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K-1 Dynamite 12/31 Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | December 31, 2008
All news and notes from today’s event go here.
Of course, who knew that the one interesting story heading into tonight’s event was Hayato “Mach” Sakurai allegedly being involved in amateur sex tapes with three different women.
Event reports: MMA on Tap | MMA Frenzy | Japan MMA | Bloody Elbow
I don’t know if Bob Sapp winning is what Mr. Ishii had in mind tonight…
Notes from after the show
The announced attendance was 25,634 paid. That is… well…
Main card results:
Kiyoshi Tamura defeated Kazushi Sakuraba after two rounds by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
Joachim Hansen and JZ Calvan was canceled.
Shin’ya Aoki defeated Eddie Alvarez in R1 in 1’32 with a heel hold.
Melvin Manhoef defeated Mark Hunt in 18 seconds by KO.
Gegard Mousasi defeated Musaashi in R1 by KO.
Mirko Cro Cop defeated Choi Hong-Man in R1 in 6’32 by KO.
Alistair Overeem defeated Badr Hari in R1 in 2’02 by KO.
Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated Kozo Takeda in R1 in 2’47 by KO.
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai defeated Katsuyori Shibata in R1 by TKO.
Semmy Schilt defeated Mighty Mo in
Bob Sapp defeated Kinniku Mantaro in R1 in 5’22 by TKO (referee stoppage).
How the Japanese media is covering the event the day after
Sports Nippon: Top headline – Mirko wins, out for months after knee surgery. Second headline – Obstructive mask… Kinniku Mantaro’s sage-sage campaign. Third headline – Reality! Sapp crushes hero.
Sankei Sports: Top headline – Sakuraba, decision loss… “One more time.”
Nikkan Sports: Top headlines (all involve boxing). Top Dynamite headline – Kawajiri overwhelms with punches and kicks. Second headline – Tamura confronts Sakuraba for first time in 12 years.
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 43 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Probably this changed your mind Zach that mma fighters fighting in K-1 isn’t bad matchmaking, not a bit.
I didn’t really make much of a comment regarding the fight card, but…
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be impressed about in regards to Musashi losing to Mousasi or Takeda losing to Kawajiri. So the underdogs won, good for them. I’m not sure how it advances their career in any step of the way, other than a paycheck…
Overeem beating Hari is probably the most interesting result so far, outside of Manhoef beating Hunt. Then again, we had last-minute MMA booking here, and even with Hunt having a 100-pound weight advantage… he gets Manhoef instead of Le Banner at the last second?
*** SPOILER ***
Obviously haven’t seen the event, but Eddie Alvarez losing that quickly definitely hurts his stock. Aoki vs. Penn is now a dream fight, but does Aoki really have a chance? It might be the worst style match-up for him. Penn can avoid every single submission, and can hurt him on the feet. And Aoki has bad striking defense.
As for the Hansen/JZ fight being called off, that is a shame. Would have been a fun fight.
this card has hurt K1 big time
boring fights; poor matchmaking; did nothing for any of the fighters other than enhance Alistair’s outstanding improvement
Alistair is the hottest property in MMA today
nobody will want to fight him
It hurt k-1, but boring fights? Come on alot of those fights were fast KO’s how could they be boring, and upsets to go along with it, sure there was a few boring fights, but alot of them were shocking k0’s, all the mma vs k-1 fights were exciting along with manhoef vs hunt, also shocking ko.
The only really boring fight was choi and sapp fight but what do you except.
I would argue mousasi would also be the hottest property.
Also what you call poor matchmaking before, turned out not to be so poor, maybe poor for k-1 business wise, but alot of people, probably yourself and zach included, since you love to complain about japanese mma were saying the mma fighters were going to get wrecked in k-1 fights.
If you two learned anything this past week, you cant rely on matchmaking anymore, everyone is to good, and well rounded, the field is wide open.
Alistair Overeem has always looked like a Superstar against lesser competition. It is when he steps up in competition that he gets wrecked. Has he changed or improved? Potentially. But we will not know this until he does so. I find it comical that some Top 10’s have him near the bottom. He really shouldn’t be.
I am from Philly and I would like to see Eddie do well, but really, his fans get carried away. Part of it is also the inflation of a fighter’s worth we see from certain fans, when a guy fights in Japan.
I would say he is legitimately top 10, maybe.
The Japanese Factor is a big one. Let’s be honest, the UFC & Dream have equal levels of talent in the Lightweight Division, and probably have 95% of the Top guys. But constantly, the guys fighting over in Japan get ranked higher.
Look at JZ… He is a very talented young fighter…. He is ranked #6 by MMA Weekly, #5 by Sherdog, & #8 by WAMMA.
His two biggest wins are over Uno & Ribeiro, which by today’s standards are not overly bgi wins. He has lost to Hansen, Aoki, and drew with Schultz.
That doesn’t make him a borderline Top 5 fighter. But because he won a tournament in Japan, and he competes in Japan, he constantly gets ranked higher then he deserves. If he fought in the UFC, he would of had a hard time making the Top 10.
