King of Kings kickboxing once again returned to the Manej Sports Arena in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau in front of a sold out crowd. As usual, FightBox presented the Hero’s Series portion of the event, which turned out to be one of the most exciting KOK cards ever. Although it was April Fool’s Day, these Hero’s Series fights were no joke.
The night started with two semifinal fights in the first ever KOK -51 kg women’s tournament. In the first bout, the aggression from the weigh-ins carried over into the fight as Esma Hasshass and Klaudia Pawicka brawled for nine minutes in a very auctioned-packed fight. Then, the much more experienced Feride Kirat of Turkey battled local girl Nadejda Kantsir. Kantsir was tenacious and determined for the duration of the fight, constantly moving forward and out-pointing her opponent. The finals will see Hasshass taking on Kantsir, a fight which we saw in October of last year and one which Hasshass won by decision.
The fight of the night was in the -95 kg division, though. In one of the best comebacks in KOK history, Vasil Ducar went down twice in the second round from Alexandru Burduja’s vicious leg kicks, but managed to survive to round three. Not only was he able to mount a comeback in the final round, but he actually knocked Burduja down, then knocked him out cold.
Keita Bangaly was replaced by Colin George, a man who has had mixed success in King of Kings. Tonight was his night though, as after the doctors stopped the fight momentarily to address a nasty cut on the left side of Maxim Bolotov’s head, the fight resumed and Bolotov was knocked out almost immediately afterwards. The full results can be found below.
First Ever KOK Women’s -51 kg Tournament Semifinals
Semifinal 1: Esma Hass Hass (Morocco / Holland) def. Klaudia Pawicka (Poland) by UD
Semifinal 2: Nadejda Kantsir (Moldova) def. Feride Kirat (Turkey) by UD
-85 kg: Nicolae Caraus (Moldova) def. Samir Boukhidous (Holland) by UD
-95 kg: Vasil Ducar (Czech Republic) def. Alexandru Burduja (Moldova) by KO, 3rd rd
-77 kg: Vadim Vaskov (Belarus) def. Sergei Morari (Moldova) by UD
+93 kg: Colin George (Holland) def. Maxim Bolotov (Moldova) by KO, 2nd rd
Remember that even though FightBox only broadcast the Hero’s Series part of the event live, we will replaying both the Hero’s Series and the WGP portions in the near future. To see when we will be replaying these events, check the schedule. The next live KOK event on FightBox will be on June 24th from Cyprus and the next live event on FightBox HD will be this coming Friday, April the 7th at 7:00pm CET when Superkombat Kickboxing will be live from Bucharest, Romania.
