K-1 2012! Starting With Madrid Event
K-1 - THE WORLD’S MOST EXCITING AND PRESTIGIOUS MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING SPORT IS RISING - WITH MORE THAN TWO MILLION DOLLARS IN PRIZE MONEY IN 2012.
Today, the new “K-1 Production team” announces the rise of K-1, offering millions of devoted fans and new audiences, an established world-class brand of combat.
A wide array of the world’s best stand up fighters, square off face to face, bringing together their own techniques born from Karate, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Savate, San Shou, and other martial arts. Few other sports share the global interest, elaborate the showmanship and the popularity of K-1, along with the deep spirituality and ritualism practiced over centuries by millions of martial artists.
WHERE AND WHEN:
Seven major, worldwide K-1 heavyweight (K-1 World GP) and K-1 middleweight (K-1World MAX) events are planned for 2012, where the world’s top warriors will battle in a survival series of explosive, three-round, single-elimination fights.
- May 27th - K-1 officially rises with a spectacular K-1 Tournament and Celebration at the Palacio Vista Aletre in Madrid, Spain, as we begin the search for the world’s best fighters.
- June-October - Tournaments span the globe with events in the US, Europe and Asia.
- Early September – US Regional Tournament takes place in Los Angeles.
- Later October – The K-1 World GP Final16 takes place in Asia.
- November - The K-1 World MAX Final takes place in Asia, with a $300,000 Grand Prize (total prize money for MAX: $500,000).
- December - The K-1 World GP Final in New York City, with a ONE MILLION DOLLAR grand prize (total prize money for WGP: $1,500,000).
Since 31st January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited has been working to rebuild the K-1 brand, by bringing together a wide array of world-class fighters, top global venues, sponsors and broadcasters, and assembling a global organization and management team.
WHAT’S NEXT:
Over the next few weeks, K-1production team will be releasing full details of each event in 2012, including locations around the world, venues and participating fighters.
All the best,
Douglas Kaplan
Head of Operation
K-1 Global Holdings Limited / USA
http://www.k-1.tv
Explosive Fight! Melvin Manhoef Speaks
Feared Dutch Striker Melvin Manhoef prepares to take on Deep Champion Yoshiyuki Nakanishi this weekend at ONE FC War of the Lions.
Originally scheduled to take on Babalu Sobral many feel that although not as well known in the western world, Nakanishi’s all action style could make for an even better fight come the weekend. Melvin himself eagerly awaits the new matchup and is not disappointed in the rescheduled bout as he explains:
“No, I’m not disappointed. Of course I would have liked to fight him (Babalu) a lot, but who knows maybe in the future it will happen. I’m also excited to fight my new opponent. I know he’s a strong complete fighter so it will be a hard fight.”
With an astonishing 96% finishing ratio with 23 of his 24 wins coming via knockout or tko Melvin is still regarded as one of the most exciting fighters on the planet. Moving up to the light heavyweight division to take on the Japanese champion, Melvin can still be confident in the knowledge that he has knocked out opponents bigger than him in the past, including the likes of Mark Hunt and Ian Freeman. Far from fearing his bigger opponent he is relishing the opportunity to fight Nakanishi:
“I’ve fought bigger guys most of my career. Of course it’s hard for me to fight the heavier guys since most of them are naturally heavier and taller than me, but I like the variation and the challenge!”
Deep champion Nakanishi has suggested he is willing to meet Melvin in the centre of the cage come event time although the Dutchman has his doubts:
“I really don’t know if he will stand with me, but as with most of my opponents I think he’ll prefer to take the fight to the ground”.
Manhoef is excited to be a part of an excellent ONE FC card this weekend that is available completely free of charge in HD quality around the world:
“I know ONE FC are a young ambitious organization. They have a lot of great plans and I’m honored to be a part of it. I hope to fight many times for them and help them build the organization.”
As far as a prediction for the bout Melvin is only sure of an exciting fight for the fans:
“It’s always hard to predict the fight. The only thing I can tell you is that I’m ready and focused. I think it’s going to be a hard explosive fight”.
ONE FC War of the Lions will be streamed live and completely free on ONE FC’s YouTube channel. Please head to http://www.onefc.com/ for complete details.
