Yokohama K-1 WGP
March 31, 2009 by nopstar
I’m not going to be posting a great deal on this years K1 WGP. I sat down tonight and couldn’t really believe how bad it was. I expected a fair few to be crap, but this is bad.
I don’t actually know if K-1 fans are fight fans, or if they’re into fight entertainment? I’m assuming the average fan can tell that the quality of these fights have diminished tremendously from the fights just 5-6 years ago.
I’m hoping they’re just not buying tickets to a freak show…
I’m going to post a couple of the fights here, if you want to check out the rest of the fights you can do so here. You can also read the full fight report from K1 here. As always many thanks to patrbr for uploading and sharing these with us.
Tyrone Spong vs. Gokhan Saki
I used to look forward to watching Spong fight… now he’s just another heavyweight. I know this sounds horrible but I don’t see anything special about him anymore. He used to be so much more dynamic and quick.
Thanks for sharing chuteboxe57
I can tell he’s sacrifice some of his agility and speed gaining that mass, I wonder if you can ever get that back?
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kejiro Maeda
Maedo looks like he referenced “Rumble in The Bronx”… when going for his intimidating look. Maeda was a last minute replacement for Chalid Faust, apparently Maeda took the fight with 48 hours notice.
Remy Bonjasky vs. Alastair Overeem
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was in this fight. Firstly I know Overeem comes from and MMA background but he looks like shit. I’ve never realized he was so muscle bound and lumbering… he reminded me of tiny Bob Sapp. I still can’t believe he KO’s Hari. Someone needs to piss test Overeem, he honestly is beginning to look like a video game character.
thanks for sharing kickboxin-core.com
Ask for Bonjasky, I understand Overeem is effing huge, I get it… but I think Remy was afraid of Overeem and it showed. Bonjasky has got some of the nastiest leg kicks in the biz, but he was content covering up and exchanging with Overeem. Lame, lame, lame.
The videos have been taken down already. Probably a good thing actually. Watched the spong and bonjasky fights, and they looked awful.
All videos gone already but that said im not that bothered, only really wanted to watch the Manhoef fight
Google is your friend. You can still find them. :-)
You’re right about the quality of the fights going down; It’s been going on for a while now. That said, I liked the Saki fights. He reminds me of Kaman in certain aspects of his style. And watching Maeda *finally* actually fight in the ring was also nice.
But mostly, it was Aerts I appreciated the most. He’s about my age and hadn’t been doing all that great lately. It was fun to see him in better shape and go for it a bit more.
But indeed, overall the quality isn’t what it was before.
Wim
I’d comment too on this farce of a show but i feel about as energetic as Remy Bonjasky did in his fight against Alistair Overeem.
The best thing about this fight was the pre-fight interview, that was hilarious….
Seriously though i agree with Nop the fights have diminished a lots in the last few years and felt very awkward!!!
Tyrone WTF?
I guess every fighter who adds a bunch of mass loses what made him special to begin with. I remember when I first saw Bonjasky – he was fast, had wicked kicks, and good knees. Now he’s just another K-1 oaf. Really too bad. The Bonjasky vs. Michael McDonald fight from back in the day was a great one.
I watched all the fights this past weekend and was pretty disappointed in all of them except for Peter Aerts. Tyrone was really slow and his gain in mass reminded me of what people said of Roy Jones JR when he moved up to heavyweight – you lose your speed and never get it back. I agree that Overeem looked like some awkward bodybuilder lumbering around. I’ve heard that he is trying to get into the UFC where he can try to compete with Brock Lesnar for the most muscle-bound fighter. I’m hoping the lighter K1 weight classes will be more exciting.
If I was the show promoter I would also rush to remove these videos from youtube. What a bad marketing, who is going to buy ticktets to next show after seeing this?
I agree Tyrone isn’t the same, but I think he actually won that fight within the 3 rounds.
I didn’t have time to see Aerts fight, damned.
K1 really needs to renew its fighters, in K1 MAX too.
I used to like to watch Spong matches also. Although I am sad to see him fighting like that I kind of understand why he made that move. He wasn’t going to get to K1 Max, so he opted to go all out to GP.
I didn’t know Maeda was called at the last minute, if so good to him. I mean, he went a far way for someone wasn’t even supposed to be there.
Dammit i didint get to see any of em :(
Spong should go back down to the weight that suits him better. He really looked completely different and as noted lacks the speed and sharpness he had at a lower weight. The problem is cruiser weight is a no-man’s land of opportunities and money. But at least then Spong could give us the Corbett versus Spong Dream match.
I was watching this the other day and dropped in after the Aerts fight, so just about everything was a let down by that point. None of the big names really performed up to scratch, in my opinion. I think the greatest testament to that case is the fact that Maeda won, and deservedly so. Bonjasky was way too apprehensive, seemed thrown off by the awkward style of Overeem, who just waded in, kneed his thigh and used some infighting techniques to get him out of his usual style, which worked entirely too well. Bonjasky eventually dropped him with a one-two, but even with that count, I felt Overeem had won there. This looked entirely too much like one of those K1 freakshow matches, which I hadn’t expected, given the credentials of both fighters. Overall, a big letdown….. A few days later, the Pride show in Milan was aired here in Holland (the one with Souwer – Petrosyan)…. the difference couldn’t have been bigger.
Not to defend anything or anybody, but Bonjasky was fighting with an injured knee, maybe this is just an excuse from Bonjasky, but it did look like he couldnt use his legs at all, and yes he did look scared, I mean Overeem just Knocked the Fuck out of Hari, I would be scared too. He is Massive! But I cant believe the Spong fight, I never thought he would look so slow or average, hope it was just a fluke or something, he couldnt have lost all his super skills, Ehhh??
Meh, sorry… Overeem must have put my mind on MMA mode.. I meant the ‘It’s Showtime’ show… not Pride ^ ^
overeem is pretty beast. i honestly dont see where these guys that are built like that get the endurance. i remember when i was a very bulky 180 and all that muscle sucks the oxygen right outta you. im now 165 and i could notice the difference in my performance.
is it just me, or did it seem like overeem threw that fight…his had opportunities to throw some bombs and i know he’s faster than that. i was expecting the same overeem that fought hari….but he held back.
the japanese are known for offering huge sums of money ti give the audience what they wanna see. bonjasky is their golden goose sorta…i dunno, thas just me. anyone else?
Overeem… I can still remember him and his brother from the 2 Hot 2 Handle events some 6/7/8 or even more years ago.
There is some on youtube, search for `overeem 2h2h`
Back then he was pretty fast explosive and aggressive. I guess he was just like Spong in his 76kg division, but he was like 18 years old orsomething. So maybe he was still growing. His brother already was pretty big that time maybe he wanted to be like him i dont know.
But his current form is a little bit over the top indeed…
This was simply awful.
What’s wrong with Remy or JLB. Did anyone watch JLB’s fight? Dreadfully awful. There’s something terrible wrong with this world if K-1 is supposed to represent the best SHW fighters in the world. Maybe I’m just too used watching the real muay thai and K-1 MAX.
I feel sorry for the Spong, but he’s still young, he can be HW champ.
I can’t believe Maeda took the crown.
Just saw the Overeem video. He has the jaw of a horse. That guy is so obviously on roids it’s actually a little embarrassing especially given that it’s Japan and they don’t test.
That aside Bonjasky did win. K-1 isn’t actually worsening in quality to my eyes: it’s maintaining a constant state of bad now.
I agree with J-Ger, currently, “It’s showtime” cards are better than K1’s.
Souwer, Orono, Saenchai, Petrosyan …