This weekend has bee eventful if you are a fan of K-1; the K-1 Final 16 show went off without a hitch and only with one fight with a head-scratching finish (hint; it was a DQ and it doesn’t matter).

Today K-1 had their K-1 World Grand Prix draws and the tournament has shaped up nicely, with the Golden Glory gym making an incredible showing with four competitors in the tournament; Alistair Overeem easily one of the favorites, up there with teammate Semmy Schilt and Badr Hari. The draw is set as such.

Ruslan Karaev v. Badr Hari
Alistair Overeem v. Ewerton Teixeira
Jerome Le Banner v. Semmy Schilt
Errol Zimmerman v. Remy Bonjasky

A couple interesting notes from the draw: Hari specifically chose to face Karaev in what should be a great rematch. The two men are 1-1 in a pair of exciting fights from 2006-2007. Also, Errol Zimmerman called out Bonjasky and the champion accepted – a bold move from Zimmerman that may backfire. Finally, the 4 Golden Glory fighters (Karaev, Zimmerman, Schilt, Overeem) all were very conscious to space themselves out to avoid any conflicts in the quarter finals.

My gut reaction is that we’ll see semi-finals of Hari v. Overeem and Schilt v. Bonjasky – two fights that will be extremely difficult to call. With all four men looking strong this weekend, the Grand Prix could very well come down to who has the easier road to the finals.

In case you haven’t been following the world of MMA lately, Alistair Overeem is basically a large area of confusion. Overeem is the current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion. What is funny about Overeem; Strikeforce Champion is that he hasn’t fought in the promotion, nay, the United States, since November 2007. So, of course, the internet is getting up in arms over it. Overeem as champion wasn’t a big deal until Strikeforce moved into the obligatory #2 spot in the United States. Then the questions started coming; why wasn’t Overeem fighting in the US? Why won’t he defend his title? Is he on the roids and afraid of drug tests? Overeem claims its a contract thing;

My contract with Strikeforce was only made about three months before the incident, I think they let me fight against (Vitor)Belfort and Paul (Buentello) to lose, but I won. Normally in a contract it says you have to defend your title within a certain period. But my contract just ended there. As I had a long term contract with FEG, I kept fighting for Dream and K-1. It’s ironic that we finally got an offer from Strikeforce and reached an agreement, and I get in some stupid brawl and cut my hand. In jail it got infected and it took longer than expected.

He has been fighting for FEG for quite a while, and is scheduled to fight for Golden Glory on October 17. Of course, he is also taking part in the K-1 World Grand Prix. Overeem and Strikeforce will collide eventually, but honestly, don’t hold your breath.

Melvin Manhoef once against disappoints, this time due to injury from apparently leg kicking Ramazanov a little too hard. Young up-and-comer Daniel Ghita leg kicked his way to a tournament victory and a promise of more to come for him this year for him. There was some hype in the UK around John Love making his K1 debut, and, well, Ghita kicked his legs out from him until he was limping around, then leveled him with a left hook to seal it.

Peter Aerts showed why it was a rather awful idea to wear shoes in a K-1 matchup and not be allowed to throw kicks. You’d think fighters would look into K-1 history and see that this has never worked out for anybody and not do it, but Yosuke Nishijma; not that guy, apparently.

Full report at K-1 LEGEND:

