Kickboxing is the only one of the three major combat sports to be dominated by European fighters.
Europeans have a presence in boxing and MMA, but in the modern age those sports have generally been dominated by Americans.
Kickboxing is different. For historical reasons the sport found its base in the Netherlands, leading to fighters from western and central Europe being the dominant force in the various weight classes.
That in turn has led to fighters from other countries treating the Netherlands as a Mecca and making pilgrimage there to learn ‘Dutch-style kickboxing’. Many coaches around the world have also learned the Dutch style and teach that to their students.
However, American middleweight contender Wayne Barrett believes it is time to put an end to all that. He believes America produces the best fighters in the world and is looking to lead the US charge into dominance of the kickboxing world.
"I don’t want to knock anyone. I am a big fan of Ernesto Hoost and Ramon Dekkers, guys like that who I watched when I was coming up," he says.
"But I am a fighter who is good at analysing and breaking people down and one thing I see is a lot of similarity in Dutch-style kickboxers. They all have that aggressive mindset of coming forward.
"I’ve been watching it for so long that I feel like I have caught on to their reactions and similarities. It’s great action, really great action, but I want a long career, I am not about a war of attrition."
So whereas most people believe that the American fighters are testing themselves against the Europeans at GLORY events, Barrett has it the other way around.
"Nobody is considered a great fighter until they come over and do it in America. Boxers like Ricky Hatton were famous but they had to come here to the US to really test themselves; Hatton met Mayweather and fell down,” he says.
“Its a different level when you mix with American fighters. We are a bit slicker than what those European guys are used to."
Next month, on Saturday June 21, the world’s top eight middleweight strikers will converge on Los Angeles, California for GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING. The tournament will crown a new middleweight champion.
Russia’s Artem Levin (47-4-1, 33 KO’s) is ranked #1 in the world and is the favorite to win. Most pundits consider him the man to beat - get past him and you’ve taken a huge step towards victory.
Barrett doesn’t disagree, but he also doesn’t hold Levin in the same high regard that a lot of his fellow fighters and fight fans do. He also thinks that credit for Levin’s unorthodox style belongs with the USA rather than Russia.
"Levin has been fighting people in Europe using the kind of style that we have in America,” he says.
“He is fighting guys who have that Dutch Kickboxing style of going forward aggressively and he’s using an American [boxing] style of picking guys off, using angles and using movement and different timing.
"If you watch American boxers like Roy Jones Jr, that’s where Levin is getting his style from. And it is working for him because those guys in Europe don’t understand what he is doing. So I give him props for that, he knows what he is doing.
"He is a problem for those European guys because they only have one speed and one plan - ‘go forward, you hit me, then I hit you.’ Whereas if you hit Levin then he comes back at a different angle, change stance, change level, try and hit with you something you don’t see."
With several Europeans taking part in the LAST MAN STANDING tournament, Barrett will definitely have the chance to prove his theory. The event takes place Saturday June 21 and airs live across the USA on pay-per-view.
The tournament line-up consists of: Artem Levin (RUS), Joe Schilling (USA), Wayne Barrett (USA), Alex Pereira (BRA), Filip Verlinden (BEL), Bogdan Stoica (ROM), Simon Marcus (CAN), and Melvin Manhoef (NED).
The World Heavyweight Championship belt will be contested by Daniel Ghita (50-10-0, 39 KO’s) and Rico Verhoeven (43-9-0, 10 KO’s) and welterweight champion Marc De Bonte (87-11-1, 28 KO’s) will defend his strap against ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini (11-2-0, 10 KO’s) of Toronto, Canada.
LAST MAN STANDING is priced at $34.95
