Tyrone Spong Youtube Videos
Tyrone Spong Bio
Tyrone Clinton Spong (born September 3, 1985) is a Surinamese-Dutch kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He is the reigning WFCA Cruiserweight Muay Thai champion and former It's Showtime 95MAX World champion, fighting out of Fighting Factory Carbin in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
As of January 2013, Spong is ranked the #6 heavyweight in the world by LiverKick.com.
Early life[edit]
Tyrone Spong was born in Suriname. In 1990 at the age of 5, he moved to the Netherlands with his family. Growing up in the Bijlmer, he was often involved in street fighting and began training in kickboxing at thirteen when he found a gym by coincidence. After getting "ass whooped" in his first day of training, he was motivated to improve. He had his first match at fifteen and won by first round knockout. Some of his early sparring partners included Alistair and Valentijn Overeem, and Gilbert Yvel.
Career[edit]
In 2003, his first year as a pro, he made his mark winning 12 fights that year. In 2004, he fought against Rafi Zouheir at the Battle of Zaandam and won his first European Muay Thai Title (WKN). In 2004 Spong also visited Japan to compete in Shootboxing where he lost to Ryuji Goto. Goto suplexed him in the final seconds of the fight to earn a well-received unanimous decision. His next fight in April 2005, was against Belgian Mohammed Ouali for another European Title (WPKL). Spong won the fight by unanimous decision.
In December, 2005 at the A-1 Combat Cup in Duisburg, after three consecutive KO's in one night, Tyrone Spong won his first tournament Championship.
In 2006 Spong had two his biggest victories of his young career, KO wins over Muay Thai veteran Joerie Mes and two weeks later knocking out K-1 superstar Kaoklai Kaennorsing from Thailand in a first round.
On March 28, 2009, Spong participated in the first ever K-1 Heavyweight (-100 kg) Title tournament, held in Yokohama, Japan. He was beaten by Gokhan Saki in semifinals by right hook KO of the extra round.
Spong finally met rival Nathan Corbett at Champions of Champions II in what was widely considered a battle between the two best Muay Thai fighters in the world at their weight class for the W.M.C. world title -93 kg. The fight was a close affair with Spong knocking Corbett down on the second round only for it to end with a controversial decision. In the third round Corbett managed to knock Spong out with a huge right hook causing the referee to stop the fight. However, due to the referee's misleading hand signals, Corbett rushed back in to knock Spong down once more, not sure that the fight had been stopped. After considerable confusion the fight was declared a no contest instead of a Corbett KO win.
After defeating the Worlds heavyweight champion, Kyotaro he fought Jerome Le Banner in April 2010. Similar to the Nathan Corbett fight Spong broke his right hand in the first round and was knocked down. Despite coming back strongly he lost by decision. At the end of the year he qualified for the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final, defeating veteran Ray Sefo in an elimination match, only to lose to eventual winner Alistair Overeem at the quarter final stage in what was a more competitive fight than most initial thought - as Overeem was much the bigger fighter. At the start of 2011, Spong had to vacate the It's Showtime 95MAX world title due to a number of issues such as not having had a title defense in the allocated two years and his management stating that he had moved up in weight to fight as a heavyweight.
He faced Remy Bonjasky at Glory 5: London in London, England on March 23, 2013. Spong won via one-punch KO with a right hook in the second round.
He is expected to fight Michael Duut in the quarter-finals at Glory 9: New York - 2013 95kg Slam in New York City, New York, United States on June 22, 2013.
Mixed Martial Arts Career[edit]
World Series of Fighting[edit]
Spong made his highly anticipated MMA debut against Travis Bartlett at World Series of Fighting 1 on November 3, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada in the light heavyweight (205 lb) division. For his MMA debut he trained with the Blackzilians for over a year with such fighters as K-1 World Grand Prix winner and former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and former UFC light heavyweight champions Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort. Spong knocked out Bartlett at 3:15 of the first round with a straight right.
Sponge is expected to face Angel DeAnda at World Series of Fighting 4 on August 10, 2013, in the main event.
Titles[edit]
- 2008 1st It's Showtime World 95MAX champion (Defense: 0)
- 2008 World Full Contact Association (W.F.C.A.) Thaiboxing World Cruiserweight champion (Defense: 1)
- 2008 KO World Series '08 Oceania winner
- 2007 1st SLAMM Events 79 kg class champion (Defense: 0)
- 2005 A1 World League winner
- 2005 W.P.K.L. European Middleweight champion (Defense: 0)
- 2004 World Kickboxing Network (W.K.N.) Thaiboxing European Middleweight champion (Defense: 0)
- M.T.B.N. Muay Thai Dutch Junior class -66 kg class champion (Defense: 0)
Personal life[edit]
Spong is married with three children. He is an avid lover of animals, as is evidenced by the majority of his tattoos. He is the owner of several pit bull terriers, which he bred himself. Spong has trained in America with Floyd Mayweather Sr. He is friends with mixed martial artists Rashad Evans, Muhammed Lawal and Rodney Glunder. He has helped all of them prepare for some of their fights. Spong trains his physical conditioning at the ReAT Sports athletic performance facility in Amsterdam, under the Strength & Conditioning specialist Rayen Bindraban.
