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K-1 8/11 Tokyo, Yoyogi National Stadium Gym II
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
Event results here. Stipulations for Nishijima/Aerts match here.
K-1 WORLD GP 2009 IN TOKYO – FINAL 16 QUALIFYING GP
- World GP: Melvin Manhoef vs. Ramazan Ramazanov (Russia)
- World GP: Daniel Ghita (Lithuania) vs. Alex Roberts
- World GP: Sergei Lascenko (Ukraine) vs. Sebastian Ciobau (Lithuania)
- World GP: Rico Verhoeven (Holland) vs. Brice Guidon (France)
- Superfight: Peter Aerts vs. Yosuke Nishijima
- Superfight: Keijiro Maeda vs. Jan Soukup (Czech Republic)
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
besides Aerts, Maeda, and Manhoef … who to look out for?
Verhoeven is getting a fair bit of press in Holland. I remember reading about a year ago a piece stating he was bigger (size wise) than Lesnar (doubtful).
Whoever wins this GP will be fighting again about a month later in the Final Elimination GP. Tough luck for that guy I guess.
They must hate Manhoef. Two fights within a few weeks. And he has already been KO’d a few too many times in his career.
Nishijima-Aerts, why why why why whyyyyyy :'(
Few mistakes. Ghita and Ciobanu are from Romania.
Who to look out for? Everyone in this GP is very talented. I don’t have time to write about everyone out there so check those guys on the net, especially Ramazanov, Ghita, Lascenko and Roberts. There are informations about them which aren’t that hard to find.
News Story of the Day:
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/7/17/952857/rumor-tito-ortiz-makes-amends-with
Tito Ortiz back in the UFC? Not going to say I’m shocked. It was really his only option at this point. Affliction is going out of business. Strikeforce doesn’t allow elbows and likely don’t have a deal with CBS. And DREAM would never pay him as much as the UFC.
For all the talk for over a year, he will be right back in the UFC likely.
With that said…. if this becomes true, the UFC will have shown it’s true muscle in the last 3 months. Signing Kimbo Slice to the Ultimate Fighter. Getting Mirko Filipovic back in the mix. And
If Ortiz is back in the UFC, I think the UFC would put UFC 103 on PPV directly against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Without Ortiz, they could lose the PPV buys game due to a weaker Main Event.
It does shock me how dumb the organizations like Affliction, IFL, WFA, EliteXC, and many others are. These companies spend millions on MMA, and yet never got a real ratings draw like Ortiz. I can’t stand the guy, but he sells PPV’s.
Thats a weak card for K-1, even by the Japan GP standards but they seem to have run out of Japanese contenders. Maybe I am out of the loop and there are some talented fighters??
I wonder how badly is FEG struggling financially? Its July and this is only their third tournament and that includes that weak Polish show which in every other year would just be a regional show.
Its embarrassing for Tito to go back to the UFC after all thats happened, but it just goes to further show that ZUFFA controls the whole sport. Fedor is the last man standing and he will eventually make his way there, the fighters have zero leverage.
“Who to look out for? Everyone in this GP is very talented.”
Not many big names, but its nice to see more talent showcased in K-1. Kickboxing is a hard sport to follow outside of K-1 so maybe those guys are world class and I have no clue. Ghita is decent.
Business is business. For all the “so and so will never return back to the UFC, Dana hates him!” we see name after name come back. In Tito’s case, he’s claimed they offered him a huge contract, bigger than the one he had that expired. If that’s true, why not take it? Sounds to me like his barganing and shopping would have been successful, internet idiocy be damned. This assumes that its true, and honestly, who knows?
RE: K-1 – People never seem to make up their minds. “There’s no stars” vs. “They need to build new names” is an endless theme. 7 of those 8 guys are basically “new names”. Lascenko made it to the finals in Lodz and is young. Verhoeven is young. Ramazanov is young. Maybe one of them will break out like Errol Zimmerman did in 2008?
“Fedor is the last man standing and he will eventually make his way there, the fighters have zero leverage.”
Brock Lesnar will make around $3 Million for the fight. Frank Mir over $1 Million. GSP over $1 Million, but likely much more. I’m sure Tito Ortiz, after his cut of the PPV, will be getting at least $1.5 Million per fight.
People talk about the fighters having no leverage, but the same company that gives the sport no leverage also pays out the most to it’s fighters.
It’s not as bad as some people would like to claim it is.
Brock was the star of a PPV which probably did 1.5 million buys, those are Tyson numbers. $3 million is chump change, he should be getting well over $10 million.
At the same time those kind of paydays would ensure a weak undercard like most major boxing PPVs.
ZUFFA have treated Tito like a dog in the media, he is one of the biggest names in MMA and he himself said that he has too much self respect to back and guess what…he goes back. I know its all business but it is kinda pathetic. Its going to be funny to watch all these UFC fans jump back on the Tito bandwagon just because he decided to work for a certain promoter, just like the CroCop situation.
About the K-1 card, I admit ignorance and hope that all these young guys become stars. But I do wonder how K-1 will get decent ratings when for the past few years their ratings have dipped badly even with all the big names participating.
The only reason why people jumped on Cro Cop was because it was reported he went against his word. If he signed with the UFC, he didn’t break his word, so people could change their views no problem.
Both Ortiz and Dana have treated each other like dogs in the media. It’s a two way street. Both have acted immature.
And doing the math, the UFC paid out at least $6 to $7 Million in purses. I would rather see the money across more fighter then the boxing way of doing things. The fighters are getting a good cut. Could it be me? Yes. But it has also increase easily over 200% in less then 4 years. That’s amazing.
I’ve been scouring around; http://k1legend.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/k-1-world-grand-prix-tokyo-final-16-results/
It looks like Ghita cleaned house with the low kicks the whole night.
Manhoef’s injury sucks, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to work him into the GP later on.
“RE: K-1 – People never seem to make up their minds. “There’s no stars” vs. “They need to build new names” is an endless theme. 7 of those 8 guys are basically “new names”. Lascenko made it to the finals in Lodz and is young. Verhoeven is young. Ramazanov is young. Maybe one of them will break out like Errol Zimmerman did in 2008?”
They are at least trying to mix things up more now, although the finals this year will be the names you already know plus a few guys you won’t know as well.
Jaideep and Ghita will be guys to watch for sure in the future, but as we’ve seen with Gokhan Saki, just because you have promise and will probably be a worldclass mainstay in a few years doesn’t mean you won’t slip up a few times on the way.
Daniel Ghita & Sebastian Ciobanu is ROMANIA no Lithuania
Daniel Ghita is CHAMPION K-1 Tokyo 2009