Get a preview here of the debut of Bellator Kickboxing, this Saturday in Torino, Italy and featuring Melvin Manhoef, Raymond Daniels, and Kevin Ross.
This weekend, Bellator presents the inaugural event for Bellator Kickboxing. The show takes place in Torino, Italy this Saturday, April 16, and will air on a one week tape delay on Spike next Friday, April 22 immediately following Bellator 153: Koreshkov vs. Henderson.
When you look at the fight card, a clear theme emerges. Much like he is doing in Bellator MMA these days, Scott Coker is putting the emphasis firmly on crowd entertainment here. The main event features highly popular MMA and kickboxing veteran Melvin Manhoef. Manhoef has some amazing highlights between the two sports including an 18 second KO of Mark Hunt, terrific wars with Joe Schilling, Robbie Lawler, and Evangelista Cyborg Santos, and many, many other highlights. He’s a dynamic personality who comes out to the ring barking on a leash, and is the exact kind of fighter fans want to see in action – a coiled spring of violence ready to explode at any moment.
Along those same lines, the card also features both Raymond Daniels and Kevin Ross. Daniels first made his name in the Chuck Norris World Combat League, but it was in Glory where he broke out, largely thanks to his insane KO of the Year win in 2014. If you’ve never seen it, you must stop what you are doing and watch the clip now. Daniels is more of a classic martial artist, not the wildman you see in Mahoef, but he’s equally likely to give you the highlight reel KO – just expect his to be more based on flash than raw power.
Ross is an ex-Lion Fight fighter with an extensive Muay Thai background. He’s the kind of fighter you can always count on to give you a war, pushing himself to the limit in every single fight. It just doesn’t feel like a Kevin Ross fight until someone is bleeding. Ross kicks off the show.
Along with fellow Bellator Kickboxing marquee fighter Joe Schilling, Daniels and Ross represent the most popular and dynamic American fighters in the kickboxing world today – the kind of action fighters that make you feel like you to tune in to see what they do. Add in more of these dynamic fighters from the international scene like Manhoef and Denise Kielholtz and you have a card and a promotion that is all about the fireworks.
The other thing this card is clearly about is setting up for the future. So far, we’ve talked about these featured fighters, but we haven’t said a word about their opponents. That’s because none of the names mentioned so far are facing opponents who should provide much of a challenge. Like many Bellator fights, these are showcase fights, meant to introduce you to the stars while providing some great highlight reel footage. It’s telling that the most competitive fight – Karim Ghajji vs. Mustapha Haida – is also the least compelling. For a first show, that’s maybe OK. Coker and Bellator are building for the future here, and if that means throwing a few softballs to warm up, so be it. The key will be how long those softballs continue before we see some real competitive matchmaking in there.
Overall, the feeling of this show is one of anticipation – anticipation for what will happen at this debut event, but even more so for what will happen afterwards. The biggest drawback is that this anticipation will be pretty seriously tested by a one week tape delay and no means to watch the show live. Let’s hope that’s not a trend for Bellator Kickboxing, as it will kill interest in the promotion before it even gets started.
For now though, let’s look forward to what’s to come, and continue to be excited to see world class kickboxers competing on our televisions.
BELLATOR KICKBOXING: TORINO FIGHT CARD