With this month winding down and New Years around the corner K-1 has finally scurried and secured 3 more fights for their annual Dynamite!! show. I recently discussed the letdown that this show was after a very good year of competitive and enticing MMA action and I feel that the 3 bouts, while not necessarily the highest caliber will definitely serve to entertain.
- Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
- Melvin Manhoef vs. Yosuke Nishijima
- Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa vs. Wanger de Coneicao Martins “Zuluzinho”
As my MMAOpinion.com counterpart, Mariusz Korczak, wisely pointed out, many organizations are working together to fill voids in their corresponding shows. “Hellboy”, who was originally scheduled to fight on the much anticipated Yarennoka!!, has finally been given an opponent but on a completely different show. This should come to no surprise to anyone considering the number of FEG talent appearing on the Yarennoka!! card. Hansen, who was recently quoted as saying that he would rather fight free than for Zuffa, won’t be necessarily fighting the highest caliber of competition.
Many in the MMA community are actually more familiar with Kazuyuki Miyata than they actually think. On the night of May 3rd, Miyata would find himself behind of one of the most incredible, and bizarre knockouts in MMA history. Lasting only 4 seconds, this fight is one of the most famous incidents of flash knockouts in MMA. The flying knee “Kid” Yamamoto threw is ultimately very synonymous with “Kid” himself, along with that very disturbing video of “Kid” having to be restrained off Tetsuo Katsuta after the referee was unable to stop the rampaging fighter.
The sad thing is that most aren’t too familiar with Kazuyuki Miyata all together. Most don’t know that he is a former Olympic wrestler and a very athletic individual. Even though he sports a .500 record Miyata has in fact proven to not necessarily be a pushover especially when fighting higher caliber competition. During his fight with Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro at the Opening Round of the Hero’s Middleweight Grand Prix, Miyata was actually bringing the fight to “Shaolin” and looked like he would give the Brazilian a tougher battle than advertised. He was eventually submitted by Ribeiro quickly in the 2nd round but seemed to really be improving a lot especially with his striking.
I think that the outcome of this fight will not necessarily be too surprising considering that Miyata has a very good wrestling background and that Hellboy has a very good reputation for throwing huge knees to people who desire to take him down. Hellboy has great submission defense, superior striking, and has much more experience than Miyata, so I feel that Hellboy shouldn’t necessarily have too much of a hard time with the former Olympian.
The 2nd announced fight has questionably the best striker in the 185-205 pound area in Melvin Manhoef. Sporting in unheard of 94% knockout margin, it’s no wonder that Manhoef has become a favorite of the MMA community. This former Cage Rage 205 pound champion is definitely 1 dimensional but is a very entertaining fighter who always comes ready to fight. This year has been good overall for Manhoef, who’s gone 3-1, that loss coming to the very beloved Dong Sik Yoon, who seems to be submitting all strikers right and left.
Manhoef’s opponent is possibly one of the few fighters I have really no intent on watching ever again, and trust me that saying alot. Yosuke Nishijima, former WBF and WBO cruiserweight champion, did manage to go 24-2 in his boxing career but that hasn’t translated well at all to MMA. Sporting a 0-4 record, all stoppages, I really have no idea what Nishijima is doing in the sport. Maybe he’s trying to regain some attention he had in his boxing days, who knows? His fight with Mark Hunt is definitely one of the most painful displays of punishment in the MMA world. One thing I do know is that Manhoef can certainly finish the boxer and raise his fights finished percentage even higher.
Last and certainly not least, the ever enthusiastic and incredibly fun Ikuhisa “The Punk” or “Minowaman” Minowa. I think the term that describes Minowa is definitely ballsy. Constantly fighting men who outweigh him by 60 or more pounds even almost 150+ with his fight against Eric “Butterbean” Esch. Well this time is no exception as he takes on the son of the legendary Rei Zulu, the infamous “Zuluzinho”, who supposedly came into PRIDE sporting a nice 38-0 record. (Yes, I agree. I have no idea who would buy that for 1 second) Even more incredible than his record is “Zuluzinho’s” size. 6 foot 7 inches, 407 lbs. I expect Minowa to weigh around 190+ giving up only 217 pounds!
Minowa is coming off a disappointing loss to “Mr. Shark” Min Soo Kim at the Hero’s 2007 Seoul show. I think this fight will look VERY similar to Minowa’s fight with Butterbean at Bushido 12. Yes, I do also expect those awesome drop kicks to be executed too! Overall, this is typical Minowa, who is always looking to go bigger and he is always up for a new challenge. When signing with K-1 he did specifically state that he would like to fight 3 Time K-1 World Grand Prix champion Semmy Schilt, which again is typical Minowa. How can you hate the guy? Minowaman will surely not disappoint on New Years.
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