via 3.bp.blogspot.com

So, I was reading LiverKick.com, and apparently Ewerton Teixeira made a successful MMA debut last night, scoring a brutal KO with a knee in the third round over unheralded Raul Bazane (1-0) after beating the snot out of him for the majority of the fight. I can't find footage of the fight, but apparently Bazane's survival was more a testament to his remarkable durability than anything else

I can't confirm that it was a heavyweight bout, but Teixeira clocked in around 240 lbs in kickboxing and stands at 6'2. He is also only 30 years old.

He's been training with Junior Dos Santos' team since March.

Teixeira has an 11-3 kickboxing record, largely in K-1, where he won the K-1 GP in Fukuoka in 2008 and reached the Final 8 three times. He's known primarily, unfortunately, for being on the receiving end of a BRUTAL knockout loss to Alistair Overeem, but he does have kickboxing wins over Errol Zimmerman, Kyotaro, Jerome Le Banner, and Musashi, among others.

But its his karate background that is the real talking point: he's a 3rd-degree Kyokushin black belt and has won so many medals in full-contact competition that you might as well just wiki it yourself. Most notably, he's taken the gold medal at the Kyokushin World Open Tournament twice and has won the All American Open Karate Championships FIVE times.

In other words, while I'm not sure, I think this makes him the most dedicated karateka to commit himself to MMA.

I also remember some story Michael Schiavello told during a K-1 broadcast where in one of his Kyokushin World tournament wins, he won by shattering his opponent's leg with low kick.

Anyway, it's a very interesting addition to MMA and it seems that Teixeira is actually legitimately committed to pursuing MMA. He has not yet gotten offers from Glory or the new K-1 and is actively training MMA. He's actually not competed in kickboxing since December 2010 due to rededicating himself to MMA. Again, he's also only 30 years old.

I'm not sure whether he should, or will, stay at heavyweight. While he is 240 lbs, he's hardly shredded, so it is possible that he could lose that 15 pounds and cut the rest to make 205.


.....now let's just see if we can get Gokhan Saki and Tyrone Spong to make their MMA debuts.