Glory Grand Prix speculation & update thread

[K1power]

I'd be fine with that.

The only obvious omission is Rico who said he doesn't want to be in the tournament, which is weak both for the quality of the tournament and one of the reasons Rico will never get the same respect past champions do.

[Shadess]

http://instagram.com/p/C09q8RWso9S

For the tournament? :/ Not sure how the math would work if he was in too tho.

[K1power]

Khachab replaces Mahieddine against Filipovic.

So that would make:

1. Tariq Osaro
2. Soufian Laïdouni
3. Bahram Rajabzadeh
4. Levi Rigters
5. Uku Jürjendal
6. Nabil Khachab/Nikola Filipovic
7. Tyrone Spong
8. ?

I'm not really sure what to make of this tournament anymore.

Between multiple top names missing and the tournament being pushed to next year I find myself caring a lot less about the whole thing at this point.

Say what you want about the level of the K-1 ReBIRTH Tournament, but they announced it and soon after just fucking did it. I feel like Glory have completely shot themselves in the foot with this one.

Look, it may still end up being great, but all momentum and build-up to the "Grand Prix" has been killed as far as I'm concerned.

[Shadess]

Plazibat officially in the tournament as one of the wildcards.

[K1power]

Just saw the video. Plazibat is such a ray of sunshine lol.

So the Grand Prix has moved to March and this is the updated line-up:

1. Tariq Osaro
2. Soufian Laïdouni
3. Bahram Rajabzadeh
4. Levi Rigters
5. Uku Jürjendal
6. Nabil Khachab/Nikola Filipovic
7. Wildcard #1 - Antonio Plazibat
8. Wildcard #2 - ??

After tomorrow we'll know whether Khachab or Filipovic will be in the Grand Prix.
That leaves the second wildcard and final slot in the tournament. Will it go to Spong, Jamal or Rico after all?

To give this tournament any kind of true Grand Prix~ish value, it should go to Rico and I'm sure Glory would love it.

But to end this post with some more complaining, one of my (many) concerns about this tournament is that by March some of the participants won't have fought for a long time. But Glory can't really give them any fights inbetween either.

[K1power]

So the event will be on March 9th, the second wildcard actually goes to Rico and the final spot goes to Khachab.

Assuming the line-up doesn't change, how would you match everybody up? How would it play out? Who should be in the reserve fight?

[K1power]

So I would probably match everybody up like this:

QF#1 - Tariq Osaro vs. Nabil Khachab
QF#2 - Soufian Laïdouni vs. Uku Jürjendal
QF#3 - Bahram Rajabzadeh vs. Levi Rigters
QF#4 - Antonio Plazibat vs. Rico Verhoeven

I kind of want Rico to have the hardest road possible, with the least amount of rest.
To be fair I think this way nobody has an easy first match.

Not sure who I'd put in the reserve fight(s). Jamal would have been a no-brainer, but there has been some speculation that Glory may be done with him, because he constantly gets into trouble.

I guess Mahieddine vs. Kepenek would be a good reserve fight/rematch.

[Shadess]

Think I'd just do a draw, get the pictures of that and a little presser with all the 8 guys. Really try and play up that this is a huge tournament like the K-1's of old.

[K1power]

They absolutely should do a draw and I think they might do it, considering they even did one for the qualifier tournament that Rajabzadeh won. So fingers crossed.

I still want Rico fighting Plazibat right off the bat, because Glory took that earned shot away from Plazibat.