K1MIDDLEWEIGHT (original) (raw)

Ludwig

Denton

Kongnapa

Cook

The Middleweight tournament will include Ole Laursen(Right) of San Diago, CA, USA via Copenhagen, Denmark. Laursenis currently ranked number 1 in the IKFPro MuayThai Rules Middleweight division. His Pro record is 7 wins, 4 loses with 3 wins by KO. He is the current IKFPro MuayThai Rules European Middleweight Champion. He's been fighting professionally for only three years but has quickly moved to the top. He's traveled, trained, and fought all over the world refining and perfecting his unmatchable technique and power. He was born in 1977 in the Philippines to a Danish father and Filipino mother, and raised in Denmark by his mother. His brother Christian Laursen was a Danish and Scandinavian professional MuayThai champion.

Christian encouraged him at the age of 15 to begin training in MuayThai but Ole didn't study it seriously until joining the army at the age of 18. The turning point for him came when he defeated the Danish amateur champ by knockout. This event caused him to devote himself to MuayThai in hopes of becoming the best fighter in the world. Olecontinued fighting as an amateur along with his brother for only one year, both brothers winning all fights by knockouts.

He then moved to Thailand to train and turn professional. As a professional, he trained under Sam Lung who Ole credits with giving him the tools to be a disciplined MuayThai fighter. In 2000, he won theIKF Pro European Middleweight title overEval Denton (Pictured left, L-R: Eval,IKF European Director Alby Bimpson &Ole) from England, in England by split decision.

Next in the mix is Duane "BANG" Ludwig(Left & Right) of Aurora, Colorado, USA. Ludwig has been known to theIKF for quite sometime now. As a Pro, he's currently ranked number 2 behind Laursen in the IKF Middleweight MuayThai Division. He has a Pro record of 7 wins with only 1 loss and an amateur record of 12 wins, 2 loses with 8 wins coming by KO or TKO.

Our first view of Ludwig was on June 5th, 1999 in Orlando Florida, USA when he suffered 1 of his only 3 career loses in kickboxing/MuayThai. In Orlando,Ludwig met Tony Haddockof Orlando Florida to fight for the International Rules (Leg kicks, no knees) Light Middleweight U. S. Amateur Title. In round 2 of that bout, Haddock unloaded a blistering left hook that quickly dropped Ludwig to the canvas. Ludwigstood up as IKF Referee Dan Stellstarted the count but once up, he fell back into the ropes and it was obvious he was not able to continue. Stell stopped the championship bout at :51 seconds into the second round. At the time, Ludwig made it clear he only wanted to fight MuayThai Rules bouts. Why? The "ONLY" 2 bouts Ludwiglost as an Amateur were International Rules bouts. (Leg kicks, no knees)Ludwig's only other loss came in Calgary Alberta Canada to Trevor Desjarlais. Proving this in true form, in August of 1999 he redeemed himself as expected in a MuayThai Rules Championship bout when he captured the vacantIKF United States Super Middleweight Amateur Muay Thai Title with a unanimous decision win over Terrace Jamesof Albq. New Mexico, 50-46, 50-46 & 50-45. He went on a month later to be one of the first ever IKF USA National Amateur "Tournament" Champions at the very firstIKFUSA National Championships in September of 1999 where he won the Light Middleweight MuayThai Rules U.S. Title.

Ludwig's only other loss in his Kickboxing career was against seasoned Pro MuayThai fighter and ISKA World Champion, Alex Gong(Right) as an undercard on the K-1 Event in Las Vegas last year. The bout was forGong's Title and if not for the half point scoring system, Ludwigmay have pulled off a major upset. Ludwig has since made it clear he wanted a rematch with Gong for his World Title, but from what we've been told, no rematch has been offered.

Befor Gong Ludwig had pro wins over Terrace Jamesagain, Steven Berkolyko, Sean Himes, then Bryan Poejoy, another fighter then Gong. After gong he defeated a fighter from France, on the Warriors Cup 3 show. As of today, his pro record stands at 8 wins and 1 loss.Ludwig also has a lot of experience in MMA/NHB with a record of 11 wins and 2 loses. He turned down an offer from the UFC to take the K-1 fight as well since it is his DREAM.

