Artur Kyshenko - Biography and Career

Biography and Career

Artur started boxing at age eleven, turning to Muay Thai a year later at the Captain Odessa gym in his home town of Odessa, Ukraine where he was trained by P. A. Batrinu. In 2003, aged just 16, he entered the I.F.M.A. Amateur Muaythai World Championships held in Almaty, Kazakhstan finishing with a bronze medal in the 63.5 kg category. He followed this up the next year by winning a gold medal in the I.F.M.A. European championships and becoming Fighting Arts world champion. He was quickly becoming Ukraine's most promising young fighter and his winning of two national championships in 2005 and 2006 reinforced this view.

It was not until 2006 that Artur became known internationally, making his K-1 MAX debut at the K-1 East Europe MAX 2006 event. Artur won the event in Vilnius, Lithuania in dominating fashion, stopping all three opponents on the night to book his place at a reserve fight at K-1 MAX's premier event. He also won gold on the amateur circuit – this time coming top of the 71 kg at the I.F.M.A. World Championships held in Bangkok, Thailand. He then made an appearance at the K-1 World MAX 2006 Final defeated the wily veteran and multiple world champion Rayen Simson in their reserve match.

2007 was another useful year for Artur who made a number of victorious appearances at K-1 MAX events including an elimination fight win over K-1 MAX Seoul champion Su Hwan Lee at the K-1 World MAX 2007 World Tournament Final Elimination which meant he qualified for the quarter finals stages of the K-1 MAX 2007 final. Artur made the semi finals defeating the hardhitting Mike Zambidis before losing to former champ and Japanese kickboxing legend Masato by KO despite being ahead on the judges score cards early on in the bout. He finished the year by winning gold for the second year in a row at the I.F.M.A World Championships.

Artur returned to K-1 action the next year defeating Jordan Tai and Yasuhiro Kido at elimination fights to make the final 4 in Tokyo. He met reigning MAX champion Andy Souwer in the semi finals outworking the heavily favoured Dutchman to claim an extension round victory and face the previous year's finalist Masato in a rematch. Artur performed excellently in the final bout dropping Masato in the second but as he was unable to press his home his advantage the match went into an extension round which the local fighter won by a unanimous decision – a result some felt should never have gone into an extra round as the Ukrainian may have done enough over three rounds to have claimed victory. He entered the final again the following year destroying Aalviar Lima in the final 16 before losing to Andy Souwer in the quarter finals.

Of recent Artur has been on somewhat of a recent downward spiral with reports of the 5'11 Ukrainian having difficulties making the 70 kg weight limit and a mixed patch of results which saw victories over Murat Direkçi and Marcus Öberg being tempered with defeats to the un-fancied Hinata Watanabe and Mohammed Khamal – the latter costing him a quarter final place at the K-1 World MAX Final 2010. He has also switched gyms, moving from Captain Odessa in the Ukraine to Mike's Gym in Amsterdam at the tail-end of 2010. Kyshenko has been on a roll with his new gym, picking up wins against strong opposition such as Gago Drago and Nieky Holzken.

Even though Kyshenko's stance is mostly orthodox, many claim that due to the recent change of gyms, he is now a dual-stance, as seen in his fight against Gago Drago. (Editor's note: dual-stance meaning he uses both the orthodox and south-paw stance.)

He made short work of Chris Ngimbi in the quarter-finals of the K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final before outpointing Andy Souwer in the semis, in the fourth match of their rivalry. He was then KO'd by his stable mate Murthel Groenhart in the final in Athens, Greece on December 15, 2012.

Next up for Kyshenko is a match with Abraham Roqueñi at Enfusion Live: Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain on March 9, 2012.