Archive
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.
Nightmare TV! Naito Vs. Kameda
The Khan 2! Great Event
The Khan 2 took place two days ago and it was an entertaining event. You can watch the full event here and here.
MMA/Kickboxing in Korea seems to have become a little more active these days. The status of promotions are that The Khan just returned for the first time in over a year and a half, W will have their second event in December, Moosin doesn’t seem to be dead yet despite no word coming from them since their second event in July, there are rumors that Spirit MC will return, Pancrase Korea will have their first event in Seoul today, and no news yet on a second FMC event.
As for thoughts on the event (watch it before further reading), the three 70 kg fights were really good (the third round of Se Gi Kim vs. Min Suk Kwon was nuts).
Su Hwan Lee is really good. I think he could become competitive close to the top of K-1 MAX if he had a better chin.
Min Suk Kwon is really tough for his age (turned 20 this year). He stood toe to toe with both Im Chi Bin and Se Gi Kim, who are real veterans.
Apparently, this was Virgil’s third fight in three weeks. Impressive performance for having traveled around and fought so much in such a short time.
Su Jeong Lim won the tournament quite clearly and her popularity will probably continue to rise.
The Mönkh-Erdene on this event wasn’t the same as the much lighter Amateur Boxer, but this one was quite impressive for his build. It’s not usual in this kind of Kickboxing event to see someone with that build look so smooth, fluid and disciplined with his stance and guard.
In the MMA fights of the card, Sentoryu KO’d Olympic Silver Medalist who never uses his Judo, Min Soo Kim, early in the first, and promising wrestler Hae Joon Yang once again won by KO to improve his record to 4-0.
Fight Of The Century! The Days Before
Tomorrow it’s time for the biggest fight thus far in Japan this year as Daisuke Naito will try to defend his title against challenger Koki Kameda.
Both fighters made weight on their first try at the weigh-ins on the 28th and everything is set to go for tomorrows fight which of course will be aired on TBS in Japan.
Below are some videos to get a little hyped up for the fight (the first two are from the same program so watch the first before the second).
Kharitonov Replaces “Die Faust”! Opponent: Daniel Ghita
It was announced today that DREAM and PRIDE veteran Sergei Kharitonov will participate in the K-1 World GP 2009 FINAL’s second reserve fight next week due to Chalid “Die Faust” having sustained an injury. Kharitonov’s opponent is none other than the very promising Daniel Ghita.
Ghita impressively won the FINAL16 Qualifying GP this year and he put up a good fight despite losing against Semmy Schilt in the FINAL16 event in Seoul.
FieLDS K-1 World GP 2009 FINAL
Date: December 5th, 2009
Place: Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan
FINAL8 Fights (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
Ruslan Karaev vs. Badr Hari
Alistair Overeem vs. Ewerton Teixeira
Jerome Le Banner vs. Semmy Schilt
Errol Zimmerman vs. Remy Bonjasky
Reserve Fights (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
[1] Peter Aerts vs. Gohkan Saki
[2] Daniel Ghita vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Superfight (3×3, 1×3 ext.):
Kyotaro vs. Tyrone Spong
Opening Fights (3×3):
Singh “Heart” Jaideep vs. Makoto Uehara
Jan Soukup vs. Tsutomu Takahagi
60kg: Keiichi Samukawa vs. Ryuji Kajiwara
Ishii Vs. Yoshida Added! Yoshida Dojo Fighters Free
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida has been added to the DREAM official website so everything should be signed and done. No word on the time or rules of the fight.
People who bought tickets to SRC 12 can either get their tickets transferred to a seat in Saitama or get their money back.
Former WVR director Kokuho revealed to NikkanSports today that all Yoshida Dojo fighters besides Yoshida (has one left fight in his contract) are currently free agents. Them returning to SRC next year is still a delicate situation.
The Khan 2! Weigh-Ins Complete
The weigh-ins for tomorrows The Khan 2 card took place on the 26th in Korea. All fighters passed. The only change to the card since I last reported is that Im Chi Bin has been replaced by Su Hwan Lee, who lost to Bin in this years K-1 MAX Korea tournament.
Underrated “Mr. Shark” Min Soo Kim finally returns to take on Sentoryu in what is the heaviest and most star-filled fight of the card.
Se Ki Kim, who I think participates in every stand-up event in Korea, will also fight coming off his victory at the first W event.
I think Uranchimegiin Mönkh-Erdene is an amateur boxer from Mongolia. He participated in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, took silver in the Asian games in 2006, and took bronze at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Milan this year.
If he is the boxer Mönkh-Erdene, Min Ho Song is not the K-1 Heavyweight Min Ho Song.
Hyun Man Myung is undefeated in K-1 and just won some Muay Thai title in a 5 rounder at W.
You can watch a fight from Neo Fight with the second Korean female in the 4-women tournament, Woo Yeon Park, on YouTube.
Jae Gil No fought Go Yokoyama at a K-1 MAX event this year. Watch the fight here.
Xu Yan is coming off a dominating victory over cosplayer Nagashima at K-1 MAX. If you haven’t seen it, click here.
