Aleksei Ulianov (L) (GLORY)

Combat Press Kickboxing Rankings: March 2024

As kickboxing continues to grow on a global scale with promotions like GLORY, K-1, ONE Championship, and more, fighters are constantly jockeying for position in the eyes (and rankings) of the media. Every month, Combat Press will compile kickboxing rankings for each weight class from heavyweight to strawweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings for both men and women.

Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from the previous month.

Heavyweight (95+ kilograms)
  1. Rico Verhoeven (1)
  2. Kevin Tariq Osaro (2)
  3. Antonio Plazibat (3)
  4. Roman Kryklia (4)
  5. Rade Opačić (5)
  6. Guto Inocente (6)
  7. Levi Rigters (7)
  8. Iraj Azizpour (8)
  9. Sofian Laidouni (9)
  10. Françesko Xhaja (10)

No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.


Advertisement

Light Heavyweight (95 kilograms)
  1. Donegi Abena (2)
  2. Sergej Maslobojev (3)
  3. Ștefan Lătescu (4)
  4. Ibrahim El Bouni (5)
  5. Felipe Micheletti (6)
  6. Thian de Vries (7)
  7. Jimmy Livinus (8)
  8. Lukas Achterberg (9)
  9. Nikita Kozlov (10)
  10. Pascal Touré (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Artem Vakhitov (1)

On Feb. 3, Nikita Kozlov defeated Matheus Nogueira by unanimous decision at RCC Fair Fight 26. Then, on Feb. 24, Thian de Vries scored a first-round knockout of Lionel Bady at Battle Arena in Zwevegem, Belgium.

In addition, top-ranked Artem Vakhitov has not had a kickboxing bout since Feb. 2023, and he has fought twice in MMA since then. He won both of those bouts by TKO. Therefore, he is removed from the kickboxing rankings, everyone below him shifts up, and Pascal Touré enters at No. 10.

Middleweight (85 kilograms)
  1. Donovan Wisse (1)
  2. Islam Murtazaev (2)
  3. Sergey Ponomarev (3)
  4. Michael Boapeah (6)
  5. Ulric Bokeme (7)
  6. Serkan Özçağlayan (8)
  7. Sergej Braun (9)
  8. Mohamed Touchassie (10)
  9. Eduard Aleksanyan (-)
  10. Ertugrul Bayrak (-)

Dropped from the rankings: César Almeida (4), Khalid El Bakouri (5)

No top-10 ranked fighters were in action this month. However, No. 4 Cesar Almeida has signed with the UFC, and so the rankings remain unchanged. No. 5 Khalid El Bakouri has not fought since Oct. 2022, so both men have been removed from the rankings. This shifts those below them up one spot each, and, into the No. 9 and No. 10 spots slide Eduard Aleksanyan and Ertugrul Bayrak, respectively.

Welterweight (79 kilograms)
  1. Regian Eersel (1)
  2. Endy Semeleer (2)
  3. Dmitry Menshikov (4)
  4. Mohamed Touchassie (5)
  5. Chico Kwasi (6)
  6. Jay Overmeer (7)
  7. Jamie Bates (8)
  8. Bogdan Shumarov (9)
  9. “Hamicha” Mohamed Mezouari (10)
  10. Constatin Rusu (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Alim Nabiev (3)

No top-10 ranked fighters were in action this month, but one adjustment was made. Alim Nabiev has not fought since Nov. 2022, so he is being removed. so the rankings remain unchanged. This shifts everyone above him up one spot, and Constatin Rusu enters at No. 10

Lightweight (71 kilograms)
  1. Chingiz Allazov (1)
  2. Superbon Singha Mawynn (2)
  3. Marat Grigorian (3)
  4. Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (4)
  5. Tyjani Beztati (5)
  6. Giorgio Petrosyan (6)
  7. Tayfun Özcan (7)
  8. Aleksei Ulianov (-)
  9. Jamal Yusupov (8)
  10. Petchmorakot Petchyindee (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Kaito Ono (9), Stoyan Koprivlenski (10)

On Feb. 3 unranked Aleksei Ulianov won a unanimous decision over eighth-ranked Jamal Yusupov at RCC Fair Fight 26 to win the RCC Fair Fight -70kg title. He is now on five-fight winning streak, and enters the rankings at No. 8, shifting those below down, and tenth-ranked Stoyan Koprivlenski falls out of the top 10. A week later, Petchmorakot Petchyindee scored a majority decision in extra round over No. 9 Kaito Ono. Petchmorakot enter the rankings at No. 10, and Ono falls out.

