K-1 World GP 2009 Finals! Aerts In Reserve Fight

Two reserve fights, one superfight, and a couple of opening fights have been added to the K-1 World GP 2009 Finals on December 5th.

In the first of the reserve fights, FINAL16 participant Peter Aerts will take on Gohkan Saki, and in the second one the impressive Daniel Ghita will get another chance when he faces Chalid “Die Faust”.

In the announced superfight, K-1 Heavyweight champion Kyotaro will take on top Kickboxer Tyrone Spong.

In the opening fights, Kyokushin Karateka Jan Soukup will battle Tsutomu Takahagi and J-Network Super Lightweight champion Keiichi Samukawa will fight Krush LW GP 2009 quarterfinalist Ryuji Kajiwara in a K-1 LW (60 kg) fight.

RISE 60! HAYATO’s Retirement

Another Kickboxing event in Japan that is close to FEG is RISE. Many fighters in K-1 MAX, such as TATSUJI and Keiji Ozaki, originally got there through this event.

On November 22nd RISE 60 will take place at the JCB Hall and it has a few very good fights to be aware of.

HAYATO will have his retirement fight when he takes on 2005 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner TATSUJI in a 3×3 minute fight with a possible extension round.

MAX veteran and 2006 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner Keiji Ozaki has moved down to 60 kg and will look to grab the RISE 60 kg title as he faces champion Kan Itabashi in a 5 round fight.

In a fight which will decide the 2nd generation RISE 70 kg champion and give the winner a spot in next years K-1 World MAX Japan Tournament, 2007 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner RYUJI will take on Yasuhito Shirasu.

Both have fought in K-1 MAX previously with RYUJI having lost both his fights by decision and Shirasu going 3-2, with two good wins in a row.

In a Heavyweight superfight, K-1 and MMA veteran Kin Taiei will return from his unfortunate fight against Morosanu at the FINAL16 event this year to take on Magnum Sakai.

Check out Magnum Sakai vs. Nathan Corbett from a few years ago, awesome fight:

70kg, 3×3 mins, 1×3 ext: HAYATO vs. TATSUJI
HW, 3×3 mins, 1×3 ext: Magnum Sakai vs. Kin Taiei
70kg, 3×5 mins, 1×3 ext: RYUJI vs. Yasuhito Shirasu
60kg, 3×5 mins: Kan Itabashi vs. Keiji Ozaki

Krush! Masato’s Opponent TBA Within This Week

Takeuchi, Yamamoto, and Ishikawa - GBRing.com

The Krush Lightweight GP 2009 Finals were held today in Japan. Krush is a young organization (4 events old I think) that is very close to FEG and fighters who do good there will get a chance in K-1.

In today’s event the great Masahiro Yamamoto (31-7-5) won two fights to become the champion of the 16-man Lightweight GP (around 60 kg I think). He avenged a past loss in the finals where he defeated Yuji Takeuchi, who got the a spot in the final after Naoki Ishikawa, who defeated him in the semifinals, wasn’t allowed to continue by the doctors.

After the fight, Yamamoto called out New Japan Kickboxing Federation’s Hiroki Ishii (44-9-10), saying that any fight location is fine for what would be a dream fight between two Japanese fighters.

Also on the event was the final of the 70 kg Road to MAX tournament where 21 year old Hiroki Nakajima defeated Yutaro Yamauchi by decision in the second extension round. Nakajima is now 10-0 with 7 (T)KO’s and as can be figured out by the name of the tournament we should see him in K-1 MAX in the future.

After the event, reporters caught up with FEG president Tanigawa. Tanigawa talked about Masato’s retirement opponent and said that they want to decide on an opponent this week.

Of course a candidate is this years champion Giorgio Petrosyan, but Tanigawa says that after visiting a doctor for a detailed check after returning home, it became clear that Petrosyan has a bone fracture in his right hand.

Other candidates are Andy Souwer, Buakaw Por.Pramuk, and Yoshihiro Sato. Tanigawa himself, not surprisingly, wants Sato as Masato’s opponent.

They want to make an announcement on Thursday or Friday this week.

Awakened X Aftermath! Double Special

Two events in the books and both were entertaining.

DREAM EP Sasahara talked highly of the ring after the event, especially its functionality and ease of seeing for people in the arena.

He praised Sakuraba a lot who was sent to the hospital afterward without doing a post-fight interview. He wants Sakuraba to participate on NYE as well.

Sasahara also said that he wants to see Overeem vs. Fedor, which Alistair appealed for after his fight. He knows that it’s a hard fight to make but wants to advance talks for a possible implementation of it.

The average rating of DREAM.12 on TBS was a very low 1.7% with Alistair/Thompson topping at 2.7%. I know that the ratings for non-prime time events aren’t the most important but this reflects the state of DREAM (and MMA in Japan) right now.

The K-1 MAX Finals event got a 10.7% ratings, which I think is decent for an event without Masato. It seems like MAX has a base audience who tune in for K-1 MAX the brand.

New champion Petrosyan injured his hand in the finals and could be out for a while, so a fight between him and Masato on NYE is a little difficult.

My thoughts:

Kikuno shouldn’t have fought someone on Alvarez level so soon. It’s a shame. With guys like him you want them to go on a winning streak before big fights.