Long-Term Agreement! Legend FC X Ustream
LEGEND TO BROADCAST FIGHTS ON USTREAM
Legend 8 to be first feature of long-term agreement
Hong Kong, 29 March 2012 (Thursday) – Legend Fighting Championship (Legend) today announced an agreement to broadcast its fights live on its Ustream channel (http://www.ustream.tv/LegendFC).
As part of the agreement with Ustream, Legend will broadcast future Asia-Pacific Mixed Martial Arts Championship events on a pay-per-view basis, beginning with Legend 8. The events will be available live worldwide except in North America. Legend’s North American fans can purchase Legend fights on pay-per-view on all major cable and satellite operators in the United States and Canada.
Legend 8 will take place Friday, March 30, at Asia-World Expo in Hong Kong. The undercard begins at 7:00 PM Hong Kong time (11:00 AM GMT) and will be available live to all users at no charge while the live main card will begin at 9:00 PM Hong Kong time (1:00 p.m. GMT) and is available on a pay-per-view basis.
“The agreement with Ustream is part of Legend’s effort to bring the best Asia-Pacific fights to MMA fans around the globe,” said Legend co-founder Chris Pollak. “This is a great opportunity for Legend and its fans now and in the future.”
“Considering Ustream’s reach of 54 million monthly viewers, as well as our deep history in providing live MMA coverage to fans around the world, we are excited to partner with Legend Fighting Championship to continue the tradition of offering top MMA programming,” said Wayne Sieve, Vice President of Content Partnerships at Ustream.
For additional details on the Legend 8 broadcast, including information on Legend’s 8pm ET Pay-Per-View in the United States, Canada, and TV partners in SE Asia, Oceana, China, please visit: www.legendfc.com/broadcast/
Tough Test! Female High School Student VanHoose Returns
The first fight for the May 20th Pancrase event has been announced.
16 year old Shino VanHoose will return to take on 27 year old Kikuyo Ishikawa in what should be VanHoose’s toughest fight yet by far.
VanHoose has an American father. She moved to the U.K. when she was 5 and started training Jiu Jitsu when she was 8. She then returned to Japan and joined Paraestra Hachioji (Masanori Kanehara, etc.) to begin her MMA career.
Road to S-cup act.2! Lion Takeshi Takes On SB Champ
The fourth fight for the April 13th “Shoot Boxing 2011 ~Road to S-cup~ act.2″ event has been announced.
Former Shooto Lightweight world champion and DREAM Featherweight title challenger Lion Takeshi will take on SB Japan Lightweight champion Hiroaki Suzuki in a 60kg fight.
Suzuki has defeated other MMA fighters such as Shigeki Osawa and Mitsuhiro Ishida in SB and will look to go 3-0 against MMA fighters with this fight.
All fights announced thus far will have limitless extension rounds as usual.
Road FC 007! Roan Carneiro Vs. Jung Hwan Cha
I highly recommend the Bantamweight tournament quarterfinal between Soo Chul Kim and Jae Hoon Moon from this event if you can find it. Amazing fight. The main event between Kyung Ho Kang and Shoko Sato was great as well.
Top Bantamweight Fight! Tezuka And Shimizu Clash
The first two fights for the April 28th Pancrase event have been announced.
Isao Hirose will take on Daichi Kitakata in a Super Flyweight fight.
And the highlight of the announcement is a Bantamweight fight between Cobra Kai’s experienced youngster Motonobu Tezuka and ZST legend and SRC Bantamweight tournament finalist Shunichi Shimizu.
Rematch! Ishikawa Vs. Utagawa 2
The third fight for the April 13th “Shoot Boxing 2011 ~Road to S-cup~ act.2″ event has been announced.
It’s a rematch between Tsuyoshi Ishikawa (SB Japan Super FW 4th ranked) and Akifumi Utagawa (SB Japan Super FW 2nd ranked) who first faced each other in 2008 in a very exciting fight that unfortunately ended in the third when Ishikawa injured his eye and the fight was judged a no contest.
Punishment! Seiya Kawahara’s KO A No Contest
First of all, watch Seiya Kawahara’s entertaining fight from the 11th.
Today he received quite hard punishment for what he did after the referee stepped in between him and his opponent.
No fight money, dropped off the Pancrase rankings, fight overturned to a no contest, and can’t compete in Pancrase pro or amateur events for 50 days.
After losing the title fight with Manabu Inoue last year he has had trouble with injuries and this was his first fight in 10 months so I believe he got a little overexcited. His management said that this won’t happen again.
