This Week in KOs: Spence Jr., K-1 WGP, & Muay Thai’s KO of the year

With the UFC leaving a gap in the combat sports schedule this week, it’s time to take a look at all the rest of the action from around the world. Featuring all the most devastating finishes from MMA, boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai.

A quiet week in MMA gave way to a big weekend for kickboxing. The K-1 World Grand Prix returned with a mountain of action. Muay Thai provided one of the best KO’s of the year so far, and boxing picked up any remaining slack. On the MMA front, ACB put on the most high profile event, with M-1 and Cage Warriors both putting together solid shows as well. But, it was CES 50, stateside, that brought the highest concentration of violence.

As always, the credit for keeping fans posted on the world of top-shelf combat sports knockouts goes to the stars of highlight Twitter. This week Caposa, Jolassanda, Zombie Prophet, and Kyle Johnson were responsible for the bulk of the action. So, give them a follow, and that way you’ll be sure to never miss a moment week in and week out.

Cage Warriors 94

Cage Warriors was one of the few regional promotions running larger events this week in the MMA sphere, with an event headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Brian Bouland. Their thirteen bout card featured eight stoppages with four coming by way of knockout.

Welterweight Angelo Rubino took his record to 8-3 with the liver kick KO over Maarten Wouters, who fell to 10-6 with the loss.

Welterweight Tomek Langowski got his professional debut win picking Tonny Van Dijk (2-2) out of the air with a left hook.

CES 50: Paiva vs. Ewell

North East regional MMA promotion CES returned this weekend, in Lincoln, Rhode Island, with their own bantamweight title fight. Their eleven fight card featured nine stoppages, with five coming by way of KO.

Middleweight Reginaldo Felix upped his record to 5-2 with a prolonged flurry on Pat McCrohan, eventually dropping him to 3-2 behind a hard left hook.

Bantamweight Kris Moutinho (5-2) put a stamp on his fight with Al Jones (3-4), flooring him with a hard right-left-right combo.

Bantamweight Adam Acquaviva climbed to 6-3, while showing off all the value of the crucifix position. He delivered a volume elbow TKO to John Douma, who dropped to 3-1.

Other MMA

Featherweight Akira Takano (7-1-2) crushed Jung Min Lim (1-2) with a massive right hook and a leaping left behind it to finish their fight in the third round at Shooto in Osaka 2018.

Lightweight Reinaldo Mudo broke a four-fight losing skid to hit 3-4 with a spectacular flying knee KO of Alex Olivera at Favela Kombat 29.

Light heavyweight Roman Dolidze (5-0) captured the World Warriors Fighting Championships title in Kiev, Ukraine, with a walk-off right hand to the jaw of Eder de Souza (15-5)

Featherweight Jesus Pinedo took his record to 15-4-1 at 300 Sparta 26: Soncora vs. Pimenta, where he put it all together to finish Carlos Alexandre with heavy ground and pound. Alexandre dropped to 5-1 with his first pro loss.

Middleweight Punahele Soriano (4-0) found his right hand in the middle of a brawl to drop James Horne (4-2) and finish the bout.

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Kickboxing & Muay Thai

K-1 returned this last week with a featherweight Grand Prix tournament that provided a ton of high level action and some beautiful finishes.

Lightweight Koya Urabe delivered the second round high kick KO against Arthur Sorsor in the co-main event.

Super Lightweight Masaaki Noiri picked up the liver shot KO over Vincent Forschiani.

Minoru Kimura put a stamp on Kazuki Yamagiwa with a big left hook in the first round.

Bantamweight Gonnapar Weerasakreck landed a stunning left cross on Rukiya Anpo to knock him cold in the second round.

Featherweight tournament competitor Ryusei Ashizawa stopped Silviu Vitez with a left hook to straight right combination in round 1.

Kaito ended his bout with an absurd flurry of knees and hooks to put away Toshiki Watanabe early in the event.

Other Bouts

Yuki hit a devastating series of low kicks to finish off Kodai Nobe at RISE 125.

Chalawan Por Onnut landed a top contender for KO of the year with a shocking front kick knockout of Rambong Leesorkanka at an event in China.

Troy Jones landed a crushing right elbow over the top on Ariel Abreu to finish their fight on UFC Fight Pass’ Friday Night Fights Muay Thai.

Yodwicha KEM Muay Thai Gym put Georges Solomon on dream street with a pair of right elbows to the temple at TOPKING Muay Thai.

Walter Goncalves folded Christian Hyatt in half with a front kick right to the liver at MX Muay Xtreme.

Singyai Sor.Kullavong showed the value of pad-kick drills in his bout at MX Muay Xtreme.

Hummer Jakkrayan Muay Thai landed a beautiful stepping lead elbow to get the KO at MX Muay Xtreme.

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Boxing

IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (24-0) made short work of Carlos Ocampo (22-1) to retain his title, stopping him with a solid body shot combo in round 1.

Super Flyweight Charlie Edwards moved to 13-1 in his career, stopping Anthony Nelson with a right hook. Nelson dropped to 12-2 on the loss.

That’s all for now, but This Week in Knockouts will return on July 1st, with another gap in the UFC schedule, and another round of jaw dropping combat sports action. Until then!