Su Hwan Lee participated in what was thus far probably the most dramatic K-1 GP of the year when he impressively KO’d both his quarterfinal and semifinal opponents but then got KO’d himself against Im Chi Bin in probably the craziest and most dramatic come from behind victory of the year. If you’ve seen it you’ll remember it.
I believe the event will be aired on Korean television so watch out for it.
1. Dong Hyun Kim vs. Sung Hyun Lee
2. Hae Chung Yang vs. Tokoku Onda(?)
3. Su Jeong Lim vs. Alena Hola
4. Woo Yeon Park vs. Jessica
5. Min Ho Song vs. Uranchimegiin Mönkh-Erdene
6. Se Ki Kim vs. Min Suk Kwon
7. Jae Gil No vs. Virgil Kalakoda
8. Kaoklai Kaennorsing vs. Hyun Man Myung
9. Min Soo Kim vs. Sentoryu
10. Su Hwan Lee vs. Xu Yan
11. Lim/Hola vs. Park/Jessica
WVR Director And PR Kokuho Dismissed! Who Will The Next PR Be?
Kokuho at Shooto 11/23 - Boutreview.com
Former WVR Director and PR Kokuho was on the 25th dismissed from his position as director. The reason of the dismissal in the release wasn’t specified, just that there was one.
Don Quijote managing director and CCO Sumio Inamura (the WVR guy at the press conference yesterday) will take over the role as WVR director.
It doesn’t say that Kokuho was dismissed from his role as PR, but I can’t imagine him being the PR after this.
Who will the possible new PR guy be? If it’s who I was sent the name of it would be quite exciting. The rumored guy knows a lot more and has a lot more experience in Kakutougi than Kokuho.
Kokuho is the head of J-Rock, the management company of Yoshida and his dojo. Could this be the reason why no Yoshida Dojo fighters besides Yoshida himself attended the press conference yesterday? And will Kokuho and J-Rock get out of the MMA promotion business or do they have something else in their future?
Dynamite!! 2009! Press Conference Has Arrived Part 3
Shinya Aoki was a little cocky at today’s press conference. When asked about who he wants to fight he said: “Who’s the current champion of SENGOKU? I don’t know.”
He also said that if the promoters tell him to fight, he’ll think about it.
When asked to comment on the message Aoki just sent him, Hirota said: “My frank thoughts are that it made me feel sick (it can also mean feel irritated/offended).”
Hirota once again said that he wants to KO Alvarez on NYE, he thinks that fight would be more exciting. He ended his comment with: “My impression of Aoki? He’s a fighter with long arms and legs.”
FEG’s Tanigawa said that he himself proposed this union event. They started discussing since the end of October. He also said that he doesn’t know what will happen with the FieLDS sponsorship next year.
The WVR GM said that the current plan for the next SRC event is March. The fighters participating will be the fighters who have fought there until now.
Sasahara said that there will be 18-19 fights on NYE, and there will also be fights between DREAM fighters so it’s not only SENGOKU vs. DREAM on the MMA side. Kawajiri and KID couldn’t attend the press conference because they were out on other business.
About SENGOKU only fights (besides Ishii vs. Yoshida) the WVR GM said that it’s yet to be decided if there will be any.
Misaki’s participation is also yet to be decided. There will be a meeting about if his suspension will be lifted or not. Misaki himself said: “I want to obey the instruction of the SENGOKU side.”
There will be foreign fighters competing as well, but the Japanese fighters will be the focus.
Tanigawa wants to match the champions with each other. The rules might depend on the fight.
About a future merger, Tanigawa said that Dynamite!! is mainly TBS’s event so there’s nothing like that.
The plan is for a double main event but Masato’s fight will probably be last since they’ll have a retirement ceremony after the fight. The event will start at 3 PM.
About K-1 fights besides Masato’s retirement fight and the Koshien finals Tanigawa said that there might be. It depends on what happens on December 5th.
Dynamite!! 2009! Press Conference Has Arrived Part 2
NYE 2009: DREAM Vs. SRC - Kamipro.com
Time to get information from the big sites (GBRing.com, Sportsnavi.com, and Kamipro.com) reporting this and who get to ask questions. Most information usually come from these post-press conference Q&A’s.
Satoshi Ishii wasn’t present since he is currently training in Las Vegas. The plan is 7 DREAM Vs. SRC fights. The fights will be announced one of these days. Yoshida said that he hasn’t heard who he’s fighting in this event yet, implying that his fight with Ishii isn’t officially announced yet. Tanigawa said consider what direction we’ll take at the press conference.
However, after the press conference Tanigawa said that they’ll do Yoshida vs. Ishii. That fight and Masato’s retirement fight will be a double main event.
“Mach” didn’t know about any of this since he hasn’t been on the Internet lately. In his comment he said that he’s hungry since he woke up at 12 PM and hasn’t had breakfast yet. The press confernce was moved back 20 minutes because he was late.
Shibata is excited about fighting a SENGOKU fighter, mentioning that there are a lot of Judo medalists there. He wants to fight someone outside of his weight class and he’ll beat him up.
Nightmare Of Battle 