There have been some rumors circulating that stemmed from a news story posted last week on another kickboxing website. The RUMOR is that the 2008 Kick/WAKO USA National Championships will not be allowed to happen by the Illinois State Athletic Commission. The RUMOR is just that NOTHING BUT A RUMOR! The 2008 Kick/WAKO USA National Championships WILL go on as planned! There was never an doubt that to that fact! Again, this was nothing but a rumor! Promoter Rob Z received a call yesterday from Ron Pucello, head of the Illinois State Athletic Commssion, who reiterated the fact that the tournament would go on as planned and stated that the state of Illinois would adopt Nevada’s standards for kickboxing and MMA! So get those registrations in there is only 6 days until the first deadline! By registering by July 6th you will pay the early registration fee of $60 instead next registration fee of $75. Regsiter today and save!

Visit www.kickwakonationals.com to register and for more information.

Nicholas Torrance, who’s been training at Greubel’s Mixed Martial Arts since he was five years old was recently featured in the Augusta Chronicle about his amateur boxing and kickboxing career. To read the full article, click here: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/062808/oth_463826.shtml

Team USA vs. Team Poland is SET for August 2nd in Chicago, IL as The Polish National Team Receives their Visas!!This incredible event will be part of the Saturday night super show at the Kick/WAKO U.S. Amateur Championship Tournament. The tournament takes place at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, in Rosemont, Illinois August 1-3rd. Visit www.kickwakonationals.com for more information.

The U.S. Team for this event consists of Jon Lewis, Leslie Stoll, Dee Jay Jones, Simon Buettner, and Andrew Krzepotowski. Lewis, Stoll, Jones, and Krepotowski were all a part of the U.S. Kickboxing team that attended the 2007 WAKO World Championships in Coimbra, Portugal.

Additionally, the event will be covered by Polish television channel, Polsat. Polsat is Poland’s third biggest television channel and will have reporters on the scene Augsut 1st and 2nd doing interviews with the USA and Polsh National Teams. Founded in 1992 and owned by Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, Polsat belongs to the Polsat Group, which also owns other channels like Polsat 2 International, Polsat Zdrowie i Uroda, Polsat News, Polsat Sport, Polsat Sport HD, Polsat Sport Extra, TV Biznes, Play TV, Superstacja, and TV4. The PolSat Channel alone has a viewership of more that 10 Million people all over the world.

The Craig Smith Kickboxing web site is starting to climb the ladder with traffic due to updated info and Video’s and pictures daily. www.craigsmithkarate.com is starting to be a resource for updated Kickboxing events and Video’s of all of Team Smith Fighters. With testimonies from parents to daily schedule weekly to daily Summer Camp pictures and photo’s. There is also NEWS articles from local news papers and the BIO of Craig Smith on its web site. The web site gets many hits daily and CSK is starting to realize it is an outlet for many browsers of the karate/kickboxing world. Locally it is getting much traffic as well because the phone rings constantly with request for info about classes. Most callers say they got the info from the Web site and our email address gets many emails stating that people are impressed with the professionalism of the web site. To get info about upcoming events, schedules, fighters photo’s and video’s as well as class info and more, click on www.craigsmithkarate.com daily and see what’s NEW in kickboxing or karate!!

Aristotle once said,
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many different subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology. The words he used to describe “Excellence” are a perfect fit to the IKF’s work in preparing for the Annual IKF World Classic Tournament.

Every year for 10 straight years, the IKF repeatedly makes promises, and follows through with them year after year. As someone put it last year, “You say what your going to do, and you actually do. This is what sets you apart from the rest in everything the IKF does.” Each year, something is better, or something added such as the Friday night Welcome Banquet Dinner this year which is FREE to all Registered Fighters, Trainers and Officials… Yes, FREE!

Whether the sanctioning of Amateur events, to the sanctioning of Professional World title events around the globe, the IKF continues to simply come through with what they promise and in most cases, give MORE THAN Promised!

Today the tournament officially surpast the total Registration numbers from last years 2007, IKF World Classic Tournament. The record to break was 201 “Registered Fighters”. Currently, with still 8 days to go until the final registration Deadline, this years 2008 IKF World Classic Tournament is at 202 fighters, 203 if you count the one fighter who had to drop out due to passport issues. The margin of victory is officially 2, but the IKF is not stopping there. “This is the first year we have allowed brackets over 8 fighters.” Said IKF President Steve Fossum. “We felt bad turning fighters away in the past, not because of potential fees lost, but because those fighters were forced to either fight where they didn’t want to or not attend.”

