Category — K-1

Any contract to fight Alistair Overeem should come with a bottle of Advil and a free 30-day psych evaluation. Here’s the Strikeforce heavyweight champ introducing Dzevad Poturak to his right knee at the K-1 World Grand Prix in Japan on the weekend. The next time the Dutch monster sees the inside of a cage it will be at a May 15 Strikeforce event against Brett Rogers. As for the rest of the K-1 results, you can find them here.

Good Friday brings a K-1 double feature for all you kickboxing fanatics. The K-1 World MAX 2010 Japan Tournament will air live at 10 pm ET followed by the K-1 World GP 2010 in Yokohama at 4 am ET.

The K-1 World MAX 2010 is an 8-man tournament to crown the best 154-pound kickboxer in Japan, so expect lots of knockouts.  Meanwhile, the K-1 World GP features reigning super heavyweight champion Semmy Schilt (32-3-1) against Errol Zimmerman (7-3); K-1 legend Peter Aerts (63-23) takes on Kyotaro (8-3) for the K-1 heavyweight title; Badr Hari (16-6) looks to avenge a 2003 loss to Alexey Ignashov (25-9); and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (3-3) meets K-1 newcomer Dzevad Poturak.

This doesn’t quite live up to the “most brutal submission in MMA history” tag that I’d read it was, but it’s definitely top-three. Shinya Aoki and his magic grappling pants literally turns Mizuto Hirota into a pretzel before mangling his right arm during their Dynamite!! bout. Hirota’s left arm was also pinned, preventing him from tapping leaving it to the horrified referee to stop the fight. Check out the ref’s expression when he sees the wrecked arm flopping on the mat. Anybody have any idea what to call that submission? It’s not something I’ve ever been taught in BJJ.

Oh, and a note to Shinya: You just pulled off an amazing, brutal submission win that will make all the highlight reels – why show such lack of class by giving everybody the finger? Please leave those antics to Brock Lesnar.

New Year’s Eve comes early in Japan, meaning Dynamite!! 2009, the year-ending DREAM/Sengoku/K-1 event, is already in the books as of a few hours ago. And if you want to forget the year that was, I suggest you step into the ring with Alistair Overeem. I’m pretty sure Kazuyuki Fujita, who took on the Strikeforce heavyweight wrecking ball, has no memory of anything after taking a knee to the skull that dropped him through the ropes and led to him being carried out of the ring on a stretcher. Simply brutal.

Seemed like a bit of an early stoppage as Dutch sandman Melvin Manhoef dropped former PRIDE Welteweight Grand Prix Champion Kazuo Misaki with a pair of left hooks that sent him to the mat and had the referee jumping in to prevent a crime scene. It was obvious, though, that Misaki was still game – and capable – of fighting on (although I’m sure Manhoef would’ve ended it a punch or two later anyway). No matter, Manhoef, who recently inked a contract with Strikeforce, picks up the biggest win of his career thus far.

Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi made short work of Gary Goodridge with a first-round TKO via ground-and-pound. A boring fight, really, with Mousasi just packing his lunch box and going to work.

And I would love to track down video of DREAM lightweight champion (and newly signed Strikeforce fighter) Shinya Aoki ripping Mizuto Hirota’s arm out of its socket in their match-up. From all written accounts I’ve seen, it’s one of the most-horrifying, hard-to-watch submissions in MMA history. I’m sure it will pop up on Youtube shortly and when it does I’ll be sure to post it here.

Here are the full results:

* Masaaki Noiri def.Hiroya via decision (K-1)
* Shota Shimada def Katsuki Ishida via decision (K-1)
* Ikuhisa Minowa def. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou via TKO R3 (MMA/Super Hulk finale)
* Ray Sefo def. Yosuke Nishijima via decision (K-1)
* Masaaki Noiri def. Shota Shimada via decision (K-1)
* Hiroshi Izumi def. Katsuyori Shibata decision (MMA)
* Michihiro Omigawa def Hiroyuki Takaya via TKO(MMA)
* Akihiro Gono def. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai via armbar 3:56 R2 (MMA)
* Melvin Manhoef def Kazuo Misaki via TKO (MMA)
* Hideo Tokoro def. Jong Man Kim via decision (MMA)
* Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kazunori Yokota via decision (MMA)
* Masanori Kanehara def. Norofumi “Kid” Yamamoto via decision (MMA)
* Alistair Overeem def. Kazuyuki Fujita TKO knee R1 (MMA)
* Gegard Mousasi def. Gary Goodridge via TKO R1 (MMA)
* Shinya Aoki def. Mizuto Hirota via TKO/sub broken arm (MMA)
* Hidehiko Yoshida def. Satoshi Ishii via decision (MMA)
* Masato def. Andy Souwer via decision (K-1)

It ain’t New Year’s Eve without a crazy Japanese super-card. Thursday’s Dynamite!! 2009: DREAM vs. WVR (note the twin exclamation points!) promises eighteen K-1 and MMA bouts with fighters from DREAM and World Victory Road’s Sengoku series.

