I know, as a singular discipline it doesn't quite fit into the MMA forum, but it would be outright rejected in the General Boxing Forum, and would not get any traction in the Lounge. It's safe to say the majority of us that post in here have at least a passing interest in K1, if not kickboxing in general. The last world max in Yokohama was a pretty good show overall. I watched it piecemeal after recording it, and the only real drag was Hari vs. Ignashov. Wretched fight, an example of what happens when two people commit to a cautious countering style. Hari is going to start generating Anderson Silva-like heel heat with too much more of this crap. Exactly the kind of match that stands in opposition to the spirit of this particular sport. Chess matches playing out over a dozen rounds in boxing are one thing, but in K-1 there's an expectation of short and sweet. Most of the rest of the card delivered there, thankfully (even those that went the distance). A few mismatches - notably, Saki was way too skilled and sharp for Jaideep; Schilt way too big and aggressive for Zimmerman, and LeBanner too big, sharp, aggressive and skilled for Spong. As for Overeem - well, an Overeem fight is an Overeem fight. op Lascenko looked okay but Sato looked pretty unexceptional, so it's nothing to get too excited about. Kyotaro may have been the most impressive performer on the card. Yes, Aerts is knocking on Forty's door, but he's still in shape and just beat Saki a few months ago. Kyotaro fought very intelligently and destroyed him. Obviously the card would have been improved tenfold by the mere presence of Giorgio Petrosyan. Even if it was just him kicking a can around the ring. I don't mean a "tomato can" (bad fighter) - an actual can. I'd tune in to watch the guy eat cornflakes (as long as he was shadowkickboxing between bites). The upcoming 16-man tournament looks promising, even if a final four of Buakaw, Souwer, Dida, and Petrosyan is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
I used to watch boxing on TV, then tuned in and saw K-1 for the first time. Hoost was making his entrance and he looked really scary. His fight started and it was a technical bout. I switched channels, came back later on and then I saw this huge, mean looking man mountain making his entrance. He looked unbeatable. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPTZxb4B_iI[/ame] So I checked out his fight and was totally shocked; this was the first K-1 fight I saw - it was the year 2001; [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65viMojXzLA[/ame] Few months later I saw him again on TV and of course I checked out his fight again as he really caught my interest; it was this fight; [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK-CQPtvZTs[/ame] From that moment I was really hooked. Now it's pretty much my favourite sport, I love the concept of the qualifying tournaments, semi finals and finals each year. Love the 3 x 3 min action packed rounds and love the quality of the events with great artwork, walkins and all kind of hightech stuff such as the super slow motion camera's, ... Great sport!
Yeah love K-1. I wish they had a few more weight divisions though. Not too many as then it becomes a problem, but maybe one between Heavy and Max at least. I know technically the WGP is openweight but everyone in it is over 100kgs. They need one slightly lower imo for guys like maybe Spong, Saki, Manhoef who are a bit too small to compete with the bigger guys. They're already bringing in a 63kg grand prix so hopefully that's a step in the right direction.
Next event in a few weeks on 21/05/2010 Bucharest - shown on HDnet; Card should be like this; Super Fight: MMA Rules / 5Min. 3R Valentijn Overeem vs. Cătălin Zmărăndescu Jan Nortje vs. Alexandru Lungu Super Fight: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext.1R Ray Sefo vs. Ionuţ Iftimoaie Errol Zimmerman vs. Cătălin Moroşanu Carter Williams vs. Raul Cătinaş Super Fight (70 kg): K-1 MAX Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext.1R Philippe Salmon vs. Mihai Barbu Quarter Finals: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext. 1R Mighty Mo vs. Roman Kleibl Sebastian Ciobanu vs. Daniil Sapljoshin (2010 K-1 Warsaw winner) Freddy Kemayo vs. Sergei Lascenko Alexey Ignashov vs. Mindaugas Sakalauskas (2010 K-1 Vilnius winner) Reserve fight 1: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext. 1R Zabit Samedov vs. Mladen Brestovac Reserve fight 2: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext. 1R Andrei Stoica vs. Jan Soukup (neconfirmat)
Yeah that was the case in the finals as some fights were stopped before they even started. However they have to fight three fights in one evening. The final match has a 3 knockdown rule, but it would be better if they used it for the other matches as well I think...
k-1 is awesome. I just hope they don't get into the financial trouble plauging the other japanese fightsport promotions.
OK, everyone and their sister needs to see this fight between Yoshimichi Matsumoto and 36-year-old Haruaki Otsuki from the recent K1 inaugural 63kg (lightweight) WorldMax tournament: [yt]xqGw14qudqg[/yt] Wow! The rest of the card was pretty good, but this one stood out. Mostly it was younger fighters being paired against the old guard, probably in an effort to raise their profile and fix this problem:
I watch K1 sometimes on HDnet. I used to watch older K1 when it would come on ESPN2 in replays. Back when Bob Sapp was fighting and big in it,
i used to follow k1 back in the days when andy hug was still alive and guys like peter aerts, lebanner, cikatic, hoost were the top dogs.. was rooting for hug and after he died, switched to stefan leko.. several other former topdogs like ray sefo, hunt, filho, mcdonald spring to mind...
Really entertaining fight!:good Apparently a big upset as well. Otsuki was one of the tournament favourites at the beginnning along with Ishikawa and Yamamoto (who also lost incidentally). I'm quite liking their 63kg tounrnament. It was a decent card with some exciting fights and great KOs. Who do you think will win it? I'll be the first to admit that I know relatively little about these guys, and it's the first time I've seen most of them. But personally, I'm backing Tetsuya Yamato. He's a powerful striker and in the last round beat one of the tournament favourites in Yamamoto,which was a good fight itself with a great extension round. I'm looking forward to the Final at the next MAX event.
Yeah, Yamato-Yamamoto was great, and what a surprising turn of events. Tetsuya really hulked up for that extension round. He's got a nice fluid Muay Thai style, it's good viewing. Personally, the quarterfinal match that has me most brimming with anticipation is Yoshimichi "the Thriller" Matsumoto from the above posted war with Otsuki, taking on Daisuke Uematsu, who seemingly came back from ***** St. to KTFO the "Japanese Killer" Jae Hee Cheon. That one should be pure TNT all the way. This is the seeding: This content is protected Not a stinker in the lineup. My only wish is that Kizaemon Saiga's punk ass gets put to a brutal end...if Ishikawa doesn't do it, the winner of Yuki and Yamato should. :good My guess is Ishikawa-Yamato and Kubo-Uematsu in the semi-finals, and then Ishikawa over Uematsu in a classic for the tournament crown. This same card will also feature the opening 16-man round of the traditional 70kg tournament...good names are penned in: Yuya Yamamoto, Andre Dida, Albert Kraus...I can't wait.