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K-1 5/16 Amsterdam Arena card
By Zach Arnold | May 16, 2009
Update (5/16): Results and video from the event. Claimed attendance was 15,000. I’m amused by this Japanese photograph of Hari.
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Promoted by K-1 (Sadaharu Tanigawa/Kazuyoshi Ishii) & It’s Showtime (Simon Rutz)
- Badr Hari vs. Semmy Schilt
- Gokhan Saki vs. Tyrone Spong
- Melvin Manhoef vs. Stefan Leko
- Errol Zimmerman vs. Mourad Bouzidi
- Andy Souwer vs. Chahid Oulad Elhadj
- Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Faldir Chabari
- Drago vs. William Diender
- Nieky “The Natural” Holzken vs. Sahin Yakut
- Joeri Mes vs. Alviar Lima
- Murat Direkci vs. Brian Lo-a-Njoe
Topics: K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Good mix of fights. Can’t wait to see the rematch of Spong/Saki, even if I have to watch a staticy version on youtube.
And the punishment of Hari continues.
The only positive conclusion in this fight is if Hari pulls a rabbit out of hat and KOs Shilt.
K-1 can’t afford to screw up Badr Hari because they desperately needs stars; Remy Bonjanski is looking more like Mr. NyQuil Ernesto Hoost and less like the Flying Dutchman lately, and there aren’t too many other exciting prospects on the horizon.
Without Hari they’re in deep trouble, and this fight could do more damage than good.
What’s the deal with this? I heard there was a growing rift between Rutz and K-1 and this was going to be a solo It’s Showtime venture. Is this going to be televised in Japan?
Ultimo Santa, if you’re talking about Remy’s fight with Overeem then the reason behind Remy being so passive was indeed a knee injury he suffered the day before. Today he had an operation and will now begin the rehabilitation http://www.remybonjasky.com/news46_knee.html
imo, the success of k-1 will be based upon going international where kickboxing is growing as a sport, especially in europe
The news about Remy’s knee explains a lot.
But after his Oscar-winning performance against Hari and his recent fight vs. Overeem, I’m definitely asking similar questions about Bonjanski that I am about Anderson Silva.
They’re starting to make their respective sports look bad, and that burns my toast.
US — You truly aren’t alone in that, but I think you and everybody else are just way off or have unruly expectations on human beings in competitive sports.
Also, no coverage of K1 MAX?
I just ask that – win or lose – a fighter has respect for the sport, and puts forth an effort.
Remy faking an injury to win a tournament was far worse that Hari losing his cool and hitting him with a couple glancing shots on the ground. It made himself, and especially K-1, look like complete garbage.
Then squeaking out a lame decision against Overeem, and laughing and celebrating at the end as if he’d scored a titanic KO, was pretty ridiculous. At this point I’ve all but lost respect for Bonjanski, who was easily one of my favorite K-1 fighters of all time prior to the New Year’s event.
I won’t get into the Anderson Silva issue because it’s been recently discussed in detail, and we all know the shenannigans he pulled last weekend.
But suffice to say that I don’t have unruly expectations, I just want fighters to actually FIGHT, and act like they give a crap about the sport.
So you are saying that fighters that aren’t guys like Chuck Liddell who rush in and look for the “exciting KO or be KO’d” are disrespectful?
Bonjasky was fucking stomped in the face in a kickboxing match and K1 officials weren’t going to call it unless he refused to get up. It is K1, that is how they are, they are operating in Japan where they have the pull. If that happened in a kickboxing match in the states it would be over, DQ, no matter how big the fight.
Of course all fighters are banged up to an extent when they fight, but it does adversely affect how they fight. So Bonjasky gets hit while he is down in a kickboxing match and Anderson Silva has two fights in a row where he doesn’t rush in and pretend it is kill or be killed and they are bad, disrespectful fighters?
This is really no diss against you as I have no clue what you are into or what you are like outside of comments on here, but this is the kind of shit that comes with MMA’s “newer” fanbase that is from a pro wrestling background, the opinion is perform well, win or lose, but make *ME* happy.