I’m not sure what the hell Gegard Mousasi is thinking taking on Gary Goodridge in the night’s co-headliner. Not that the Dutch fighter should have much trouble with a past-his-prime GG, I’d just rather he focus on being Strikeforce light heavyweight champ. Likewise, I’d rather Alistair Overeem get back to defending his Strikeforce heavyweight title instead of fighting Kazuyuki Fujita.

The other headliner is a K-1 match-up between Andy Souwer and Masato, which is supposed to be Masato’s career swansong. Other notables include Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota, Yosuke Nishijima vs. Ray Sefo, Melvin Manhoef vs. Kazuo Misaki, Masanori Kanehara vs. Norofumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Akihiro Gono vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and DREAM’s Super Hulk open-weight tournament finale between Ikuhisa Minowa and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.

Sorry I’m late posting about the K-1 World Grand Prix, which was held today in Yokohama, Japan. I spent the day at the Toronto BJJ annual tournament and have had jiu-jitsu on the brain, not kickboxing. Luckily, the fights are all on Youtube, so I haven’t really missed anything at all.

There’s something distinctly Tim Sylvia-like about Semmy Schilt. It’s his towering height coupled with a lumbering, unfluid (would that be solid?) style and an overall unchiseled pasty whiteness. Schilt picked up his record-tying fourth title at the event, taking out last year’s runner-up, Badr Hari, with body kicks in the first round of the final, Remy Bonjasky with leg kicks in the first round of the semi-finals and Jerome Le Banner with body kicks in the first round of their quarter-final bout.

Badr Hari defeated Alistair Overeem with a head kick in round one of their semi-final, and is it just me or does the neckless head of Overeem look like his shoulders took a dump and left it there?

I shouldn’t dis Overeem too much. He might go off on me like he did Ewerton Teixeira in the quarter-finals. I particularly like how many people rush into the ring after the fight, presumably to make sure Teixeira isn’t dead.

And the fastest fight of the night saw Badr Hari TKO Ruslan Karaev in just 38 seconds of their quarter-final.

There are a couple of notable things about this Alistair Overeem video. First, the size of his kitchen. He’s practically wearing it. The Strikeforce heavyweight champ certainly isn’t spending his purses on a deluxe apartment in the sky. Second, he eats a ton! Eight times a day, which is about half a horse.

Overeem may be MIA from Strikeforce, but he’s in action at Saturday’s Fields K-1 World GP 2009 Final in Yokohama, Japan. The eight-man tournament airs live on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET.

Besides Overeem, the tourney will include two three-time K-1 World Grand Prix Champions – defending champ Remy Bonjasky and K-1 super heavyweight champ Semmy Schilt. Also lacing ‘em up are 2008 runner-up Badr Hari, who was disqualified in the title bout for unsportsmanlike conduct following a stomp on the downed Bonjansky, rendering him unable to continue.

In quarter-finals, Hari meets Ruslan Karaev, Overeem faces Ewerton Teixeira, Schilt tangles with Jerome Le Banner and Bonjasky begins his title defense versus Errol Zimmerman. Reserve bouts include three-time Grand Prix champ Peter Aerts squares off with Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita meets Sergey Kharitonov.

A day late and a dollar short but for what it’s worth, here’s the results from yesterday’s 2009 K-1 MAX tournament final from Yokohama, Japan.

Tourney favourite Giorgio Petrosyan lived up to the hype with a decision win over two-time K-1 MAX champion Andy Souwer to win the title. He will next face Masato at the Dynamite! New Year’s Eve card. Petrosyan made quick work of Yuya Yamamoto in the first semi-final with a decisive second-round KO. In the second semi-final bout, two-time K-1 MAX champions Souwer and Buakaw Por Pramuk battled to a three-round draw, with Souwer squeaking out a split decision in the extra rounds.

The tournament reserve bout pitted the 2006 and 2007 K-1 MAX Japan champion, Yoshihiro Sato, against the 2008 champion, Yasuhiro Kido, with Sato walking away with the KO win in the second round.

Speaking of spectacle, Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent company of K-1 and DREAM, has announced plans for Dynamite 2009 on New Year’s Eve. No match-ups have been announced, but there are some names being floated about, including Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shinya Aoki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Hayato Sakurai, Alistair Overeem, Tim Sylvia, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and the DREAM Super Hulk final between Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Ikuhisa Minowa.