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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Sport
Gareth Fullerton

Belfast to host big night of World Championship Kickboxing

Belfast is set to host a big night of World Championship Kickboxing this weekend.

'Knockdown Lockdown' will take place at Stormont Hotel on Saturday night, November 27 and features a a series of WKN title bouts.

The "Made in Prokick" event will showcase a number of A-list fighters from Northern Ireland going up against international opponents from three different countries.

Top of the bill sees Bangor's Johnny 'Swift' Smith square off against Lee Sung-hyun of Korea. The pair will battle it out for a prestigious World Kickboxing Network welterweight title.

Smith (9-0, 6 KOs) is coming off a knockout win against Shuhei Sone, and prior to that he stopped Lee Ji Hoon to win WKN InterContinental welterweight belt.

Lee (55-9-1, 17 KOs) is a two-division champion of Asian kickboxing promotion 'RISE', most recently taking the middleweight strap by unanimous decision against Shintaro Matsukura.

In 2013 he earned the Gold at lightweight via fourth-round stoppage against Yuki Taguchi.

A pair of WKN European amateur title bouts support the five-round World Championship headliner.

Featherweight Jay Snoddon takes on Ranieri Cingolani of Italy, while bantamweight Grace Goody meets Kubra Akdut of Germany.

Pictured ahead of this weekend’s world title fight at Stormont hotel are Pro kick’s Chris Campbell (Burnt-On) world title contender Johnny ‘Swift’ Smith (Prokick; Contender), Matt Flenley (Datactics), Billy Murray (Prokick), Kate Nicholl (Lord Mayor), Chanhyeong LEE (Raon Kickboxing, Korea), Paul Dobson (Agnew Mercedes), Sunghyun LEE (Raon Kickboxing, Korea; Contender) Aaron Anderson (Umbrella Protect), Brooke Murray (Prokick) (Mark Marlow)

Promoter Billy Murray, who has been credited with helping popularise kickboxing in the UK and Ireland, has himself lifted world kickboxing titles in four different weight classes.

Belfast has previously hosted major kickboxing events including the historic World Kickboxing Network light welterweight championship between 'The Prince' Mohamed Samir and 'Belfast Boy' Gary Hamilton at the Ulster Hall on December 19, 2005 with boxing legend Marvin Hagler in attendance.

Prokick: Knockdown Lockdown fight card

  • WKN World welterweight title - Johnny Smith (Northern Ireland) vs. Lee Sung-hyun (Korea)
  • WKN European featherweight amateur title - Jay Snoddon (Northern Ireland) vs. Ranieri Cingolani (Italy)
  • WKN European women's bantamweight amateur title - Grace Goody (Northern Ireland) vs. Kubra Akdut (Germany)

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