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.
- Rico Verhoeven (1)
- Levi Rigters (2)
- Bahram Rajabzadeh (3)
- Kevin Tariq Osaro (4)
- Antonio Plazibat (5)
- Roman Kryklia (6)
- Rade Opačić (7)
- Guto Inocente (8)
- Iraj Azizpour (9)
- Sofian Laidouni (10)
Even after a huge heavyweight card in March, there were still a couple big men who fought in April. At SENSHI 21 on Apr. 20, No. 9 Iraj Azizpour scored a first-round knockout with knee to the body of Georgios Biniaris. The next night, No. 10 Sofian Laidouni, who competed in the GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix last month, won a TKO over Vladimir Tok, who suffered a shoulder injury at GLORY 91. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Tarik Khbabez (1)
- Donegi Abena (2)
- Sergej Maslobojev (3)
- Ștefan Lătescu (4)
- Ibrahim El Bouni (5)
- Felipe Micheletti (6)
- Thian de Vries (7)
- Jimmy Livinus (8)
- Lukas Achterberg (9)
- Nikita Kozlov (10)
On Apr. 6, at 8TKO #9, Enfusion cruiserweight champion and seventh-ranked light heavyweight Thian de Vries attempted to extend his 31-month, 20-0 reign of terror to a dual belt against middleweight champ Jente Nnamadim, but an illegal elbow strike ended the bout in a no contest. A week later, No, 10 Nikita Kozlov won a unanimous decision over Alexey Golub at RCC Fair Fight – Xtreme World Grand Prix Quarterfinals. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Donovan Wisse (1)
- Islam Murtazaev (2)
- Sergey Ponomarev (3)
- Michael Boapeah (4)
- Ulric Bokeme (5)
- Serkan Özçağlayan (6)
- Sergej Braun (7)
- Mohamed Touchassie (8)
- Eduard Aleksanyan (9)
- Ertugrul Bayrak (10)
The only middleweight who fought in April was No. 3 Sergey Ponomarev. At FKR Pro 9, on Apr. 28, he was given a second-round disqualification win due to an illegal elbow by Kairatbek Zharekeev. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Alexis Nicolas (-)
- Regian Eersel (1)
- Chico Kwasi (5)
- Endy Semeleer (2)
- Dmitry Menshikov (3)
- Mohamed Touchassie (4)
- Jay Overmeer (6)
- Jamie Bates (7)
- Bogdan Shumarov (8)
- “Hamicha” Mohamed Mezouari (9)
Dropped from the rankings: Constatin Rusu (10)
An incredible upset happened at ONE Fight Night 21 on Apr. 5 when undefeated Frenchman Alexis Nicolas snapped Regian Eersel’s 22-fight, multi-organizational championship winning streak with a unanimous decision for the ONE Championship lightweight kickboxing title. A few weeks later, another king lost his crown, as Endy Semeleer gave up the GLORY welterweight strap at GLORY 91, after No. 5 Chico Kwasi scored three knockdowns in the second quarter. Kwasi skipped the line ahead of Semeleer, but with Nicolas entering the rankings at No. 1, Kwasi landed at No. 3. No. 10 Constatin Rusu, picked up a unanimous decision over Nikola Cvetkovic at SENSHI 20, but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the rankings.
- Chingiz Allazov (1)
- Superbon Singha Mawynn (2)
- Marat Grigorian (3)
- Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (4)
- Tyjani Beztati (5)
- Giorgio Petrosyan (6)
- Tayfun Özcan (7)
- Aleksei Ulianov (8)
- Jamal Yusupov (9)
- Kaito Ono (-)
Dropped from the rankings: Petchmorakot Petchyindee (10)
Headlining ONE Friday Fights 58 on Apr. No. 2 Superbon Singha Mawynn and No. 3 Marat Grigorian put on a five-round war with Superbon picking up the decision on all three scorecards. Elsewhere in the division, after meeting only two months prior, Kaito Ono, who lost their first meeting by extra-round majority decision, won the rematch by majority decision over Petchmorakot. Petchmorakot stole Ono’s spot in the rankings a couple months ago, but Ono won it back at SHOOT BOXING 2024 act. 2, along with capturing the SHOOT BOXING super welterweight title.
- Jia Aoqi (1)
- Bobo Sacko
- David Mejia (2)
- Rukiya Anpo (3)
- Ayinta Ali (4)
- Riki Matsuoka (5)
- Han Wenbao (6)
- Petru Morari (7)
- Ryota Nakano (8)
- Zhou Jiaqiang (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Jomthong Strikegym (9)
When David Mejia upset featherweight king Jia Aoqi only 10 months ago, he was on a meteoric rise, but that quickly fizzled out. In Oct. 2023, he tried his hand at the Petpanomrung Kiatmoo9 at GLORY 89 and lost a split decision. In January, he lost a bid for the Wu Lin Feng -67kg title in his rematch with Aoqi. Then, in April, it took one first-round right hook from Bobo Sacko a GLORY 91 to make it three losses in a row. On a four-fight winning streak, which started with a win over Chadd Collins a few years back, Sacko enters at No. 2, pushing the rest of the field down.