That’s not to say he isn’t super talented, but he doesn’t have the wins to get him ranked so high.
sure; good kos – manhoef, good shit; aoki win is a plus
on the minus side, crocop boring, yeah yeah, lots of excuses, but ko by low kicks dont get anybody excited
sak getting nailed by tamura a disaster for them. but great stuff for tamure- sticking it up a lot of arses for years of crap for not selling out
overeem shows he is beast. but nothing for him in japan right now. he needs to move to top
ohh yeah, sure k1 loved musashi’s ko
finally buries a mid level star
thought i did love the fight : )
Basicacly, UFC champion’s fight is title match. Fighters can not select match make. But in Japan fighters have a right to select match make.
UFC is more serious than Japanese fight.
@ 45 – Isn’t Badr Hari basically considered the “baddest man on the planet” in the K-1 universe and considered one of the best K-1 guys in years?
Can you fill me in on how you saw that fight go, because I’m pretty sure Overeem – who is an MMA fighter by trade did not get wrecked, against the best of the best no less.
I have to believe that Overeem will be on the GP circuit next year. Just my guess. He was always a better kickboxer anyway, going back to his early years.
Hard to be impressed that MMA fighters beat a few over-the-hill K-1 strikers. Hari vs. Overeem was a bit surprising, but Kawajiri and Mousasi winning were givens in my opinion.
I was referring to the comment:
“Alistair is the hottest property in MMA today
nobody will want to fight him”
My K-1 knowledge isn’t very good…. So I wasn’t commenting on that portion of his fight game.
However, I did read that he looked huge and peolpe were suspecting HGH or roids. Not sure how much truth there is to that.
“Hard to be impressed that MMA fighters beat a few over-the-hill K-1 strikers. Hari vs. Overeem was a bit surprising, but Kawajiri and Mousasi winning were givens in my opinion.”
I think it at least shows that MMA fighters aren’t “C-Level K-1 Fighters” as is often described by many people. They can at least hang. Obviously, each athlete has their strengths, and should pick the sport that better suits them. But the gap between what makes a K-1 level striker and what makes a solid MMA striker is closing.
Overeem was a kickboxer who transitioned to MMA. Its definitely surprising that he was successful in this bout, but its not as if he winning means that Gabriel Gonzaga or Brock Lesnar could hang in K-1.
As for him “looking huge”, Overeem fought for Strikeforce 13 months ago. He looked about the same for that as he did today.
45 – Overeem passed all the CSAC tests for his Strikeforce HW belt…so nice try on that completely unsubstantiated claim.
CSAC doesn’t test for HGH last time I checked. So that has nothing to do with passing a piss test.
Coming off of this huge win, it’ll be interesting to see if Strikeforce does anything with him. Not that they have any real quality heavyweights to match him up with should they decide to give him a push here in the States.
Any clue what his contract situation is?
Because he’d be a helluva addition to the UFC roster.
Speaking of helluva good roster additions to the UFC, how about that Melvin Manhoef?
Sure, I know he’s very vulnerable once things hit the mat, but DAMN his stand up skills & one shot fight ending power makes even a prime Chuck Liddell’s pale in comparison.
Just think about the fun match ups that could be made with him at 205!
CSAC doesn’t test for HGH last time I checked. So that has nothing to do with passing a piss test.
He’s about as clean as every fighter in the UFC, since none of the commissions they work with test for HGH.
Coming off of this huge win, it’ll be interesting to see if Strikeforce does anything with him. Not that they have any real quality heavyweights to match him up with should they decide to give him a push here in the States.
Strikeforce has a policy of signing international talent to nonexclusive deals as far as where they can fight outside the US. He could probably fight for the UFC in Germany or the UK without voiding the Strikeforce deal, assuming it went beyond 1 fight or 1 year. Of course, they would never do that.
Well they certainly test for roids and lol on the HGH thing. You yourself know that HGH is useless without steroids and other PEDs so nice try again.
I guess we can just assume everyone is on HGH since no one tests for it. You are priceless sometimes.
i find it funny in your link they blur out the face but not the boobs
Musashi got killed..
That was one hell of a beating..
I read on some forums that Overeem weighed in at 254, but I can’t find anything to confirm it. Does anybody have the results from the weigh-ins for this event?
I don’t think Strikeforce has a contract with him. I remember reading that they expected Paul Buentello to win, and had him on loan. So they can’t really do anything with their Heavyweight Championship (imagine if the UFC ran their business like that, without having their champion actually signed to a multi-fight contract before a fight).
As for the drugs…. We have all seen the incredible shrinking men who came from Pride and looked substantially smaller in the states. just because Overeem passed a piss test in America, doesn’t mean he isn’t back on it.
And there is a big difference between cycling off it, and being able to take it right up to the fight like they can do in Japan.
As far as I can gather, Overeem weighed in at 254. Everything I’ve read is consistent with that, though I haven’t found an official source. A year ago in the states, he weighed in at 224. Putting on 30 pounds of ripped muscle in a year is pretty much impossible without using vitamin S.
