Abraham Roqueñi


Abraham Roqueñi Iglesias is a Spanish welterweight kickboxer. He was the K-1 MAX Spain 2004 tournament winner, and is a former ISKA, WAKO and WFCA world champion. He holds notable wins over Gago Drago, Luis Reis, Andy Souwer and Artur Kyshenko.

Career

Roqueñi began practicing martial arts with karate at the age of 7, and now holds a 3rd dan black belt in the discipline. He began kickboxing at 12 and had his first amateur fight as a 16-year-old.
Early in his career, he became the Iberian, Spanish and European champion before gaining further international recognition when he won the K-1 MAX Spain 2004 eight-man tournament on December 18, 2004. He knocked out Antonio Postigo and Willy Borrel in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively, before taking a decision over Luis Reis in the final.
Roqueñi won the WAKO World Lowkick Championship on October 22, 2005 when he defeated Wallid Haddad. He made three defences of this title, against Ibrahim Tamazaev, Radhouane Amoulibi and Kevin Harper, over the course of the next year before winning his second world title on June 30, 2007 by beating Thai fighter Kit Sitphonlek by decision for the WFCA World Muay Thai Championship. He then lost this belt to Mohammed Rahhaoui on May 10, 2008.
On December 7, 2007, Roqueñi knocked out Franck Pétin to win the WFCA World Full Contact Championship. He then won his fourth world title on April 11, 2009 by KOing Tim Thomas for the ISKA World title at -70 kg.
On February 5, 2011, he caused a huge upset by defeating K-1 star Andy Souwer in Málaga, Spain. Roqueñi knocked Souwer down in round 2 en route to a decision win. Following this, he was invited to compete in the It's Showtime organization and made his promotional debut at Fix Events & Fightclub Group presents: It's Showtime 2011 on June 18, 2011 and beat Gago Drago by majority decision.
In late 2011, he joined the Thai Fight 2011 70 kg Tournament. He was unable to make it past the semi-final stage, however, as he was defeated by Frank Giorgi on November 27, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.
On January 21, 2012, he lost a unanimous decision to pound for pound #1 Giorgio Petrosyan in Milan, Italy.
He won the face versus Albert Kraus on April 28, 2012 in Torrelavega, Spain.
He was scheduled to fight Yury Bessmertny in Nitra, Slovakia on October 27, 2012 but Bessmertny pulled out of the fight due to injury.
He defeated Xu Yan by unanimous decision in a tournament reserve bout at the K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final in Athens, Greece on December 15, 2012.
On February 3, 2013, he will fight Dutch-based Georgian Giga Chikadze at Street Culture Fight Night 2 in Tenerife, Spain.
Roqueñi took a split decision win over Artur Kyshenko at Enfusion Live: Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain on March 9, 2012.
He beat Elam Ngor by disqualification at Enfusion Live: Tenerife in Tenerife, Spain on July 13, 2013. The fight was ruled a draw after three rounds and was set to go to an extension round to decide the victor, but Ngor apparently felt that he had already done enough and would be unable to beat Roqueñi on points in front of Spanish judges and so he left the ring, resulting in the DQ.
He was set to fight at the K-1 World MAX 2013 World Championship Tournament Final 16 in Majorca, Spain on September 14, 2013. However, he withdrew from the tournament as Street Culture Promotions, the co-promoter of the event, had not paid him for his fights with Xu Yan and Artur Kyshenko.
He beat Emmanuel Horta Vavares by first-round KO in the quarter-finals of the 2013 edition of Thai Fight's -70 kg/154 lb tournament in Thailand on October 23, 2013. Then he proceeded in semi finals and lost to Expedito Valin on November 30, 2013.

Accomplishments