Final: Daniel Ghita (1R – 2:19 KO – Right Low Kick) Sergeii Lashchenko
Superfight: Peter Aerts (3R – 1:24 KO – Right Low Kick) Yosuke Nishijima
Superfight: KYOTARO (3R – 1:20 KO – Right Hook) Jan Soukup
Semi-Final: Sergeii Lashchenko (2R – 0:24 KO – Right Straight) Brice Guidon
Semi-Final: Daniel Ghita (1R – 1:28 – Right Low Kick) YUKI (Manhoef injured)
Quarterfinal: Brice Guidon (3R Decision – 3-0) Rico Verhoeven
Quarterfinal: Sergeii Lashchenko (3R Decision – 3-0) Sebastian Ciobanu 
Quarterfinal: Daniel Ghita (1R – 1:28 KO – Left Hook) John Love
Quarterfinal: Melvin Manhoef (1R – 2:16 KO – Punch) Ramazan Ramazanov
Reserve Fight: YUKI (3R – 2:00 KO – Punch) Prince Ali
Opening Fight: Yuto Watanabe (3R Decision – 3-0) Nobuhiro Ko
Opening Fight: Kengo Shimizu (1R – 0:34 KO) Shinkuyu Kawano
Opening Fight: Kazuo Doi (1R – 1:02 TKO – Towel) Katsuhara Ebisawa

As promised, here is part 2 of kick boxing rankings, this time focusing on the 70 kg division (aka the Middleweight, or K-1 MAX division).  With K-1 dabbling with a 60 kg division, we’ll keep this focused on the 70 kg K-1 MAX area.  This is a deeper talent pool than the Heavyweights, so we’ll go with a top 20:

Top 20 Kickboxers (70 kg division)

1. MASATO

2. Artur Kyshenko

3. Giorgio Petrosyan

4. Andy Souwer

5. Albert Kraus

6. Buakaw Por. Pramuk

7. Nieky Holtzken

8. Gago Drago

9. Yoshihiro Sato

10. Chahid Oulad El Hadj

11. Murat Direcki

12. Taishin Kohiruimaki

13. Yuya Yamamoto

14. Leroy Kaestner

15. Yoshihiro Kido

16. Chi Bin Lim

17. Alviar Lima

18. HINATA

19. Sahin Yakut

20. John Wayne Parr

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To continue my push for K-1 talk, I figured now was as good a time as any to launch some kickboxing rankings.  These are a work in progress and will be updated regularly, so I welcome your feedback.  In the interest of some sort of unified rankings, I opted not to include every single weight class, but instead go with the two simple categories of Over 70 kg, and Under 70 kg (the division between K-1 and K-1 MAX).  My apologies to purists who would like every separate weight class listed.  We’ll start with the Over 70 kg list, and add Under 70 kg next week.  On we go:

Top 10 Kickboxers (Over 70 kg)

1. Remy Bonjasky

2. Peter Aerts

3. Badr Hari

4. Semmy Schilt

5. Errol Zimmerman

6. Ewerton Teixeira

7. Keijiro Maeda

8. Gokhan Saki

9. Tyrone Spong

10. Alistair Overeem

Honorable Mention: Jerome Le Banner, Ruslan Karaev , Zabit Samedov

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In the wake of K-1’s mostly successful 2009 kick-off show, much of the talk surrounds reigning Grand Prix champion Remy Bonjasky.  Despite defeating Alistair Overeem in the main event, any viewer should have doubts concerning Bonjasky’s position as the current #1 fighter in K-1.  Many of these doubts were in place long before the Overeem fight.  A highly technical and cautious fighter, Bonjasky has never been a tremendous fan favorite, due both to his fighting style and his reputation as a flopper who exaggerates fouls.  After a highly successful 2008, Bonjasky looked to be in a strong position with a number of big wins added to his highlight reel and his 3rd Grand Prix crown.  All that may have changed in Yokohama.

To call Bonjasky’s win over Overeem unwarranted or lucky is unfair – Bonjasky used superior defense to avoid trouble and strong technical skill to finally get the knockdown and the victory.  But it certainly was not an impressive performance.  Bonjasky looked sluggish, tired, and not on top of his game physically or mentally.  Watch him get to his feet in the 3rd after yet another Overeem throw and you see a man who looks like a defeated fighter, not a top of the line champion.

