Sergei Lashchenko

Serhiy Lashchenko (Ukrainian: Сергій Лащенко; 21 June 1987 – 8 April 2015), also spelled as Sergii Lashchenko and Sergei Lascenko, was a Ukrainian kickboxer.

He was a K-1 and Superkombat Heavyweight.

Lascenko began his kickboxing career in 2006, mostly fighting under Muay Thai rules.

After becoming the Ukrainian Heavyweight Muay Thai Champion in 2007, he went on to win The Honor of Soldier tournament in Moscow, Russia later that year.

The tournament kicked off on October 10, 2007, with sixteen competitors.

In the opening round, Lascenko beat Sultan Babaev by unanimous decision to qualify for the final eight on December 5.

There, he dispatched Andrei Kirsanov via split decision in the quarter-finals, and Yaroslav Zakharov by technical knockout in the semis before taking an extra round unanimous decision over Alexander Oleynik in the final.

On October 27, 2008, he defeated Stepan Kirlish to win the +91 kg gold medal at the 8th Ukrainian Muay Thai Cup.

He made his K-1 debut on November 22, 2008, at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Riga.

He was eliminated from the eight-man tournament at the first stage by Mindaugas Sakalauskas on unanimous decision (10-9, 10–9, 10–9) after an extra round.

In the semis, he defeated Erhan Deniz (who he had already beaten back in 2008) via doctor stoppage in round 3.

He then advanced into the final against Ismael Londt, the man who had beaten him a year previously.

It looked as though the result would be the same this time also as Londt forced Lascenko into the corner and dropped him with a flurry of punches.

Lascenko beat the count but was put against the ropes again and, initially, looked overwhelmed.

However, Lascenko then dramatically KO'd Londt.

On April 13, 2009, Lascenko once again won the +91 kg gold medal at the Ukrainian Muay Thai Championships.

Following this, he entered the IFMA European Amateur Muay Thai Championships in Liepāja, Latvia.

He beat Alexei Kudin by decision in the semi-finals on May 20 and Igors Goncarovs by TKO in the final on May 22.

Just a day later, he participated in his second K-1 tournament, the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Łódź, in Poland.

He made it to the final but lost by knockout to Zabit Samedov, after he had beaten Noel Cadet by TKO and Dmitrij Bezus in the quarters and semis, respectively.

He was given another chance to qualify for the 2009 K-1 World Grand Prix final 16 when he was invited to the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo final 16 Qualifying GP in Japan.

In the quarter-finals of the tournament, Lascenko faced Sebastian Ciobanu and was able to take a unanimous decision (30-29, 30–28, 30–28) over the Romanian.

In the semis, he knocked out Brice Guidon in round two after dropping him with a knee strike to the body in the first.

Advancing to the final, he came up against Daniel Ghiţă who stopped him with low kicks inside the first round.

He rebound from this loss by beating Dmitrij Bezus to take the +91 kg gold medal at the 8th Ukrainian Muay Thai Cup on September 21, 2009.

In 2010, Lascenko and his teammate Artur Kyshenko left the Captain Odesa gym in Ukraine to move to the famed Mike's Gym in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

On April 3, 2010, Lascenko defeated Takumi Sato by unanimous decision (30-29, 30–29, 30–28) at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Yokohama.

After this, he was invited to compete in the tournament on K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Bucharest on May 21, 2010.

He was unable to make it past the first stage, as Freddy Kemayo beat him by unanimous decision in the quarter-finals.

He would also go on to lose his next two fights after this, dropping decisions to Alexei Kudin on July 30 in Minsk, Belarus, and Ismael Londt on October 22 in Kazan, Russia.

He ended the year with a first-round knockout win over Vasile Popovici in Chişinău, Moldova on December 11.

Lashchenko won the Superkombat Tournament Championship at SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix 2011 Final, stopping Ismael Londt with punches to the head in the first round and becoming the first Superkombat World Grand Prix champion in the process.

In his prime he was considered one of the best heavyweight kickboxers in the world, with a career-high ranking at #6 in the world in the LiverKick.com rankings.

On May 21, 2011, he took part in the SuperKombat World Grand Prix I 2011 in Bucharest, Romania.

It would be the first of four, four-man qualifying tournaments held throughout the year; the winners of the four events would qualify for another four-man Grand Prix at the end of the year to determine the overall champion.

In the semi-finals, he stopped Dževad Poturak with a knee to the body in round two, and in the final he KO'd Roman Kleibl with a right hook, also in the second round.

This win qualified him for the finals at the end of the year.

Lascenko was expected to face Rico Verhoeven at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2011 in Nanjing Final 16 on October 29.

However, the event was cancelled with K-1 experiencing severe financial problems.

The SuperKombat World Grand Prix Final 2011 was held in Darmstadt, Germany on November 19.