Road FC 007. Recharged! Takasuke Kume Enters The Road
On March 24th in Seoul Road FC will hold their 7th main series event and their 3rd Young Guns event, bot with six fights each.
The last three Bantamweight Tournament quarterfinals will take place on the Road FC 007 event and as previously reported they are Kyung Ho Kang vs. Shoko Sato (sixth fight), Soo Chul Kim vs. Jae Hoon Moon (fifth fight), and Jae Hyun So vs. Min Jung Song (second fight).
The first fight of the main card is a Light Heavyweight fight between Eun Soo Kim and Tommy Kang.
The third is a Lightweight fight between one of Japan’s top Lightweight hopefuls Takasuke Kume and Korean Sengoku partiicpant Chang Hyun “Armbar” Kim. So it’s the rear naked vs. the armbar.
The fourth is a 80kg fight between UFC veteran Roan Carneiro and ASTRA participant Jung Hwan Cha (the guy who beat Chonan).
The Young Guns 3 portion of the evening will consist of five Road FC Lightweight Tournament preliminaries.
Dong Sun Choi vs. Yong Jae Lee, Gyu Hwa Kim vs. Sa Muel, Sang Hyun Lee vs. Jun Hee Moon, Won Ki Kim vs. Sung Jin Hong, and Seok Mo Kim vs. Hyeon Yeol Kim are the five Lightweight Tournament preliminaries. One FC participant Seok Mo Kim and Jun Hee Moon, who has faced Ryo Chonan and Andrews Nakahara, are the most notable/experienced names on that list.
The other Young Guns 3 fight is a Light Heavyweight one between Nae Chul Kim and Jae Hyun Kim.
The Tour Goes On! Fourth Stop Set
The main card and fight order of the April 1st Pancrase event are set.
The main event will be a Lightweight King Of Pancrase title fight between champion Koji Oishi and 2011 Pancrase Lightweight GP champion and rising star ISAO.
The semi main event is a Welterweight fight between Sojiro Orui and former Shooto Pacific-Rim champion Yoichiro Sato who really needs a win.
In a Bantamweight fight Shigeyuki “Pit” Uchiyama will look to get back on the winning track against Sengoku Gold Cup participant Masato Sannai.
78-fight veteran Takafumi Ito will take on former Pancrase Welterweight champion URAKEN (Kengo Ura) in a Lightweight fight.
2011 Pancrase Lightweight GP runner-up Kazuki Tokudome will face Korean Jung Hyun Choi in a Lightweight fight.
In a Flyweight fight Tiger Ishii will battle the short but heavy handed Takuya Eizumi.
In a Women’s Fight Female Pro-Wrestler Kyoko Kimura will clash with Korean Sung Eun Kim.
In another Lightweight fight Kota Okazawa will look for a victory against Junichi Ota.
Females Happy Fukuko and Naoko Omuro will compete in the second fight of the evening.
And the card will kick-off with a Flyweight fight between Yoshihiro Matsunaga and Masakazu Utsugi.
Road to S-cup act.2! Mamoru Returns To Shoot
The second announced fight for the April 13th “Shoot Boxing 2011 ~Road to S-cup~ act.2” event is a 57.5kg fight between Naguranchan Masa M16 and Shooto veteran Mamoru.
The previously announced fight for the card is Andy Souwer vs. SB Japan Super Welterweight champion Satoru Suzuki.
RENA and SB Japan Lightweight champion Hiroaki Suzuki will participate on the card.
Krush.18! Ryuji Kajiwara And HIROYA Clash
The May 3rd Krush.18 event will have a double main event.
In the main main event Krush -63kg champion Ryuji Kajiwara, who last defended his title against Tetsuya Yamato, will take on HIROYA and in the first main event Krush -55kg champion Shota Takiya will face a yet to be determined opponent.
Kakutogi! Week 10, 2012
Today we had the RINGS second coming event, tomorrow we have a big Shooto card, and on Sunday we have a fun Pancrase event with two titles on the line and Windy Tomomi’s retirement fight.
Also on Sunday Minowaman will be main eventing the GLADIATOR 30 event in Fukuoka when he takes on Shigeki Tsuchiya.
Both the Shooto event and the Pancrase event have three hour same-day slots on Samurai TV.
Covering Asian Mixed Martial Arts