I.K.F Mass Destruction 1999
Curtis Bush, Rick Roufus, Don Wilson.
A stacked card of North American kickboxing greats!
From injuries to unfulfilled promises fighter pay wise this is a great retrospective.
Many different eras and styles of this great sport around the world. Give this guy a like he does great work!
From what I recall of it, the event wasn’t as good as a lot of K-1 cards but for North American kickboxing it was pretty good. My friend Kevin Rosier fought on the card but he was well past his prime & got pieced up pretty thoroughly by some guy that he’d also fought in MMA. At that point in his career, Kevin was pretty much taking any fight he could in boxing, kickboxing & MMA. Sadly, he died young due to a coronary.
But, anyhow, the highlight of the card was the Rick Roufas stoppage of Stan Longinidis. He beat the leg kicker at his own game. As for Don Wilson, he looked great for his age but I wasn’t impressed with his opponent’s effort.
BTW IN !
I still laugh when i remember Tank Abbot call Don the Dragon Wilson " Don the Dragonfly Wilson" in a UFC broadcast… i cant stop laughing while i type this!
Any insight into Rosier character? Seemed like an off dude based on his style.
Mean Mike Labree is legendary in his toughness.
A story of Labrees toughness during a fight in Russia is told during his walkout of the Rosier fight and it’s legendary.
Mean Mike is a guy they just don’t make anymore incredibly tough.
Oh, Kevin was a hell of a character as well. He became fighting in those full-contact “knockdown” Karate tournaments back in the '80s. Winning quite a few of them before getting into kickboxing & boxing. And while doing this he supplemented his income as a bouncer at a bar in Cheektowaga ( a suburb of Buffalo ) with a really tough reputation. And guess he cleaned house there on quite a few occasions. As a kickboxer, he won several national & world titles. As a boxer, he was pretty much just an opponent for up & coming heavyweights like future WBA champion Nicolai Valuev, “Baby” Joe Mesi, & Vinnie Maddalone. Then there was his foray into MMA which began with three bouts in the UFC.
He was a good guy, a really nice guy when he wasn’t smashing someone’s head in or getting his smashed in. Lol.
Interesting thanks for this. I know again prior to the Rosier - Labree fight that Kevin spent a lot of time in Canada specifically Toronto at “Twin Dragons” kickboxing.
I heard he is originally French Canadian but went to Buffalo as a baby more or less and hails from there.
Kevin was always an interesting character to me lol.
I can only imagine the bouncing stories.
Down our way we have the Hollett family. Ralph Hollett in particular he went 1-1 with Jean Yves Theriault in kickboxing and he beat Bennie Briscoe in boxing …but the stories of his bouncing days are just insane those oldschool guys like Kevin and Ralph they just dont make em like that anymore…wonder if those two ever came across one another / had a spar.
RIP Ralph.
Funny you should mention Twin Dragons because when I was fighting back in the 80s, a few of us from our gym in Buffalo used to drive up there occasionally for sparring. It was an interesting place. What I remember most was all the posters plastered around advertising some low-budget Kung Fu flick the twins starred in. And whenever I went up there they always put me in with this tough little bastard named Rocky Zolnierczyk who was also a pro boxer who did some kickboxing like me. And he was a walk-in banger like me too so we had some damn good wars. I was a little heavier than him so I could push him back when I needed to but man could he throw a lot of punches. Lol.
That’s awesome who were the Twins? Mick and??
As for Hollett, I remember him well from my youth. He not only beat “Bad” Bennie Briscoe ( albeit an older, faded version but still an impressive feat ) but he also had a pair of KOs over another tough Canadian in Eddy Melo, plus he beat Fernard Marcotte, had a draw & a win over slick west coast contender David Love & some others. I remember his last fight was a loss against my buddy Alex Hilton ( I used to be a sparring partner of his brothers Matt & Davey ).
If I remember correctly it was Mick & Marty McNamara. Or was it Matty? I’m shit with names sometimes. They were great guys though & treated us really well. And those impeccably groomed mustaches always cracked me up for some reason. Lol.
That was a great card for American Kickboxing. Roufus vs. Stan was a legit match up and seeing old Don take out a younger guy was pretty cool. I enjoyed watching this on PPV at that time.
Dick Kimber was a tough guy I don’t think this was a work as was rumored post fight. Kimber was prone to injury and taking fights while injured and this could be the case here like it was when he fought Alexio with broken ribs.
Oh, I didn’t mean to suggest it was a work. I just wasn’t impressed with Kimber’s effort. But that could be explained if he was injured going into it.
This was in responce to Jcblass more so.
That is awesome dude! You purchased that and it helped some of the fighters get paid! Lol.