Super Featherweight (68 kilograms)
  1. Jia Aoqi (1)
  2. David Mejia (2)
  3. Rukiya Anpo (3)
  4. Ayinta Ali (4)
  5. Riki Matsuoka (5)
  6. Han Wenbao (6)
  7. Petru Morari (7)
  8. Ryota Nakano (8)
  9. Jomthong Strikegym (9)
  10. Zhou Jiaqiang (10)

No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Featherweight (66 kilograms)
  1. Chadd Collins (1)
  2. Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (2)
  3. Hiroki Akimoto (3)
  4. Tetsuya Yamato (4)
  5. Wei Rui (5)
  6. Kento Haraguchi (6)
  7. Chihiro Suzuki (7)
  8. Kiamran Nabati (8)
  9. Taiju Shiratori (9)
  10. Daizo Sasaki (10)

No top-10 ranked fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Super Bantamweight (64 kilograms)
  1. Yuki Yoza (1)
  2. Kongnapa Weerasakreck (2)
  3. Zhu Shuai (3)
  4. Taio Asahisa (4)
  5. Jin Ying (5)
  6. Chadd Collins (6)
  7. Kento Ito (7)
  8. Yuzuki Satomi (8)
  9. Kan Nakamura (9)
  10. Hideki Sasaki (10)

On Feb. 24, it only took No. 7 Kento Ito 38 seconds to land a right cross and score a knockout win over Yuzuki Satomi at KRUSH 158. He maintains his spot in the rankings.

Bantamweight (61.2 kilograms)
  1. Superlek Kiatmoo9 (1)
  2. Takeru Segawa (2)
  3. Rémi Parra (3)
  4. Leona Pettas (4)
  5. Hirotaka Asahisa (5)
  6. Taiga Kawabe (6)
  7. Chan Hyung Lee (7)
  8. Hyuma Hitachi (8)
  9. Yuki Kasahara (9)
  10. Tomoya Yokoyama (10)

The two men at the bottom of the bantamweight rankings both scored wins in February. First, at SHOOT BOXING 2024 act.1 on Feb. 10, No. 9 Yuki Kasahara scored a head-kick knockout of Jae Min Son. Two weeks later, at KRUSH 158, No. 10 Tomoya Yokoyama picked up a unanimous decision over over Naoki Takahashi. The rankings remain unchanged.

Super Flyweight (58 kilograms)
  1. Taito Gunji (1)
  2. Kaito Sakaguchi (2)
  3. Haruto Yasumoto (3)
  4. Shoki Kaneda (4)
  5. Tatsuya Tsubakihara (5)
  6. Wang Junguang (6)
  7. Keisuke Monguchi (7)
  8. Ryusei Kumagai (8)
  9. Tatsuki Shinotsuka (9)
  10. Kotaro Yamada (10)

A couple of super flyweights were in action in February. On Feb. 3, No. 6 Wang Junguang scored a first-round knockout with a spinning back kick on Jaroengeern at Wu Lin Feng 20th Year Anniversary. On Feb. 23, No. 3 Haruto Yasumoto won a majority decision over Taisei Umei at RISE 176. The rankings remain unchanged.

Flyweight (56.7 kilograms)
  1. Shiro Matsumoto (1)
  2. Koki Osaki (2)
  3. Akihiro Kaneko (3)
  4. Masashi Kumura (4)
  5. Masahiko Suzuki (5)
  6. Kompetch Fairtex (6)
  7. Jonathan Di Bella (7)
  8. Rui Ebata (8)
  9. Akram Hamidi (9)
  10. Yugo Kato (10)

No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Strawweight (54 kilograms and below)
  1. Toki Tamaru (1)
  2. Kazuki Osaki (2)
  3. Kumandoi Petchyindee (3)
  4. Jin Mandokoro (4)
  5. Ryu Hanaoka (5)
  6. Kazane Nagai (6)
  7. Toma Kuroda (7)
  8. Issei Ishii (8)
  9. Koji Ikeda (9)
  10. Kazuki Miburo (10)

No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Pound-For-Pound
  1. Chingiz Allazov (1)
  2. Superbon Singha Mawynn (2)
  3. Marat Grigorian (3)
  4. Wei Rui (5)
  5. Rico Verhoeven (6)
  6. Superlek Kiatmoo9 (7)
  7. Toki Tamaru (8)
  8. Kazuki Osaki (9)
  9. Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (10)
  10. Taito Gunji (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Artem Vakhitov (4)

With Artem Vakhitov’s move to MMA, he has been removed from the pound-for-pound rankings. Everyone below him moves up, and Taito Gunji enters at No. 10.

Women’s Pound-For-Pound
  1. Tiffany van Soest (1)
  2. Phetjeeja Or.Meekun (2)
  3. Jorina Baars (3)
  4. Sarel de Jong (4)
  5. Miyuu Sugawara (5)
  6. Li Mingrui (6)
  7. Koyuki Miyazaki (7)
  8. Martine Michieletto (8)
  9. Antonia Prifti (9)
  10. Arina Kobayashi (10)

No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.


Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed twice in their new division.


Advertisement