As we look ahead to K-1’s 2009 and beyond, it’s clear that the company is missing just that – a champion.  Right now, there is no one to definitively take the spot as the top man and maintain that position.  The two men with the best chance of winning the 2009 Grand Prix are Bonjasky and former champion Semmy Schilt – both fighters who struggle to find love from the K-1 fans.  Meanwhile the most popular fighters – Peter Aerts, Ray Sefo, Jerome LeBanner – are able to have some impact, but likely past the point of a sustained run at the top.  While a Grand Prix win would be a fantastic, emotional moment for any of these men (none more so than LeBanner), their time at the top is certainly limited.

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For K-1, 2008 was almost exactly what they needed.  As 2007 came to a close, a stagnating old guard and a much despised Grand Prix champion had combined to decrease any interest in the once great organization.  But over the course of 2008, K-1 made great strides to turn things around.  Led by Badr Hari, a new crop of young, exciting talent stepped up and began taking the lead for the company.  And heading into the 2008 Grand Prix, beloved veteran Peter Aerts made it his personal mission to knock Semmy Schilt off his pedestal – and succeeded.  The year capped off with a spectacular Grand Prix that even Hari’s unprofessional disqualification could not tarnish.  With interest returning and an easy Hari v. Bonjasky rematch set up, K-1 looked good.

Then, with just a few hours left in 2008, something strange happened.  Badr Hari, Heavyweight champion, Grand Prix runner up and poster child of the new generation, fell, and fell hard.  To Alistair Overeem.  When Hari made a public challenge to MMA fighters, this was obviously not the expected result.  Instead of showing K-1’s superiority, the complete opposite had come true – one of K-1’s best had been easily handled in K-1 rules by an MMA fighter with significantly less kickboxing experience.  It was a strong blow to K-1’s perception as the home of elite fighters.

Which brings us to K-1’s upcoming kick-off event for 2009 on March 28.  The main event of this card is one that is not getting nearly the attention it deserves – reigning K-1 Grand Prix champion and arguably the #1 ranked kickboxer in the world Remy Bonjasky defends the honor of the company against the invading Alistair Overeem.  While it’s true that K-1 is not the organization it once was and that Dream is no Pride, this is still the kind of cross-promotional super fight that has not been seen in some time.  Harking back to the days of Silva v. Cro Cop 1, this one should get you excited to be a fan.

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As K-1 MAX Gears up to begin 2009, now is a good time to look ahead to what the year has in store for the company.  Right now, K-1 MAX is in a similar problematic position to where K-1 was a year ago.  That problem can best be summarized in one word.

Stagnation. 

The company has fallen into something of a rut with your same basic stars at the top constantly – Souwer, Sato, Buakaw, Masato, Drago, Kraus, Kyshenko… It’s a good amount of names, but there’s a definite feeling of going around in circles with no one new able to step in and shake things up.  K-1 snapped out of this rut in 2008 with Badr Hari joining the elite and names like Teixeira and Zimmerman gaining momentum, but MAX has not yet found those new names.  They did have some success last year with the unexpected Japan tournament win from Yasuhiro Kido, but Kido needs wins in order to keep that popularity going (and one win over Chi Bin Lim is not enough). 

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I think that if you are a fan of combat sports this weekend really turned out to be something special. While there really wasn’t much going on for Mixed Martial Arts, for events having the word “boxing” in them it was one hell of a weekend. Starting off last night with the amazing K1 World Grand Prix Finals (summed up by the young Andrew Rosebrock) and then ending with a bang tonight with Oscar De La Hoya being dismantled by Manny Pacquiao for eight rounds straight. Alan and myself have gotten some flack in the past over not being excited, but you can rest assured that this weekend had both of us going crazy.

Postmodern K1 endings!

Remy Bonjasky flying rib kicks!

Golden Boy pulp!

Badr Hari with a cattle gun!

 

 Total MMA Radio: No Country for Remy Bonjasky (and Oscar) [38:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I say this without exaggeration: This was the best single night of fights I’ve ever seen. (That it was transmitted in glorious high-definition live on the vanity cable network of an eccentric billionaire didn’t hurt.)

On we go.

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