The annual K-1 calendar continues to tick along in its standard perenially-ignored way. I’m not sure why the heavies receive so little appreciation amongst the usual suspects in fight sport reporting. Possibly because Semmy Schilt seems to dominate the eventual GP finals every year and so there’s not a lot of fun to be had covering the early rounds of the tournament when the victor seems set in stone ahead of time.

Regardless, in an effort to address the balance somewhat, the fact they’ve announced the card for April’s Amsterdam GP was recently brought to my attention and it caught my interest.

Last year the corresponding fixture was responsible for one of the biggest embarrassments I’ve ever seen when Bob sapp took a dive (allegedly) against Peter Aerts, co-incidentally at a time when he was in contract dispute with the company.

This year, James McSweeney - maybe Britain’s most recognisable currently-active K-1 fighter - is in the eight-man bracket so in the interests of patriotism I owe it to my fellow countryman to at least have a cursory glance. If he progresses to a point anywhere near Tokyo then I’ll start preparing the jingoistic placards and facepaints and booking a group ticket to Japan. Depressingly, he’s taking on a fighter who was born in 1987 which again serves to re-inforce the notion that perhaps I do not have as much time on my side as I have always imagined if I am going to be the greatest fighter that the world has ever seen.

McSweeney will have a tough job emerging from this round though with Bjorn Bregy and Jan Nortje competing against each other in another quarter final. Unsurprisingly these are absolutely HUGE men and whilst neither are likely to trouble the engravers by the end of the year, Bregy in particular can put his size to very effective use.

The main super fight was what particularly filled me with glee though as Melvin Manhoef (a particular favourite of mine) will be rematching with Remy Bonjasky. Their first fight was over six years ago and a lot has changed in that time. Melvin was at the very start of his career and Remy (another fighter that I’m partial to) is not the fighter now that he once was.

I don’t follow kickboxing to nearly the extent that I should, but this show stands out and I’ll be checking it out. One day I’ll do something really spontaneous and fly to Holland for a GP on a whim. Like my fighting career though, that’s not happening as soon as I would like.