Final Preparations! K-1 World GP 2009 Final

#11: Press Conference Footage

Press Conference videos Part 1, 2, and 3.

#10: Intense Press Conference

Intense staredown - GBRing.com

All finalists were present at today’s press conference besides Jerome Le Banner who will arrive to Japan on the evening of the 4th.

In what is called the most exciting pre-event press conference in K-1 history, Errol Zimmerman and Remy Bonjasky wouldn’t leave each others face during their staredown (causing staff having to break them up), and Overeem/Hari-Bonjasky had a war of words, partly related to MMA and K-1.

Be sure to check the press conference out when K-1 uploads it on YouTube.

#9: Kharitonov Returns

Kharitonov has arrived in Japan where he talked with the press on the 3rd. He says that he hasn’t really done any special stand-up training for the fight, just been training his normal MMA training. He’s been training at Golden Glory in Holland with fighters such as Schilt, Overeem, and Zimmerman for extended periods of time. He thinks that he’s been able to train with them on equal level when it comes to striking.

He isn’t against fighting in MMA and K-1 at the same time. He says that his aim for next year is to become number 1 in the world but he doesn’t really know which direction he should take for that to happen. He thinks that Ghita is a good fighter and he also confirms the rumor that he was elected to box in the Olympics in the past.

#8: Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!!

Michael Buffer will return to K-1 for the first time since the 2006 WGP finals to be a ring announcer on Saturday.

#7: Final Preparations – Bonjasky

#6: The Golden Trio Is Back

Peter Aerts got back together with trainer Tom Harinck this year and it has now become clear that first ever WGP champion Branko Cikatic will also be in the corner of Aerts in his reserve fight on Saturday. Cikatic was also with Tom and the trio are back together again.

Ernesto Hoost will be in Spong’s corner for his semi main event fight against K-1 Heavyweight champion Kyotaro.

#5: Fight Order Announced

FieLDS K-1 World GP 2009 FINAL
Date: December 5th, 2009
Place: Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan

Superfight (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
9. Kyotaro vs. Tyrone Spong

Reserve Fight #2 (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
6. Daniel Ghita vs. Sergei Kharitonov

FINAL8 Fights (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
5. Errol Zimmerman vs. Remy Bonjasky
4. Jerome Le Banner vs. Semmy Schilt
3. Alistair Overeem vs. Ewerton Teixeira
2. Ruslan Karaev vs. Badr Hari

Reserve Fight #1 (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
1. Peter Aerts vs. Gohkan Saki

Opening Fights (3×3):
-1. Jan Soukup vs. Tsutomu Takahagi
-2. Singh “Heart” Jaideep vs. Makoto Uehara
-3. 60kg: Keiichi Samukawa vs. Ryuji Kajiwara

#4: AKB48 Halftime Show

Girl music group AKB48 will have a show at the halftime of the Finals on Saturday. The reason I write this is because they (AKB48) announced this at a Don Quijote store today.

#3: Hari In Japan

Badr Hari has arrived to Japan and held an open training session at Gold’s Gym on the 30th.

#2: Tanigawa Twitter

FEG president and K-1 producer Tanigawa had a fun sequence of tweets yesterday:

I did it, 1000 followers! Thank you!
Yes! 1001! Thanks!
Whaa, it decreased with one. Why?
Dana has 800,000? D…damn.

Also, the boxing fight between Naito and Kameda got a monstrous 43.1% rating on TBS.

#1: Opening VTR

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