That is not how fighting works. It just isn’t. I mean, watching boxing will prove that, and anybody that pulls the “boxing is dying card” needs to take a long hard look at just how well boxing is doing and how they are doing it. They are targeting demographics that UFC and MMA have no clue how to reach; hispanics, african-americans and older, more mature and wealthy fans.
I really feel like even a minor background or understanding of martial arts, boxing or am. wrestling helps you to not flip your lid when a fighter doesn’t risk everything (including the longevity of their career) just to prove to keyboard warriors that they are great.
Mike Tyson knocked a lot of dudes out and he wasn’t exactly the greatest and his career was shit (of course his legal issues added to this, but you get what I’m saying).
The last Spong/Saki ruled…can’t wait to see the rematch.
Dave – I don’t blame fighters for a bad performance. Everyone has an off night. But I think I have a legitimate gripe here…
Remy Bonjanski was fouled at the New Year’s show, no doubt about it. Give Hari a yellow card, give Remy 5 to recover and finish the fight.
He was BARELY GRAZED with the kick, and the commentators (two of whom were K-1 fighters) were LAUGHING AT HIM for acting hurt! The instant replay showed virtually no contact was made, which made the situation even more laughable.
Bottom line: that garbage should stay on Italian soccer fields, and not in a K-1 ring.
As soon as the K-1 officials saw the instant replay and detected the obvious theatrics, they should have stripped Bonjanski of the title, declared the fight a no contest, and scheduled a rematch between Hari and Bonjaski for February or March ’09.
Anderson Silva is another story, and I think his lack of activity (or interest?) in his last two fights is still up for debate. But motives aside, he looked bored and disinterested during the fight last weekend.
Silva is morphing into his training partner, Lyoto Machida…and not in a good way.
Instead of getting inside and punishing opponents with his bone-crushing, nose-relocating Muay Thai knees, he’s staying on the outside and working a strange boxing/karate hybrid that does far less damage, but scores points none-the-less.
Is he just trying to avoid damage? Take every fight to a decision? Bore the UFC to the point that they strip his belt and release him of his contract?
Who knows.
I think Anderson just doesn’t have the desire to fight anymore and is looking to just ride out his contract. I mean, he said as much last year. If a fighter doesn’t want to fight, this shit is just gonna keep happening..
On the Remy front, like I said, grazing blow or not, it was extreme misconduct by Hari, who should have been yellow carded for some of his antics in the fight before then anyway.
I’m hoping Remy isn’t done being awesome, but if he is there will be somebody to take the spotlight and K1 will do their best to make sure he isn’t around anymore.
This isn’t a K-1 card or a co-promotion. The Amsterdam show this year is being solely run by ‘It’s Showtime’ this year. There’s no WGP qualifier on it for that reason.
And there’s no ‘punishment’ of Hari going on here either. It’s not a K-1 card, they didn’t set this fight up. Hari also willingly took this fight, he wasn’t forced to.
Ultimo – You cannot lay the blame at the feet of Silva alone…it takes two guys to have an entertaining/exciting fight.
Leites was a bad match up for Silva in more ways than one. Firstly, Anderson has repeatedly stated that he is winding his career down and that he only wants the big fights. In Leites, he was fighting a guy largly unknown to the mainstream UFC fan…thats got to be a hard one to motivate yourself for, at this level, being in a fight where you have literally *nothing* to gain and everything to lose.
Secondly, bad style/skill match up. Leites knew he had to get off his feet if he was to have any chance of scoring points in this fight. He couldn’t get the fight there and keep it there, which is why he ended up flopping onto his back every time Silva engaged. Is that Silva’s fault?
The facts are these, anything less that a brutal, Rich Franklin style KO in the first or second round would have seen Silva take flack. Thats the fault of the fans for putting unfair expectations on the fighters. Also, we shouldnt be watching title fights that see the champion in a possition where he achieves nothing by winning the fight and stands to lose everything by losing. Thats the fault of the promoters, and exactly why we shouldn’t be seeing the likes of Leites, Maia or Paul-Harris in the title picture as they are pointless matchups for Silva.
