K-1 World Max 2024 [20-03]

[K1power]

Title Fights
Cruiserweight - 90kg
Sina Karimian vs. Liu Ce

Women's Flyweight - 52kg
Antonia Prifti vs. Saho

K-1 vs. Rise
Featherweight - 57.5kg
Gunji Taito vs. Monguchi Keisuke

Women's Catchweight - 45.5kg
Sugawara Miyuu vs. Miyazaki Koyuki

Super Featherweight - 60kg
Egawa Yuuki vs. Hitachi Hyuma

Featherweight - 57.5kg
Kaneda Shoki vs. Toita Daiki

Super Featherweight - 60kg
Matsuyama Yuta vs. Haraguchi Andrei

World Max Opening Match Participants
Wajima Hiromi vs. Darryl Verdonk
Ouyan Feng vs. Pascal Schroth
Viktor Akimov*¹ vs. Nakajima Rei
Romano Bakboord*² vs. Thananchai Sitsongpeenong
Zhora Akopyan vs. Taras Hnatchuk
Stoyan Koprivlenski vs. Kacper Muszyński
Dengue Silva vs. Riku

*¹ Replaces Umar Semata who's out due to visa issues.
*² Replaces an injured Davit Kiria

Super Fights
Super Lightweight - 65kg
Urabe Koya vs. Suzuki Hayato

Catchweight - 56kg
Masashi Kumura vs. Luca Cecchetti

Super Featherweight - 60kg
Hirotaka Asahisa vs. Remi Parra

Women's Catchweight - 47.5kg
Panchan Rina vs. Hiraoka Koto

Welterweight - 67.5kg
Usami Hide Meison vs. Shirasu Yasuhito

Catchweight 64kg
Osawa Fumiya vs. Yutaka

Super Heavyweight - 100+kg
Kwon Jangwon vs. Ando Yusuke

Bantamweight - 53kg
Miburo Kazuki vs. Okubo Rui

Preliminary Fights
Catchweight 95kg
Kimura Daichi vs. Yu Fujikura

Super Bantamweight - 55kg
Murata Kengo vs. Shima Takumi

Lightweight - 62.5kg
Ryunosuke vs. Ueno Kuto

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16621

[K1power]

We have a bunch of K-1 vs. Rise matchups.

[Shadess]

Presser and more fight announcements in 13h.

[Shadess]

They announced some title/superfights, no tournament participants. Guess the only thing we know so far is that a tournament winner from Iron Fighter event in Italy on February 24 gets a spot in the tournament.

The MAX tournament might be end up being a little duct taped together late notice randomness.

[K1power]

These cards are usually announced in weekly(?) chunks.
They might be going after some bigger names for the MAX tournament and are hitting a few snags.

Didn't they go from an 8 man tournament to a 16 man one?
That would mean "Final Eliminations/Opening Round" will happen to decide the tournament field.

[Shadess]

Yea round of 16 on this event.

I'm not sure how much money they can/are willing to spend on single participants. I wouldn't expect too many guys who demand a decent fee. If Kiria had beaten or even looked good against Ouyang Feng, he's sorta the ceiling for K-1 in my mind. Or who knows, perhaps fighters like Tayfun Ozcan decide it might be worth taking a temporary pay cut to try and go win themselves a K-1 title. Both Grigorian and Allazov kinda did that.

It's 70 kg so the quality might not end up being that bad, there's plenty of ok enough cheap fighters around. Just not expecting that much name value and more worried about the fighters getting proper notice to train for this.

How it's looked to me is once the rebirth event bombed, their plans all went out the window and the way they've gone about this tournament has only reinforced that image.

[K1power]

I've been finding it difficult to get a gauge on K-1 these past few months.
They do indeed come across as if they're in disarray, at least somewhat.

I think one of their main issues continues to be an inability to get a broadcasting deal off the ground, which I find somewhat baffling. There must be more to that story.

As far 70kg goes, I think there's more than enough talent walking around to create a solid field even at a limited budget. We know that they've tried to borrow Marat Grigorian from One which didn't work out, but I can still see them going after at least a handful of big names. I also wouldn't be surprised if guys like Josh Jauncey or Chris Baya popped up in the line-up. I also expect at least a few fighters who normally don't fight at 70kg.

[Shadess]

Tournament participants announced on Thursday.

[K1power]

Updated the OP. We're at 21 fights.

Aside from the last few Max spots and those matchups, they can stop announcing fights already. Damn it K-1!

[K1power]

Feb 20, 2024 10:04:43 GMT 1 rictor said:

Two new MAX tournament participants announced by K-1 are Thananchai Sitsongpeenong and Nakajima Rei.

OP updated.

Once the Iron Fighter Qualifier is decided, we only need one more name.
I'm expecting it to be announced soon, because the event is only a month away.

[Shadess]

Semenov broke his hand and is out. Recommended the Finnish KOK champ to a couple of K-1 guys. 

He was supposed to fight around that time, but his fight was cancelled at some point. Might still be in ok enough condition to fight on K-1 instead if he could make weight idk. Come on K-1 I want to see a Finnish fighter in your tournament and here's a dude who beat former K-1 fighter Sanny Dahlbeck and is the KOK champ...easy sell. Let's see

[K1power]

They should announce the final participants already. Event is just a little over two weeks away.

[rictor]

So it's going like this:

Wajima Hiromi vs Darryl Verdonk

Ouyan Feng vs Pascal Schroth

Umar Semata vs Nakajima Rei

Davit Kiria vs Thananchai Sitsongpeenong

Zhora Akopyan vs Taras Hnatchuk

Stoyan Koprivlenski vs Kacper Muszyński

Dengue Silva vs Riku

Semenov and Pikeur are out with injuries and they're messing smth with the replacements (I hope they don't put fighter x directly into Final 8 but it looks like that will be the case).

They also added some other fights.

Super Featherweight - 60kg

Hirotaka Asahisa vs Remi Parra

Catchweight - 56kg

Osawa Fumiya vs Yutaka

[K1power]

OP updated.

So Kacper Muszyński is fighting after all.
Riku has been added to the selection and is fighting Silva.
With Semenov and now Pikeur out as well, we're missing two fighters with just two weeks to go.

100% agree that they shouldn't just let fighter XYZ move straight into the tournament due to circumstances and just find two guys that are okay enough and in fighting shape.

Assuming K-1 finds two more fighters and Pettas gets an opponent, we're at an astronomical 26 fights!
It's almost like this is the annual K'Festa card under the MAX banner.

Too bad it's happening on a Wednesday so I won't be able to catch it live.

[rictor]

Aaand they announced another fight and it's not Leona Pettas vs somebody LoL

K-1 Super Heavyweight - 100kg +

Kwon JangWon vs Ando Yusuke

Kwon was recommended by "Sexyama" Akiyama Yoshihiro who K-1 asked to be a K-1 Korea producer but because of his contract with ONE he couldn't accept right now.

The number of fights I can't really comprehend. Like really.