On Sunday, June 5, ACB Kickboxing ventured outside of its home base in Russia for only the second time. ACB Kickboxing 6 took place in Brussels, Belgium and featured a mix of up-and-coming talent and fighters searching to break into the top-10 rankings.
In the evening’s main event, Brazilian heavyweight Jhonata Diniz clashed with kickboxer Kirk Krouba in a 100-kilogram fight. Diniz spent a large chunk of the past few years inside of the GLORY ring to mixed success; facing setbacks to top heavyweights Rico Verhoeven, Hesdy Gerges and Daniel Ghita. Diniz won the ACB 95-kilogram title with a first-round knockout win over Valentin Slavikovski at ACB Kickboxing 3. Krouba lost a decision in his most recent outing against D’Angelo Marshall just last month at the SuperKombat World GP in Bucharest.
In the evening’s co-main event, top-15 light heavyweight Redouan Cairo took on Belarussian Igor Bugaenko. The Dutch-Surinamese kickboxer Cairo had been on the outside of the top-10 looking in despite winning fights against Ibrahim El Bouni and Jorge Loren. Bugaenko had compiled an impressive knockout ratio while competing against some of the top fighters in the division.
Also on the main card, former top-10 welterweight Alexander Stetsurenko took on Alka Matewa and former Enfusion world champion Anke van Gestel fought former WAKO Intercontinental champion Paola Cappucci.
The event kicks offed at 11:00 a.m. ET on ACB’s Youtube channel and live on MATCH TV (Russia), BOETS (Russia) and Arryadia TV (Morocco).
Igor Bugaenko def. Redouan Cairo by unanimous decision
Mbamba Couwenberg def. Jaouad Taghdoini by unanimous decision
Mansur Vaduev def. Faysal Bouhlou by unanimous decision
Alexander Stetsurenko def. Alka Matewa by decision
Anke van Gestel def. Paola Cappucci by TKO (cut). Round 1
Islam Baybatirov def. Eddie Vendetta by knockout (right uppercut). Round 1
Youssef Challou def. Michael Tahitu by TKO (strikes). Round 3
Zakaria Tijarti def. Jean-Pier Habimana by decision
Tomaz Izoria vs. Younes Rahmouni ruled a draw