVENT for the FIRST TIME EVER

The K-1 Max -- the highest form of fighting on the planet bar none -- will be shown LIVE on MAIN EVENT Pay Per View (Foxtel, Austar, Optus) Australia wide for the first time on Monday July 7 at 7pm.

The show will go for a 5 hour duration and will feature the K-1 MAX FINAL 8 tournament fights, superfights and more.

The K-1 MAX FINAL 8 Tournament Fights will be:

1. Masato vs Drago
2. Buakaw vs Sato
3. Souwer vs Stevelmans
4. Kyshenko vs Kido

The event will be broadcast LIVE from the historic Nippon Budokan Arena in Tokyo. This is the site where The Beatles made their Japanese debut; where Muhammed Ali fought Antonio Inoki; where the first ever K-1 Grand Prix was held in 1993; and was built for the 1964 Olympic Games.