The dark cloud of the weekend was Parky’s injury against Hironaka. Amazing first round by a very young fighter in such a big step-up in competition. Shame to have such a loss on your record.

Cheon/Watanabe was awesome. Cheon has courage. His kicks and walk-in knees when Watanabe threw punches in close range by the ropes/turnbuckles were awesome. I thought he won unanimously.

As already known, Petrosyan is great. I hope he manages to face Masato on NYE. I think Masato vs. someone new like him is good for the future of MAX.

Referee Kakuda is horrible.

Final Preparations! K-1 World MAX 2009 Finals

#9: Fighters Gathered

Fighters gathered - GBRing.com

#8: Watanabe At It Again

Watanabe at it again - GBRing.com

At the pre-MAX press conference today, former bad boy Japan Boxing champion Kazuhisa Watanabe provoked his opponent, Korean “KID Killer” Jae Hee Cheon by pushing him to the side when they were going to get photographed by the press so that only himself would be left in the centre.

Watanabe said: “Hello. I want to ask Cheon something, did you properly come here with the resignation of being beat by me?”.

Cheon answered: “No problem (in English)”. Watanabe then said: “What do you mean? “Okay”? Why? Come so that I can beat you up!”

To that Cheon said: “You should have been beaten up earlier. I’ll kill you with kicks.”

Watanabe: “Then, please look forward to that. I’ll surely knock you out with my punch. Kicks won’t have any effect.”

Korean News! Double U

A new Korean stand-up organization called Double U (W) will start with their first event on October 31st (not sure if this is correct). Apparently they have prepared for this launch since last year.

The rules of the event will be a mix between Muay Thai and K-1. Elbows will be allowed but clinch-fighting, like in K-1, is not permitted.

Three fighters that will participate in this new event are K-1 MAX veteran Se Ki Kim, undefeated K-1 Heavyweight Hyeon Man Myeong, and probably the best K-1 MAX fighter out of Korea, Chi Bin Im.

We’ll see if a Korean organization can finally at least establish themselves and hold events without folding after a month.

GLORY 11! Overeem Vs. Sylvester

A few other results of note from the event:

K-1: Semmy Schilt def. Alexey Ignashov via unanimous decision
K-1: Nieky Holzken def. Faldir Chahbari via unanimous decision
MMA: Siyar Bahadurzada def. Robert Jocz via majority decision
K-1: Hesdy Gerges def. Ruslan Karaev via unanimous decision
K-1: Errol Zimmerman def. Wendell Roche via unanimous decision

Dynamite!! 2009! Trailer

Dynamite!! 2009! Masato’s Fight Possibly A 10 Rounder

At a press conference today, FEG’s Tanigawa talked about this years Dynamite!! event. The event is planned to be on around the same scale as last years, which consisted of 18 K-1 and MMA fights.

Masato’s fight is currently the plan for main event of the night. However, it isn’t sure that the fight will be against this years MAX champion. A potential opponent is also Andy Souwer (winning the MAX GP or not), who Masato has never beaten in K-1.

About the rules of the fight, Tanigawa wants it to be at least a 5 rounder and if it’s OK with Masato and his opponent, he’d like to make it a 7 or even 10 rounder.

The event will take place at the Saitama Super Arena and Tanigawa expects an attendance of 40,000. Because of the large attendance, the event will consist of an all-star cast. Tanigawa mentioned Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Badr Hari, and Jerome Le Banner as a few possible participants.

The event will be broadcasted on TBS for 5 and a half hours without break. The first card announcement will take place sometime after the next DREAM and K-1 MAX events.

Alistair Interview! Main Focus Right Now: K-1

Alistair Overeem was recently interviewed by MMARocks.pl. Below is a translation of some of the important questions that were asked.

MMARocks: During the press conference you said you will not comment on Brett Rogers words, but I need to ask again. This doesn’t bother you? Him talking the smack on the internet about you and how you’re not defending your Strikeforce title?

I will not comment on this, I am very busy with K-1 right now, with all the fight I have there. When there will be time to meet in the ring he will see. For now, I will not comment. I am very busy these days, i have a fight in Glory, then in DREAM.12 and after that I’ll fight in the K-1 Finals so I am very busy with training and fighting and I don’t have time for this bullshit.

MMARocks: OK, if we talk about Fedor, you have some plans to fight him? Do your managers talk to him already?

Of course I want to fight with him very bad. He is the Pride legend, the number 1 fighter in the HW division, so I always wanted to fight him. Personally I like him very much, he is a gentleman and very talented fighter. It would be a great fight. Now when he signed with Strikeforce i think this fight will happen. Before when he fought for Affliction and I was Strikeforce champ it was not possible. But now when he is with Strikeforce i am sure we will fight in 2010.

MMARocks: One year ago, in last interview you said you want to fight in UFC. Now when Fedor sign with Strikeforce, this make impact on your plans with UFC?

Its like this. Who ever treat and pays you better will be your employer. Right now I am very happy with Strikeforce, I am the champion of Strikeforce. If I ever go to UFC i need to resign from Strikeforce championship belt and fighting in Japan.

MMARocks: About a match against Mirko in K-1:

I don’t have desire to fight Mirko anymore, I proved everything I wanted. I wish him best and I really have hope that he can finish his career with some wins.