So what's stopping Ludwig from fighting for the IKF MuayThai Rules Middleweight World Title? The same thing that's stopping everyone else... A fighter by the name of Kongnapa,(Left) who was not allowed to compete in the North American K-1 Middleweight event because he's a Thai. Kind of a shame he and others aren't allowed to compete. Ludwig would have been happy to meet Gong in the tournament, but he didn't want to be in it. So instead of a LudwigVs Gong fight or Ludwig Vs Kongnapa possibility, Ludwigwill make the better financial decision in his career, to put aside a shot at a "World" title and go for the money in the Tournament. Not just any tournament though, he hopes to make it all the way to Japan for the Big Show! If he wins it all in, he gets a check for $100,000, and we all know, it would take a lot of World Title bouts to come anywhere close to that kind of cash.

Next in line isIKF number 3 ranked Pro MuayThai Middleweight fighter and formerIKF Pro MuayThai Middleweight World Champion, Robert Coquette (Right) of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Coquete and Laursen (Above) have something in common, they have both beaten Eval Denton of England for an IKFtitle.

Coquete won his IKFTitle by unanimous decision over Eval Denton of England, 48-47, 49-46 & 48-47 in Winnipeg, Matitoba Canada on February 12th, 2000. There's a little confusion as to why he no longer holds his IKFWorld Title though. Coquete was challenged in the Spring of 2000 to re-matchDenton in England but his trainer, Arthur Pereira, wanted too high of a purse (Wanted 6,000whenfirsttimedefenderscanonlydemand6,000 when first time defenders can only demand 6,000whenfirsttimedefenderscanonlydemand2,500 or the average of their last 3 fights, which was less) and the bout offer was dropped. Coquete was later challenged byformer IKF Pro MuayThai North American Light Heavyweight Champion Chad Sawyer (Left) of Alberta, Canada. Since there were negotiation problems with the last challenge for his title, this time the IKFstepped in to require Coquete accept the challenge for the minimum "First Challenge Purse" of $2,500.00. His trainer, Pereira came in with several other issues why he didn't want Coquete to fight Sawyeralong with being verbally abusive to everyone involved.

After a long process of trying to make the match work, Coquetehimself choose to vacate the title and move up in weight. However, if you ask us, it was his trainer, Pereira who really lost Coquete his title. With the title sitting vacant, it was eventually won by Kongnapa. "We feel it was just bad management that led to Coquetevacating his title." Says IKFPresident Steve Fossum. "There was no question he wanted to fight Denton orSawyer, or whoever we wanted him to. But there were just too many issues between his trainer/manager Pereira and Sawyer's trainer/managerMike Miles (Right). Not with Miles, but with Pereira. It was another case where a great fighter becomes the victim of bad management." Coquete has an overall fight record of 21 wins, 2 loses and 1 draw.

Last but certainly not least we have the currently number 1IKF Ranked Junior Middleweight and currentIKF Pro MuayThai Rules North American Junior Middleweight Champion Jason Jillain (Right) out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jillain is trained by Mike Miles (Above right) and has an overall fight record of 28 wins, 8 loses, 1 draw with 14 wins coming by KO or TKO. He is also a former (1997)IKF Canadian Amateur MuayThai Rules Welterweight Champion. Jillian won his IKFAmateur Title on June 14th, 1997 by unanimous decision over Dave Zuniga,of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 48-47, 48-47 49-46 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. turning Pro in 2000, he won his IKF Pro North American MuayThai Rules Title againstJames Cook (Left) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. For 5 full 3 minute rounds these two went at it toe to toe. In the end, Jillain took the advantage by a unanimous decision victory, 49-46, 48-47 and 50-46.

Laursen

Ludwig

Gong

Coquette

Miles

Jillain