Just by comparing the pictures from the two events, the size difference jumps out at you. There’s no way in hell he’s not juicing.
The Gaijin, you missed the point. Nobody at all is saying Overeem was juiced in the past. The concern is that he’s on stuff after the Buentello fight; he hasn’t fought in the states since then. And as IceMuncher said, he’s gained 30 pounds since then.
I’d prefer it if Overeem weren’t juiced, because I want him to go to the UFC and dominate. But 30 pounds of muscle in a year sends all sorts of alarms ringing.
A juiced Overeem is a hell of a lot more entertaining than an all-natural Alistair could ever be lol!
And wut is up with last minute fight changes?!
Kimbo and Hunt both fell down within the first 15 seconds of their respective fights, both having their opponent changed very quickly.
Seems like fighter morale goes down…
What is funny is, commenters on this very site, in this very thread, were talking about how awful those K1 rules matches were for Kawajiri and Mosousi. Zach is still claiming it does nothing for them, and I really don’t think so. They are fighters, period. They just proved that they can hang as kickboxers, not only hang, but look incredible. With the promotion they work for, they have just proven themselves valuable assets.
I would love to see Kawajiri compete in K-1 MAX and think he could be incredibly successful. A fight is a fight is a fight. If those fights were MMA rules would it have been any different? I’m sure the outcomes would have been virtually the same, if not quicker.
Also, 45, Overeem beating Hari is a huge fucking deal. Wikipedia Hari and check out his record. Hari had been on incredible roll outside of the two losses to Bonjasky (one the DQ from earlier this month).
Hunt loss because he was overwhelmed. He, in theory, should have been able to handle Manhoef, but Manhoef is a freaking monster.
“Hunt loss because he was overwhelmed. He, in theory, should have been able to handle Manhoef, but Manhoef is a freaking monster.”
In theory… fight theory. Wikipedia fight theory and tell me what you find.
If you read my comment, fighters unfortunately have a history of getting mentally tripped up after their opponents are switched; and it sucks.
Is 45 Huddle setting the record for event comments without actually seeing the event?
Yes, 45 is commenting on events that he hasnt seen…. AS USUAL.
I dont know what some of you people are talking about in terms of the Mousasi and Kawajiri fights.. Those were incredible!!
They destroyed two veteran K1 fighters…worse than alot of their K1 peers have done. Very, very impressive. The Mousasi/Musashi fight moreso because Musashi is a higher level than Kozo…and how about the 40+ pound weight disadvantage for Mousasi. Musashi fights at around 230 i think and Mousasi fights at 185, IN MMA!!
Alistair vs. Badr Hari was amazing. We all knew it could happen considering Alistair’s size and standup and Badr’s questionable chin. As for Alistair and roids…there is no doubt in my mind. He definitely looked bigger than the fight against Buentello. Hell, he looked bigger than the fight against Crocop!! That being said, I dont give a shit. I would like to see him join the K1 circuit full time. Either than or come to UFC.
Melvin Manhoef is simply inhuman. He has fought on average more than once a month for the last 1.5 years. K1 and MMA. And he was the first man to KTFO, or even KO Mark Hunt, something I thought was impossible. At 190lbs!! What a warrior.
Overall, I thought it was a great event. Lots of great knockouts, LOTS of shocking knockout wins (Alistair, Mousasi, Melvin), a fantastic armbar-trading grappling match between Tokoro and Nakamura, impressive submissions by Aoki (even though i hated it) and Semmy Schilt, great K1 max slugfest between Kyushenko and Sato. Even the Sapp fight was bizarrely entertaining. Definitely started to lag at the end, but all in all great show.
The JZ comment doesn’t matter because he didn’t fight. I have seen the Aoki & Overeem fights online, along with a few others. So by the time I was posting, I wasn’t blind to the event.
As you have noticed, I have not commented on the overall event or a few of the garbage fights, because I have not seen them yet.
“Also, 45, Overeem beating Hari is a huge fucking deal. Wikipedia Hari and check out his record. Hari had been on incredible roll outside of the two losses to Bonjasky (one the DQ from earlier this month).”
When did I say it wasn’t? the only things I have commented on Overeem is his MMA Career and his Steroid or HGH use.
I love how I get bashed by the same people over and over again, but many other people not just on this forum have said the same thing I have about Overeem’s huge size. It just isn’t natural.
why are K-1 killing shibata?
all credit for shibata for having the balls to fight but he shouldnt be anywhere near Hayato “Mach” Sakurai.
Shibata shouldnt even be fighting in Dream. He is nowhere near the level of any other fighter in the organization. He is barely a C-level MMA fighter. An overhyped, over matched pro wrestler.
Aoki/Alvarez and Nakamura/Tokoro were both very good fights. The various freak show match-ups were not.
When you say “various freak show match-ups”, how many are you talking about?
Because by my count only two, maybe three could qualify as “freakshow” matchups. Why are MMA fighters fighting in K1 rules automatically freakshows? Just because they were first round KOs they werent good fights? Or maybe you just dont like K1. Ok.