Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Artur Kyshenko – Rumble of the Kings 2011

Here’s a fight I have been waiting for: Yodsanklai Fairtex vs Artur Kyshenko  at the Rumble of the Kings 2011.

Kyshenko is one of the fighters I like best right now. He’s had an interesting career and did pretty well in K1 at first. Then he had a rough patch but since he’s been training at Mike’s Gym in The Netherlands, he’s started making progress again. So I was curious to see how well he would do against a guy of the caliber of Yodsanklai. Pretty well as it turns out…

Here’s the video of the fight:

Some thoughts:

• Kyshenko did amazingly well in the first round. He pretty much controlled the distance and launched his combinations at will. Yodsanklai tried to get in a couple shots, including his famous left kick but Artur just used it against him with perfect timing. I’m sure Yod didn’t expect to get so much resistance from Artur. 
• Kyshenko’s combinations were just through the roof. He does some very complex work that takes into account not only good strategy but also changes levels, mixes angles and uses his opponent’s weakness. Very impressive.
• The Ukrainian fighter also uses one of the most underrated techniques in he whole fight game: sweeps. For the life of me, I don’t know why people don’t use them more often. They’re very effective and can be utterly demoralizing to an opponent. Artur sweeps Yod several times throughout the fight and you can tell the Thai doesn’t like it one bit.
• Yod almost got knocked out. Artur tagged him good, repeatedly, but he hung in there. Props to him for being tough as nails. Props to Artur for stepping up to the plate and going after the Fairtex fighter.
• Artur almost lost the fight in the second round because he started standing in front of his opponent and switched to brawling instead of sniping from a mobile base. He came to his senses in the third round, stuck to his strategy of circling again and that’s when he won the fight.
• I was very disappointed with the Thai in the third round. He just walks forward and into Artur’s techniques. He also insists on using his left kick even when it’s clear it’s not doing anywhere near the damage it should. He lost the fight in this last round.

A really good fight at this Rumble of the Kings 2011!

.