Like Chuck Liddell said at the post fight presser, its hard to fight a guy that keeps falling to his back whenever he is engaged. If the UFC wants Silva to be involved in exciting fights, they need to put him in with guys who will stand and bang with him.
Anderson has had two bad fights out of nine in the UFC! For years he has been hailed as one of the most exciting fighters in the sport and has a KO reel that stands up against any other in MMA.
Yes, Silva is a champion and should fight whoever is put in front of him to the best of his ability. In Cote and Leites, he stepped up and motivated himself for two pointless fights. What people seem to be missing is that the UFC has a responsibility to put on competetive fights and Silva’s opponants need to step up and fight.
ilostmydog — that was what it seemed to be, as I don’t remember seeing anything about this being a K1 show or co-promotion.
“The facts are these, anything less that a brutal, Rich Franklin style KO in the first or second round would have seen Silva take flack. Thats the fault of the fans for putting unfair expectations on the fighters.”
Yes and no.
Some fans are so unrealistic that anything less than collapsing an opponents face is perceived as a sub-standard effort.
However, look back to mid-2008. GSP and Jon Fitch had an incredible 5-round fight. I would argue that GSP engaged Fitch on his feet, on the ground, and did’t “rush in and put his heath in danger” while doing it. But he kept up the pace, tried to finish the fight, and worked his ass off. As did Fitch.
If Anderson Silva had engaged more in the stand-up, moved to the inside periodically, and tried the odd superman punch or guard-pass while Leites was falling over, it would have been a much more exciting fight (finish or not).
Anderson just seemed like he was trying to do *just enough* to win each round, while doing as little as possible. That’s what is pissing people off, IMO.
I’m not saying Leites was lighting the world on fire by falling on his ass every 10 seconds, but we expected more from Anderson as the guy that the UFC is billing the “best it the world”.
“I think Anderson just doesn’t have the desire to fight anymore and is looking to just ride out his contract. I mean, he said as much last year. If a fighter doesn’t want to fight, this shit is just gonna keep happening..”
Well, if he wants a big name to fight, and they’re giving him Cote and Leites, then I don’t blame Anderson so much for being bored and frustrated.
But he’s making HIMSELF look like a plonker by not trying to engage his opponents.
Why not just KO Leites, get on the mic (or let his translator get on the mic) and ask for GSP? Ask for Evans? Jackson? Hell, ask for Brock Lesnar.
“On the Remy front, like I said, grazing blow or not, it was extreme misconduct by Hari, who should have been yellow carded for some of his antics in the fight before then anyway.”
I’m not excusing Hari’s behavior – and he needed to be punished post-fight – but Remy made himself and K-1 look like complete crap.
And his follow-up fight didn’t give me any more reason to root for him.
“I’m hoping Remy isn’t done being awesome, but if he is there will be somebody to take the spotlight and K1 will do their best to make sure he isn’t around anymore.”
I hope Remy is not done being awesome either, but I won’t hold my breath. His next fight will tell us a lot.
Where is Fight Opinion radio?! The last edition was 2 months ago!!!
I’m here at my desk bored out of my mind…Zach, can you just get on Skype or something, and just start talking about MMA and puroresu?
I’ll get you started with a topic: Who would win – Jens Pulver from 2002, or Dave Batista three hours after coming out of recovery from his latest surgery?
Pride rules, and Jens has to start with one yellow card.
Go.
Badr/Shilt looks interesting.
How did shilt go from so mediocre in MMA to so dominant in K1?
Schilt was always a kickboxer (w/Kyokushin background) by trade and won a bunch of championships in that sport before becoming one of the great many dutch fighters carted over to Pancrase. His problem in MMA was never striking: It was grappling. The MO of a Schilt fight is that anyone could take him down.
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Zach, what exactly is so amusing about that picture of Hari? I dont get it.
It’s a picture of the event on TV, dummy.