With a fight finally under his belt, Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen’s long 2007 lay-off will not be repeated in 2008. The Norwegian born fighter has stated that he will take part in FEG’s next show, which is set to take place in March. Also announced on that card are 2 Time K-1 GP champion Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti and Shinya Aoki, who will be facing each other. Although no opponent is confirmed, it is believed that it will most likely be one of Japanese origin. Hellboy is no stranger to the Hero’s circuit. Not too many people remember that Hellboy actually fought in Hero’s before making the jump to PRIDE. He debuted against Caol Uno and won by KO due to a Knee. Strangely, FEG and Hellboy are together maybe be chance. He was originally signed on to take part of the Yarennoka!! 2007 show but was switched mid-way, when it was announced that FEG participation would occur. He would go on to secure a win over Olympian Kazuyuki Miyata.
Sticking with FEG, they put on a great show in Japan for the 1st MAX (Middleweight Artistic eXtreme) tournament of the year. This weekend was filled with MMA action, but K-1 was definitely a must see for me. I didn’t have a chance to follow the full MAX circuit last year but this year I plan on it. There was a couple of attention grabbing fights that were a must for any combat sports fan. It was the 1st big K-1 show in 2008 and it definitely did not dissapoint.
I’ll quickly go over the bouts as they appear on the FEG fightcard and not the order in which they were broadcast.
The only aired preliminary bout was the one involving HIROYA and Robby Hageman. If your memory serves you well, than you can remember to New Years when K-1 put on an under 18 yrs. tournament in Japan to possibly find the next best Japanese Talent and star. HIROYA was one of those teenagers involved. He faired well and made it all the way to the finals were he lost a decision to YUDAI. Here was a chance to get back on the winning track against Robby Hageman, who was representing the Dutch contingency.
I expected HIROYA to basically steam roll the Dutch fighter considering the number of fights he had under his belt and his performance at the the Dynamite!! show but the Hageman proved alot tougher than appeared. Even though the fight was stopped, it was stopped a bit controversially (early). HIROYA looked rather liveless and very uncomfortable with Hageman’s height advantage. If anything I feel Hiroya was the bigger loser of the bout. Also reportedly, could partake in the K-1 World MAX 2008 Championship Round of 16, where hopefully his career doesn’t get ended by experienced MAX competitors. He didn’t look impressive but the boy is 16 and will definitely improve within the coming years.
The 1st bout televised fight of the night was the fight between Artur Kyshenko and the colorful Shingo Garyu. For those who haven’t seen Garyu, the man is something to behold. He’s really entertaining to watch. In one of the weirdest clips I’ve ever seen, Garyu is trying to blast away at this guy and he starts like touching gloves in the middle of the exchanges, kind of like he was playing patti-cake than continued to try and decapitate his opponent. He’s not the most serious individual but he’s always fight. Kyshenko on the other hand is pure business. He is definitely a favorite this year to take the World MAX title. His last 2 years are nearly flawless stumbling only against an ultra-inspired Masato at last year’s MAX Finals and an overtime loss to HAYATO. Personally, he’s my pick to be champion this year. Anyways, this fight definitely lived up to the hype from staredown to the end.
Both men came to receive instructions and Garyu just crossed his arms faced the his body towards the crowd and tilted his head sideways to look at Kyshenko. The bout started and Garyu proved a little more than advertised especially against somebody of the caliber of Kyshenko. Kyshenko did manage a couple of trips but to no luck really. He worked Garyu’s body in normal Kyshenko fasion and set him up for a big punch that saw Garyu go down. Garyu beats the count but is again met with a nice left hook that sends him down. He beats the count for a 2nd time but only to be met with another solid left that sent him crashing down. Kyshenko gets the KO win and is definitely on a good route to becoming a top MAX fighter.
The 1st GP bout of the night pitted Nigerian born Andy Ologun, younger brother of Bobby Ologun, against veteran Yuya Yamamoto. Both men had the exact same K-1 record of 2-3 and wanted to get some wins around their belt but most importantly win the GP. Ologun seemed incredibly calm, while his counterpart Yamamoto was constantly pressing forward and hitting Ologun with combinations. Yamamoto definitely threw alot more than Ologun but Ologun’s strikes were alot more powerful and damaging and his work from the clinch especially the knees were devastating. Ologun did manage to drop Yamamoto quickly in the 2nd round but more of the same followed thoughout the fight. The 3rd round was again the same except both men increased their punch rate, especially Ologun compared to previous rounds. Even though he did outwork Ologun, Yamamoto was not awarded the decision and Ologun would advance to the semifinals.
The 2nd GP bout pitted Keiji Ozaki and his always weird pants against Yasuhiro Kido. There wasn’t necessarily too much action in the 1st or 2nd round but all of that was out the window in the 3rd. Both men stood and began just unloading on each other. Ozaki trying his traditional spinning back fists and spinning back kicks, while Kido just stood and outboxed Ozaki’s wild attempts. At one point it was all Kido just going to work on Ozaki’s head but he managed to stay up and continued to take lots of damage to the point that the referee gave Ozaki a standing count with only 10 seconds left. The count basically sealed the win for Kido, whose height seemed to be a huge factor in the scheme of the fight. Kido would advance and face Ologun.
