My comments:
+ I have a hard time seeing
any event this year coming close to this. This was a highlight on every level; technique, action, entertainment, presentation, you name it. This blows everything out of the water that happened over the past year.
+ This show definitely had that big K'Festa feel that was missing from Day 1.
+ They played the theme from
The Godfather as Takeru's outro and to close this event.
+ Takeru vs. Leona Pettas. What a fantastic fight.
+ Awesome to see Karimian's sincere happiness and pride as a result of hard work.
+ K-Jee vs. Sina Karimian. Karimian survives round 1 by the skin of his teeth. Comes back in round 2. Scores a very well timed spinning back fist that has K-Jee do the fish dance and the ref ending it. They need to this again for a what.. 4th time?
+ Kyotaro isn't messing around. I was a bit nervous for his return to kickboxing, but once he got serious he blitzed Jitsukata. Still, credit to Jitsukata for tagging Kyo in the first round and getting up from that first knockdown. Wonder what's next for Kyotaro. Title shot against Mannaart?
+ Aitaka Ryo vs. Animal Koji. Two hard-hitting brawlers with similar physical builds. Entertaining brawl that was more technical than I expected.
+ Kido came back strong in the second round with three solid knockdowns to finish it. Awkward, but fun fight.
+ While it hurt me as a Kido fan, Matsushita's scored a great knockdown on him in the first.
+ Kido's 'staredown' with Matsushita was the best thing ever. Pretty sure
karaevfan loved it as well lol.
+ Konnapar/Nagumo was great. Everything thrown was with bad intentions and Nagumo tagged Konnapar good a few times, before he went down.
+ Kumura Masashi dropping Dawsawkhon Motassanai was perfectly timed.
+ Yokoyama made
very quick work of Yusuke. In fact, I went to the bathroom right before the fight started and he was holding his speech when I got back lol.
+ Kaneko looked very sharp against Kiyama.
- Leona Pettas being hit in the groin disrupted the action of the first round for a bit.
- Noiri / Phlaychumphon got a bit too clinchy as the fight progressed.
- Not anyone's fault really, but Kimura missing from K'Festa sucks.
- A bit surprised at myself for saying this and it's definitely to a lesser degree than with Kimura, but I feel Kana should have fought here as well.
Some additional notes:
While views notably went up from last week (300k+ vs. 500k+) it's still a steep drop from previous K-1 shows.
I wonder if there's an explanation for this other than a decline in popularity; are there now additional ways in Japan to watch these events?
Tenshin present during Takeru vs. Leona Pettas!?
I didn't notice it at first due to the facemask, but apparently Nicholas Pettas was in Karimian's corner as he thanked him after the fight.
K-1 should keep Jitsukata around. There aren't many promising Japanese heavyweights and at least this guy seems to have power. He's still young and if he manages to transform his body a bit I can see him doing well.
I usually have some more comments, but when I tuned in literally half the fights had already happened. And I tuned in early.
So I'll have some additional comments after catching up.
. The Himalayan Cheetah said in his post fight speech that he wants a rematch with him.