While the moves would have normally pushed No. 10 out, No. 9 Jomthong lost a decision in a Muay Thai battle to Marc Dass Rey on Apr. 13. While that would not normally affect kickboxing rankings, that put him at 1-3 in his last four bouts, and No. 10 Zhou Jiaqiang is currently riding a four-fight winning streak in Wu Lin Feng. In this case, Jomthong loses his spot in the rankings, and Zhou maintains the tenth spot.
- Miguel Trinidade (1)
- Chadd Collins (2)
- Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (3)
- Hiroki Akimoto (4)
- Tetsuya Yamato (5)
- Wei Rui (6)
- Kento Haraguchi (7)
- Chihiro Suzuki (8)
- Kiamran Nabati (9)
- Lee Sung-Hyun (10)
No top-10 ranked fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Yuki Yoza (1)
- Kongnapa Weerasakreck (2)
- Zhu Shuai (3)
- Taio Asahisa (4)
- Jin Ying (5)
- Chadd Collins (6)
- Kento Ito (7)
- Yuzuki Satomi (8)
- Kan Nakamura (9)
- Hideki Sasaki (10)
The only super bantamweight in action in April was second-ranked Kongnapa Weerasakreck, who won a unanimous decision over Takuma Tsukamoto at KRUSH 160 on Apr. 28 after 20-month layoff. He keeps his spot in the rankings.
- Superlek Kiatmoo9 (1)
- Takeru Segawa (2)
- Hirotaka Asahisa (3)
- Rémi Parra (4)
- Leona Pettas (5)
- Taiga Kawabe (6)
- Chan Hyung Lee (7)
- Yuki Kasahara (8)
- Tomoya Yokoyama (9)
- Yuki Egawa (10)
Eighth-ranked Yuki Kasahara was the only bantamweight in action for April, but it was a Muay Thai bout. He used his punches to score a second-round TKO of Petsimok PK.Saenchai at ONE Friday Fights 59 on Apr. 19. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Taito Gunji (1)
- Kaito Sakaguchi (2)
- Haruto Yasumoto (3)
- Shoki Kaneda (4)
- Tatsuya Tsubakihara (5)
- Wang Junguang (6)
- Keisuke Monguchi (7)
- Ryusei Kumagai (8)
- Tatsuki Shinotsuka (9)
- Kotaro Yamada (10)
The super flyweights saw a ton of action in March, but April was a bit quieter. On Apr. 13, tenth-ranked Kotaro Yamada picked up a unanimous decision win over Shogo Kuriaki at SHOOT BOXING 2024 act.2. Two weeks later, eighth-ranked Ryusei Kumagai won a unanimous decision over Kyo Kawakami at KNOCK OUT 2024 vol.2. Both men hold their positions in the rankings.
- Shiro Matsumoto (1)
- Koki Osaki (2)
- Akihiro Kaneko (3)
- Masashi Kumura (4)
- Masahiko Suzuki (5)
- Kompetch Fairtex (6)
- Jonathan Di Bella (7)
- Akram Hamidi (9)
- Jaroensuk BoonlannaMuaythai (10)
- Ryunosuke Omori (-)
Dropped from the rankings: Rui Ebata (8)
While the ranked flyweights didn’t see any kickboxing action in April, there were some updates. First, on Apr. 5, Kompetch Fairtex won a Muay Thai battle against Kongchai Chanaidonmuang at ONE Friday Fights 58.
Second, eighth-ranked Rui Ebata has not fought in two years, and he is removed from the rankings. This means No. 9 Akram Hamidi and No. 10 Jaroensuk move up one spot each, and entering at No. 10 is Ryunosuke Omori, who last fought in March, when he scored a first-round knockout of Koyata Yamada with a spinning backfist at RISE ELDORADO 2024.
- Toki Tamaru (1)
- Kazuki Osaki (2)
- Kumandoi Petchyindee (3)
- Jin Mandokoro (4)
- Ryu Hanaoka (5)
- Kazane Nagai (6)
- Toma Kuroda (7)
- Issei Ishii (8)
- Koji Ikeda (9)
- Rui Okubo (10)
No top-10 ranked fighters were in kickboxing action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged. However, two fighters did compete at RWS Muay Thai. On Apr. 16, Kumandoi Petchyindee lost his Rajadamnern Stadium bantamweight (118 lbs) title to Khunsueklek Boomdeksian by unanimous decision. Then, on Apr. 14, Issei Ishii went to a draw against Ryuki Matsuda.
- Chingiz Allazov (1)
- Superbon Singha Mawynn (2)
- Marat Grigorian (3)
- Wei Rui (4)
- Rico Verhoeven (5)
- Superlek Kiatmoo9 (6)
- Toki Tamaru (7)
- Kazuki Osaki (8)
- Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (9)
- Taito Gunji (10)
The only pound-four fighters in action were No. 2 Superbon and No. 3 Marat Grigorian when they fought at ONE Friday Fights 58. As previously mentioned, Superbon won the decision, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Tiffany van Soest (1)
- Phetjeeja Or.Meekun (2)
- Jorina Baars (3)
- Sarel de Jong (4)
- Koyuki Miyazaki (5)
- Miyuu Sugawara (6)
- Li Mingrui (7)
- Martine Michieletto (8)
- Arina Kobayashi (9)
- Saho Yoshino (10)
No top-10 ranked 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.