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Post by K1power on Jan 26, 2024 13:54:35 GMT 1
 Wonder what they mean with "too early" for JBS, since Kepenek sat out his suspension around the same time, fought last month and is part of this card now. Contract negotiations? |
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Post by Shadess on Jan 26, 2024 17:26:16 GMT 1
I still like the tournament, but that's really what it feels like at this point: just a tournament happening in March. This isn't a Grand Prix to me. I hope I'm proven wrong, but this feels tailor made for Rico to breeze through no matter which three guys he fights. It has definitely lost any semblance to being the old K-1 what they kind of wanted it to be. Glory had a pretty solid bunch with the likes on Adegbuyi, Wilnis, Guto etc. and those guys have all lost a step or two and this tournament now is stacked more or less with the replacing generation. It's still a good tournament of HW "up and comers", even if they're not all exactly at the start of their careers. Rico beats everyone pretty comfortably, not accounting for tournament randomness. Rajabzadeh is a slight outlier for me here, but then again he's a bit smaller so don't have that high hopes of him winning 3 fights in 1 night. |
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lero
Advanced Member
Posts: 943
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Post by lero on Jan 26, 2024 21:44:51 GMT 1
I have faith in Rigters
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Post by Shadess on Jan 26, 2024 21:49:55 GMT 1
Faith he loses in the first round  |
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Post by K1power on Jan 27, 2024 9:01:59 GMT 1
Rigters has already beaten some of the guys in the line-up and I give him a decent chance against most of the others.
Winning the whole tournament and/or getting past Rico however, I just don't see it happening.
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Post by vampiro on Jan 27, 2024 14:10:37 GMT 1
Japan stays being the best at running kickboxing shows. The way Glory handled this lol. I never liked Its Showtime and Glory has never been a promotion I could truly support either. Here's hoping K-1 or another Japanese entity regains old glory in my lifetime.
Well, people wanted Rico in a tournament because of what the golden generation used to do. Seems he will win easily as I thought he was going to do anyway. Personally, outside of money, I didn't think Rico needed to be in the tournament at all. He has nothing left to prove to himself or anyone and hasn't for almost a decade now.
I am a big Rajabzadeh fan, but my man couldn't get out of the way of Mohamed Amine's jab, and I do not rate Amine in anyway. Bahram would've been an excellent addition to the light heavyweight tournament. It's a pity their is no money in Japan because I actually think he would be a star out there with his style and demeanour.
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Post by K1power on Jan 30, 2024 12:25:52 GMT 1
Tournament draw in ~24 hours:
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Post by K1power on Jan 30, 2024 16:48:19 GMT 1
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Post by larsenator on Jan 31, 2024 9:22:42 GMT 1
I'm quite sure the fighters would have liked to see that money (spent on the rings) distributed evenly across the GP-roster as an extra purse, instead of a silly, meaningless ring. |
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Post by Shadess on Jan 31, 2024 13:11:12 GMT 1
Pretty good venue for the tournament draw. Nice to see Glory put in some effort. Flied in Grisham as well and not just have Mark Schaaf host it or something, even if he's okay.
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Post by Shadess on Jan 31, 2024 13:24:44 GMT 1
Matchups for the first round are:
Rico Verhoeven vs. Sofian Laidouni
Levi Rigters vs. Uku Jürjendal
'Cookie' Tariq Osaro vs. Bahram Rajabzadeh
Nordine Mahieddine vs. Nabil Khachab
Rico/Rigters/Osaro/Mahieddine got to pick their opponents from the lower ranked 4. Was fine. A random draw would've been better, even if they seeded it a little.
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Post by Shadess on Jan 31, 2024 13:48:21 GMT 1
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Post by Shadess on Jan 31, 2024 13:54:55 GMT 1
Some people on discord were saying this favours Rico a lot, but I don't quite see it like that. Also Rico was the clear favourite going into this no matter how the bracket was.
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Post by Shadess on Jan 31, 2024 14:49:31 GMT 1
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Post by K1power on Jan 31, 2024 17:03:07 GMT 1
About the draw:
+ The venue looked nice!
+ Incorporating Hoost was a cool touch.
+ The matchups we ended up with do have potential for entertaining fights.
- I didn't like how they did the draw. It really was't much of a draw at all.
- Rico picking the easiest possible road, while smart, really doesn't help his image.
- The rings thing makes no sense to me. Perhaps they're trying to add a 'superbowl ring' element to it, but it feels kinda tacked on.
I'm still looking forward to the tournament, but Glory's whole approach to it could - and should - have been so much better.
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