Several weightclasses have either reached or surpast the old limit of 8 fighters. Those with more than 8 fighters will see the division champion having to fight twice on Sunday before being crowned the 2008 IKF World Classic Tournament Champion.

Undefeated kickboxing superstar Raymond “The Real Deal” Daniels will make his highly anticipated mixed martial arts debut against Jeremiah Metcalf (8-4) at Strikeforce: “Melendez vs. Thomson” at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, June 27.

With his very impressive sport karate and kickboxing credentials, some are already making comparisons between Daniels and Strikeforce’s Middleweight Champion, Cung Le.

Daniels had this to say: “I don’t try to be the next anybody. I look to be greater than Cung and surpass anyone who’s been considered at the top of their game. I try to live up to who I am and I expect great things from myself… I still haven’t had any challenges or anything like that so I decided to come over to MMA and see how good I really am. I’m going to give MMA fans something that they’ve never seen before. I want to become the greatest fighter of all time. Anybody that steps in front of me is just gonna be on my next highlight reel, an obstacle that’s standing in my path to greatness.”

Raymond Daniels and the L.A. Stars recently captured the World Combat League’s Championship Crown June 11th in Tulsa, OK. The L.A. Stars finished undefeated in both the regular season and the playoffs. A big part in the team’s success is due to Daniels’ dominance in the league going a perfect 12-0 with 6 KO this season.

Below are Reg. info and fees for the South Carolina EastCoast Classic July 12th. Also below are more info for this weekends Sunday WKKO Regional including Directions to event.This weekends WKKO Regional Kickboxing event being held at BlackHawk Kickboxing 234 Battlefield Blvd North. Chesapeake Va,. 23320. Weigh-ins start at 12pm -2pm and Fighst start at 2pm. FCR and Low Kick Rules.
Elimination fights with Prelims having (2) rounds and finals having three rounds. All fighters will be set up according to there experience in the first rounds. Awards for all fighters. Fighter fees are $30.00 at the door and admission is $20.00 Ringside $30.00 all day.

Directions for this weekends event:

64 east from Richmond or West from 460 or 58 to Battlefield Blvd South exit. Then once you get off of 64 onto Battlefield South you go about 4 miles or 5 miles and look on your right and you will see a strip mall with BlackHawk Kickboxing in it. If you go over the Draw Bridge you just missed the Strip mall on your right. The Reach number for BlackHawk Kickboxing 757-548-9550 or Craig Smith Cell 757-729-0942.

EastCoast Classic Info:

Times growing near July 12th Gaffney s.c. East Coast Classic kickboxing event. A lot
of teams have committed and calls are coming in every day.

All forms & fees can be mail to:
Gary Frazier @ 159 Hidden Acres Dr.
Gaffney s.c. 29341
All money orders can be made out to Gary Frazier.

Remember the deadline for forms & fees July 3th. Fees $30.00

Motel - Jameson inn 101 stuard street Gaffney s.c. 29341
phone # 1-800-jameson
remember let them know will are part of the east coast classic to get the rate.

Thanks any question call 846-761-6986

Looking forward to a great event.

Noelani “Haole-Girl” Brown of the Budo Ryu in San Luis Obispo, Ca, defeated Malia Spanyol of Fight and Fitness in the “War of Hero’s”, Muay Thai show June 21st in Santa Clara, Ca.Brown won by unanimous descision 29-27, 29-27, 29-26. This increases Noe’s record to 3-2.  The show was sponsored by Fairtex and the United States Muay Thai Federation.

The dust has settled and coaches Rob Z, and Mark Greubel have made the selections for our team that will compete in the 2008 WAKO Junior World Championships, September 19 thru the 27th in Naples , Itlaly. Your 2008 Junior Team USA is as follows:

• Chad Monyelle
• Larissa Zarate
• Danielle Byrne
• Caleb Plant
• Nathan “The Natural” Key
• Cameron Lamb

Congratulations to these athletes and good luck in Italy!