2009 was supposed to be Tyrone Spong's year. He capped off an undefeated (7-0) 2008 with winning the It's Showtime 95KG World Title over K-1 WGP in Lodz 2009 champion Zabit Samedov by a very convincing unanimous decision in Eindhoven.
It's October 10th right now, Spong has a record this year of 2-1 (1 NC). As for the NC, everyone who seen the fight in Jamaica with Carnage knows what really went down that night, with Tyrone layed out and probably the worst refereeing we'll see in the next few years when it comes to MuayThai.
Well, what happened?
Was it that Tyrone can't handle the higher level of competition amoung heavyweights, even those around his own size, such as Carnage and Saki? Was it his personal life away from the ring? Or was it just two bad days, two cases of the ol' Chuck Liddell "I got caught"?
I guess we really don't have any answers to these questions right now, and will probably never know the whole story. But as for can Spong hold his own, I'm a firm advocater of yes..
To a degree.
The fight against Gokhan was probably the best K-1 heavyweight fight so far this year for my money. A very competitive fight, between two fighters I love to watch, that went to an extension round with one of them tasting canvas - Spong.
It's the fight business, people get knocked down, and need to get up. Did Spong get back up? To an extent. While the fight against Carnage was a great fight, Tyrone was comfortably winning after the first two rounds, getting two KDs on Carnage (with one of them being pretty questionable about whether or not Nathan wanted to continue). But he payed the price again. Carnage changed to southpaw, got a punch through that floored Spong. The aftermath bullshit is academic in my opinion, NC or not, Spong lost that fight.
While dealing with these disappointing setbacks, Spong then loses someone he considered a "little brother" in Gianluca after he was shot in a car with Tyrone in Amsterdam after a BBQ.
Heavy things to deal with for a 24-year old.
~ Hoost helps
It's all about how you come back right? I would consider hiring the greatest heavyweight kickboxer of all-time, 4-time K-1 WGP champion Ernesto Hoost as your trainer a good start.
While it is still unknown where Lucien Carbin factors into this, I highly doubt he is out of the picture. Carbin trained Spong for a very long time, have a deep relationship and Hoost is probably more of an adviser. I like this idea in that Hoost is an experienced heavyweight, while untested overall as a trainer. People can point to Slowinski and how it's debatable if Hoost improved his skills, I think Tyrone will be THE test for how Hoost will do as a coach.
Hoost can help Tyrone on the things he couldn't get away with at super middleweight, such as lax defense, and more focus on movement.
~ Is "Mr. Perfect" enough?
Maybe. We can look at fights with Samedov, where Spong and Samedov both came in at 95KG and looked the same size. Compare that to the beatdown Hari just layed on Samedov, and the sheer size difference between the two. Factor this with Hari not being that big of a K-1 heavyweight.
Looking at this, what about Rutz pushing for a Spong/Hari fight on an It's Showtime card? Imagine Spong fighting somebody like Schilt, who just manhandled a fair sized human in Daniel Ghita. Look at Gokhan Saki, dwarfed by a mid-sized heavyweight in Bonjasky. Can Spong handle the biggest of K-1? At this time, definitely not, he needs to put on more weight, and if he can do it right remains to be seen.
~ "Mini-Tyson", showdown on It's Showtime
Just announced a few days ago that Spong will defend the 95KG It's Showtime strap against one of the heaviest hitters on the circuit, Melvin Manhoef, in May 2010. While Melvin just had a controversial loss to Remy Bonjasky, he faired much better than I thought he would, and was coming off a title win in Budapest for the 85KG It's Showtime belt and a quick KO of rising Russian MuayThai (and Hoost trained) star Ramazan Ramanzanov.
I can't wait for this fight, but I think it'll be a good fight for Tyrone if he can keep his guard up and stick to his game. If Melvin doesn't connect, his guard will be wide open, and a suspect chin waiting for a trademark left hook counter from Spong.
Lights out, third round KO for Spong, early prediction.
RIP GIANLUCA FLAMINGO
