Alexey Ignashov
Alexey Victoravich Ignashov (Belarusian: Аляксей Ігнашоў; born 18 January 1978) is a Belarusian Heavyweight kickboxer. He is a four-time Muay Thai World champion, K-1 World GP 2003 in Paris and K-1 World GP 2001 in Nagoya tournament champion. As of 2011 he is living in Auckland, New Zealand and training at Balmoral Lee Gar Gym under Lollo Heimuli. He is best known for his knee strikes, notably used to score knockout wins over Badr Hari, Semmy Schilt, Nicholas Pettas, and Carter Williams. Ignashov is considered by his fans to be one of the most talented and technically sound heavyweight kickboxers in the world. However, he is also considered by many as frustratingly inconsistent, occasionally appearing lackluster or inactive in the ring, such as in his K-1 Final quarterfinal match against Peter Aerts in 2003. He suffered a knee injury in a fight against Bjorn Bregy in 2005. Since then, his performance has diminished. Ignashov trained in the Chinuk gym for 11 years, before immigrating to New Zealand in 2006. He has beaten the best kickboxers in the world, including decision wins over three times K-1 champions Remy Bonjasky and Peter Aerts and knockout highlight reel wins over two currently best kickboxers in the world Semmy Schilt and Badr Hari. He has also fought legendary Rob Kaman, losing by decision, but after that fight Rob gave the trophy to Ignashov. Despite all those huge wins, he has lost some bouts where he was a huge favorite. He was TKO'd only two times, each time because of injury, against Bjorn Bregy in 2005 and in his 2009 bout against 2003 French Kickboxing champion Freddy Kemayo. After 5 years of being out of the major ring events Iggy was granted his wish to return to K-1 in April 2010 against Badr Hari, having one of the best chins in the sport. However he was very inactive in the ring and lost by unanimous decision. He was heavily criticized by the fans after the fight. Ignashov announced that he wants to have a rubber match with Badr Hari after he has a few more K-1 fights to get used to the big ring again. Just recently he competed in his 99 official fight while winning with Freddy Kemayo. He made his comeback after one year at 12 May 2012 in Budapest Hungary losing a decision against Ali Cenik. He defeated Zinedine Hameur-Lain via decision in Kazan, Russian on 20 October 2012. Just a week later, he was defeated by Tomáš Hron by unanimous decision at Nitrianska Noc Bojovnikov in Nitra, Slovakia. He was scheduled to fight Benjamin Adegbuyi on 10 November 2012 in Craiova, Romania, in the quarter-finals of the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2012 Final Elimination. Unfortunately, due a broken finger he had to pull out of the event. On 23 February 2013, he defeated the overmatched Martynas Knyzlis on points in Moscow, Russia. Ignashov had his rubber match with Badr Hari at Legend 2: Invasion in Moscow on 9 November 2013, losing by unanimous decision in yet another lackluster fight. Ignashov was slated to fight Andonis "Wrangler" Tzoros in Greece for the WKN K-1 Super Heavyweight Championship on 26 April 2015. Ignashov defeated Tzoros and won the WKN title via decision.