The 3rd GP fight saw MAX veteran TATSUJI take on Hiroyuki Maeda. Maeda came into this bouts with no K-1 wins and was a clear underdog but that didn’t stop him. He started at a very quick pace from the get go and it payed off for him as he saw TATSUJI quickly dropped. TATSUJI managed to beat the count but should’ve rather stayed down. He was visibly still shaken and was pounced upon by Maeda, who didn’t forgive. The referee had no choice but to end the fight standing, which resulted in a huge upset.
The 4th and final of the 1st round bouts was definitely the most even and one of the best of the night. The 2 men, HAYATO and RYUJI, were definitely there to fight. Both men seemed very intent on exchanging and not necessarily to keen on defending punches. At one point in the 1st round, the punishment that HAYATO was receiving seemed very unhuman as RYUJI just unloaded on his face but to no success. This would cost RYUJI, who clearly expended too much energy and was than almost finished by HAYATO as he hurried to try and finish strongly in the round. It was almost a mirror image in the second as RYUJI again began pouring it on. As he was tiring HAYATO threw a desperation blow to try and sedate RYUJI and lucky for him it caught RYUJI and sent him down. Visibly angry over this momentary lapse of judgement, he stood back up and continued the fight through the 2nd and an uneventful 3rd. Like the Ologun-Yamamoto fight, the man who scored the knockdown was victorious, even though they were less pressing and landed less strikes.
Now in the semifinal round the pairings were: Ologun vs. Kido and Maeda vs HAYATO and 1 win seperated these 4 men from the Finals. The 1st bout was Ologun vs. Kido. This was a pretty even match from the beginning. It was apparent that whatever Kido could do, Ologun could too. Also, Kido didn’t necessarily have the height advantage he sometimes enjoys. Both men were countering almost everything on par and it was kind of uneventful in the 1st. The closest thing to any different action was a trip later in the round by Ologun and Kido landing a couple nice shots to stagger Ologun but no real damage was done. Round 2 was almost an extension of the 1st. Both men were throwing a nice number of high kicks. Also, it should be noted 1 thing that I found strange and kind of almost useless was during the clinches Kido would throw heel strikes ala Royce Gracie to the back of Ologun’s Hamstrings. Not too much action as Kido gets a unanimous decision win over a visibly disgruntled Lil Ologun and advances to the finals.
The 2nd semifinal bout would prove entertaining, while it lasted. Maeda and HAYATO went to work for the 1st 3 minutes. It was eerily similar to HAYATO’s 1st round fight against RYUJI as HAYATO again would find himself recieving way to many shots and not going down. Of course, he is human so with about 20 seconds left he goes down. He’s very vulnerable at this point and you can tell that only 1 real good shot is needed to seal the deal. Thankfully for HAYATO the round comes to an end as he stumbles to his corner. Even more incredible is the fact that during the break Doctors deem Maeda not able to continue for some reason and HAYATO luckily advances to the Finals after a weird turn of events.
There were 2 super-fights that night, the 1st one being Kyshenko-Garyu and the 2nd being the much anticipated match-up between Yoshihiro Sato and Buakaw Por. Pramuk. Pramuk as we all know is a K-1 MAX legend, who along with Andy Souwer has won the MAX Title on 2 different occasions (2004 and 2006). Sato himself is no slouch with 2 consecutive MAX Japan Tournament Titles (2006 and 2007), but no of those really compare to Pramuk’s accomplishment. The odds were clearly against Sato, who had a bad showing at the MAX Finals last year. Sadly, the broadcast only showed the 3rd round of the bout for some unknown reason. Both men were clearly exhausted in what seemed to be a very even ordeal all the way through. The 3rd round was also close and it was left in the decisions of the judges, who all had the match as a draw. Luckily, the 1 round extension period was aired.
There are many things that separate pretenders from contenders and Buakaw symbolized the champions spirit in this extension. He looked like a man on fire. He went out and threw everything possible to try and win this fight. Though visibly tired he threw harder and harder to try and finish Sato. It was very obvious that Pramuk would not settle for a loss. When it mattered most he went stronger. Towards the end of the fight he did suffer a bit of a scare though when he got caught but only stumbled for 1 second. Time ran out and again it was up to the judges to place a verdict. Pramuk got the win but only by a split decision.
Finally, the moment that these men have endured punishment for. The Final: Yasuhiro Kido vs. HAYATO proved to be the best fight of the night and not necessarily because it was for the Title but mainly because of the action that went on. Sadly, this fight would end as fast as it would start. Both men obviously came in not so great shape due to the fact that both had gone to decisions earlier and also logically because it was their 3rd fight that night. HAYATO looked quick to press the action but was caught of gaurd and caught a punch that sent him crashing down. HAYATO would get up but again to only go back down. At this point all hope had basically dwindled until HAYATO again got up and managed to connect a nice blow to Kido, who now found himself knocked down. It was a bizarre turn of event. HAYATO was dancing around getting his step back. Quicker than you can say comeback, HAYATO was again caught and put down for good. 4 knockdowns in a span of 1 minutes. It was surreal. Yasuhiro Kido was now the K-1 World MAX Japan tournament champion after a long night and also earns himself a spot in the upcoming K-1 World MAX Championship Tournament Round of 16.
Great night of fights and hopefully the rest of the shows are as great as this.
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